| Clickcat P2H technology
solves natural problems inherent in HTML or: Creating the
square circle
Basically, PDF and HTML are as incompatible to one another
as a cat and a dog. This is due to the objectives they are
aiming at and, as a consequence, due to their very nature.
PDF’s greatest strength is in preserving a well formatted
layout as exactly as possible. Insofar, PDF makes pages distributable,
readable, and portable in a visual appearance precisely as
defined in the DTP software, which was used to design these
pages.
Exactly this is HTML’s greatest drawback: HTML was
entitled to decide itself about formatting pages liberately
ignoring the page designer’s instructions, using primarily
settings defined locally in the browser and, partially, by
the author of the browser software.
It’s kind of a square circle. But the
Clickcat-P2H products succeed very well in creating square
circles from such preconditions! Besides translating
PDF to HTML, they especially provide solutions for the two
major areas where problems can arise:
• fonts and
• vector graphics
The Clickcat-P2H products provide solutions for most situations
where such natural incompatibility problems between PDF and
HTML may arise. First of all, most of these problems only
occur occasionally, so you should first clarify if this applies
to your data at all. Second, most of these problems can be
totally eliminated by preparing the original data sources
(i.e. the DTP files), from which your PDF files were created.
And finally, for most cases there is either a solution or
a work around provided by the Clickcat-P2H products.
Fonts
Somebody in the industry once said that whenever he hears
the word “font” he must think of another four-letter-word
also starting with an F. Well, fonts often are a problem,
but we have to live with it and make the best out of it.
If you want a simple solution, you should take care that
all fonts used in your pages are of one of the standard font
types present on most PCs, which will be used to browse your
HTML pages. Typically, this means replacing any unusual “exotic”
font by one of these standard fonts. This is fully supported
and performed automatically by most versions of the Clickcat-P2H
products, which assist you in replacing fonts and characters.
Another more elegant but also more demanding alternative
is to embedd “exotic fonts” into the HTML code.
You can do so by using one of the software products available
for this task such as Microsoft’s free "weft"
software, which you can download from www.microsoft.com,
or any similar product. You will have to first convert your
pages using Clickcat-P2H software from PDF into HTML and then
apply the needed fonts to the final HTML files using one of
these available third party tools.
Vector graphics
Vector graphics are normally a very compact and neat way to
represent graphical objects which would need far more space
if they were represented by a bit map picture such as a GIF
or JPEG file. What normally is an advantage turns into its
exact opposite when using HTML. Due to the very nature of
HTML, such vectors need much more space to store and transfer
than would the equivilant bit map pictures.
Therefore, the P2H software provides all that is needed to
automatically convert most of such vector graphics into something
much more appropriate for HTML. The handling of vector graphics
is sub-divided into three different areas:
• vector graphics, which can be converted to VML
• vector graphics, which can be converted to GIF picture
files
• vector graphics, which are used to shade an area.
Converting vector graphics to VML
Most Clickcat-P2H products support the automatic conversion
of vector graphics, such as lines and rectangles, to their
corresponding counterpart in HTML. A correct reproduction
of vector graphics can only be achieved in HTML using VML,
the Vector Markup Language.
VML is indispensable to correctly reproduce lines and many
other vector graphics in HTML. Such graphical objects are
often essential page components used to define layout structures
and tables.
The generation of VML can be switched on or off in all Clickcat-P2H
versions supporting VML.
Unfortunately, some less frequently used browser types are
buggy and do not correctly support VML (although some claim
to do so). Of course, we can not correct bugs in other people’s
software. Currently, the best layout compatibility can be
achieved with MS Internet Explorer 5.0 and above. In many
cases though, the use of VML is not required and such pages
will also correctly display in other browsers.
You will have to find out yourself for your individual layout
and pages if they contain vector graphics and therefore require
VML. Just use our demo version without any obligation!
Converting vector graphics to GIF files
Sometimes page designers use vector graphics in their DTP
software as background patterns for frames or even for entire
pages. Such graphics often consist of several hundreds if
not thousands of little vector graphics. This is not a problem
for DTP software, but a desaster in HTML, because it results
in huge HTML files, which would be very slow in transmission
and in displaying.
To circumvent this technical problem, the more advanced Clickcat-P2H
versions are capable of automatically converting many neighboring
vector graphics into one compact gif file. This results in
fundamentally smaller HTML files, which transmit and display
much quicker than their VML counterparts.
Vector graphics used to smoothly shade areas
Very rarely there are special vectors contained in PDF files,
called "smooth shading vectors", which are used
to color and shade an area with changing color values from
one area border to another.
There is no other reasonable way to visualize such graphics
in HTML except by use of a background picture, i.e. by using
a GIF or a JPEG file instead. You simply have to change your
(DTP) source files, from which you generated your PDF, and
exchange these vector graphics by a bit map picture file.
Everything else would dramatically increase the coffee consumption
of anybody trying to load such HTML pages into his browser,
because such pages would contain thousands of little vector
graphics resulting in huge HTML files with several MB in size.
So you better replace such vector graphics, which are incompatible
to HTML, by something more convenient to HTML.
Consequences
The Clickcat-P2H software products assist you very well in
solving or circumventing most the problems arising from the
mutual incompatibility between PDF and HTML. And in the few
remaining cases you simply exchange the HTML incompatible
objects in your source DTP files and you receive a perfect
result when converting your PDF files to HTML using the Clickcat-P2H
products.
| Other Websites
with important information about P2H Products |
 www.pdf-to-html.com |
in English: All information about P2H technology, Products,
Versions |
| www.papier-in-html.de |
in Deutsch: Alle Infos zur P2H Technologie, infos über Produkte,
Versionen |
|
www.klickcat.com |
en español : Toda la información sobre la tecnología
de P2H, productos, versiones |
| www.catpool.com
|
Automechanika-CATpool is the electronic product catalog and the permanent
virtual exhibition for the automotive industry organized in co-operation
with the Automechanika, the leading trade fair for the automotive industry.
CATpool offers you entire product catalogs of leading manufacturers as well
as direct contact to thousands of vendors of all kinds of automotive products,
from spare parts, technical and garage equipment, to accessories and virtually
everything around vehicle parts, components and services. Automechanika-CATpool
is based on our technology and software products. |
| www.elecat.com |
in English: EleCat makes paper product catalogs, brochures, and data sheets
dynamically usable on a PC or Internet browser. |
| www.elepub.com |
in English: Object Publishing System automating all processes from content
acquisition and administration via content formatting to content distribution
across all media, formats, types of publications and applications. |
| www.eleform.com |
Content capturing to XML or database |
|
