Blog
Technical articles, product guides, and insights on Adobe development, PDF technology, and document workflows.
Adobe Development
Technical guides on building plugins and extensions for Adobe applications.
How to Create a Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat Using the SDK
Step-by-step tutorial on adding a custom menu item using the Acrobat SDK.
The Acrobat Software Developer's Kit
Overview of the Acrobat SDK and its capabilities for plugin development.
What is an Acrobat Plug-in?
Understanding what Acrobat plug-ins are and how they extend PDF functionality.
UXP vs CEP Extensions in Adobe Photoshop
A detailed comparison of the new UXP platform with the older CEP extension framework.
UXP Extensions in Adobe InDesign
Enhancing your InDesign workflow with UXP extensions, with code examples.
A Guide to Spectrum UXP Components
Design guidelines and component reference for building UXP extensions.
Options for User Interfaces in Adobe
Comparing different UI frameworks and approaches for Adobe extensions.
ExtendScript for Adobe Applications
Introduction to Adobe's ExtendScript scripting language.
Adobe ExtendScript: Applications, Usage and Limitations
Deep dive into ExtendScript capabilities and where it falls short.
Switching Python Versions for Illustrator SDK Development
Managing Python versions when developing Illustrator SDK plugins on Windows.
A Guide to Batch Processing in Adobe Acrobat
How to automate repetitive tasks using Acrobat's batch processing features.
Adobe XD End of Life
What the discontinuation of Adobe XD means for developers and designers.
Adobe Products: A Comprehensive Guide
Discover the functionality of Adobe products and their availability on Windows and Mac.
Combining Illustrator Extension Technologies
How to leverage ExtendScript, C++ SDK, and modern UI frameworks together for Illustrator.
Introduction to Acrobat JavaScript
A practical guide to automating PDF workflows with JavaScript in Adobe Acrobat.
Adobe Common Extensibility Platform (CEP): An Introduction
How CEP works, how it integrates with ExtendScript, and how to structure a CEP extension.
PDF Editing and Modification: Tools and Approaches
From manual Acrobat editing to automated workflows — choosing the right approach for your needs.
New Features in Adobe InDesign 2024
Auto Style, searchable Publish Online, dynamic filename suffixes, Hide Spreads, and AI-assisted layout.
Generative Fill in Adobe Photoshop
How Adobe's AI-powered Generative Fill works, its use cases, and how to use it in professional workflows.
Using Illustrator Scripts to Modify Colors
Automating color changes across Illustrator artwork with ExtendScript — RGB, CMYK, and spot colors.
PDF Technology
In-depth articles on PDF format, structure, and standards.
Evolution of the PDF Format
A historical perspective on how the PDF format has developed over the decades.
The Camelot Project: Precursor to PDF
The origins of PDF technology and the vision that started it all.
Structure of PDF Files
A technical summary of how PDF files are structured internally.
PDF Version 1.7 vs 2.0: A Comparison
Key differences between PDF specification versions and what they mean.
Exploring the PDF Format Specification
Navigating the PDF specification and its latest errata collection.
Understanding Tagged PDFs
Definition, usage, and examples of tagged PDF documents for accessibility.
Creating Interactive PDFs
How to create interactive PDF documents with Adobe Acrobat.
PDF Page Labels in Acrobat
How to set and manage page labels in PDF documents.
PDF Web Links and Named Destinations
Working with hyperlinks and named destinations in PDF files.
What is PDF Redaction?
Understanding PDF redaction and how to securely remove sensitive content.
Variable Data Printing Standards
An overview of VDP standards and their role in personalised document production.
The Importance of Barcodes in Modern Society
How barcodes work and their critical role across industries.
Understanding the Table of Contents
A guide to navigation and construction of tables of contents in documents.
Understanding PDF File Size
Why PDFs can be larger than expected, what drives file size, and how to reduce it.
Creating Interactive PDF Forms
A complete guide to building fillable PDF forms with Adobe Acrobat.
How to Number Pages in PDF Documents
Using PDF page labels for Roman numerals, custom prefixes, and mixed numbering.
Creating FDA-Compliant PDF Submissions
Step-by-step guide to meeting FDA PDF requirements using Acrobat, Bookmarker, and TOCBuilder.
Navigating a PDF with DogEars
How to use page-based bookmarks in Acrobat to mark, find, and extract pages quickly.
PDF Bookmarks: A Complete Guide
How PDF outline items are structured in the specification, generated by Acrobat, and automated for navigation in long documents.
PDF Annotations
The different annotation types in PDF — comments, stamps, highlights, and form fields — and how they work in Acrobat.
PDF Digital Signatures
How digital signatures work in PDF documents — certificate chains, validation, and signing workflows.
PDF Metadata
Document-level metadata in PDFs — XMP, DocInfo dictionaries, and how to read and write metadata programmatically.
PDF Layers (Optional Content)
How optional content groups work in PDF documents and how to control layer visibility in Acrobat and programmatically.
PDF Security: Passwords, Permissions, and Encryption
Password types, permission flags, encryption algorithms, and certificate-based protection for PDF documents.
The PDF/A Standard for Long-Term Archiving
An overview of PDF/A archiving standards — PDF/A-1, 2, and 3 — and what compliance requires.
PDF Accessibility
Making PDF documents accessible — tagged PDFs, reading order, WCAG compliance, and assistive technology support.
PDF Compression
How PDF compression works — image, text, and structure compression techniques to reduce file size without quality loss.
PDF Page Boxes Explained
MediaBox, CropBox, BleedBox, TrimBox, and ArtBox — understanding the five PDF page box types and their roles in print.
PDF Portfolios
Combining multiple files into a single PDF Portfolio — features, navigation, and practical use cases.
How Portable is PDF?
Exploring PDF's real-world portability across devices, operating systems, viewers, and PDF versions.
Understanding Colour Models
RGB, CMYK, spot colours, and colour spaces — how colour is represented and managed in PDF and print workflows.
What is PDF? The Portable Document Format Explained
A clear explanation of what PDF is, why it was created, how it works, and why it remains the world's most widely used document format.
Colour Management in PDF Documents
ICC profiles, output intents, colour spaces, and how to ensure consistent colour in print and digital PDF output.
Spot Colours in Print and PDF
What spot colours are, how Pantone colours work, and how spot colours are represented as Separation colour spaces in PDF.
Hexachrome: The Six-Colour Printing System
Pantone Hexachrome's CMYKOV extended-gamut system, its advantages over CMYK, and its current status after Pantone's discontinuation.
Type 1 Fonts: Adobe's Legacy Font Format
The history of PostScript Type 1 fonts, how they differ from OpenType, their role in PDF, and Adobe's 2023 end of support.
PDF Base-14 Fonts
The 14 standard fonts guaranteed to be available in any PDF viewer — Helvetica, Times, Courier, Symbol, and ZapfDingbats families.
Image Formats for PDF: JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and More
Comparing JPEG, PNG, TIFF, JBIG2, CCITT, and JPEG 2000 — compression methods, quality trade-offs, and best use cases in PDF.
The Future of PDF
Where PDF is heading — PDF 2.0, AI integration, PDF/UA accessibility requirements, digital workflows, and the format's ongoing relevance.
Validating Digital Signatures in PDF
Certificate chains, trust anchors, OCSP and CRL revocation checking, Long-Term Validation (LTV), and troubleshooting invalid signatures in Acrobat.
Digital Certificates and PKI for PDF Signing
How X.509 certificates work, the CA trust hierarchy, and how to obtain and import a signing certificate for PDF documents.
Working with Adobe Acrobat
Practical guides for getting the most out of Adobe Acrobat.
Adobe Acrobat Standard vs Pro
Key differences between the two Acrobat editions — features, platform availability, and which version suits your workflow.
How to Merge PDFs
Combining multiple PDF files into a single document using Adobe Acrobat — options, order, and output settings.
How to Split PDF Files
Splitting a PDF into multiple files by page range, top-level bookmarks, or file size using Adobe Acrobat.
How to Compare PDF Files
Using Acrobat's Compare Documents feature to identify textual and visual differences between PDF versions.
OCR in Adobe Acrobat
Using Acrobat's Recognize Text (OCR) feature to make scanned documents searchable and editable.
Scanning Documents to PDF
How to scan paper documents to PDF using Acrobat, including resolution, colour, and file size settings.
Adding Watermarks to PDFs
How to add text and image watermarks to PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat — placement, opacity, and batch options.
Printing PDFs: Options, Drivers, and Best Practices
Print dialog options, page scaling, booklet printing, PostScript drivers, overprint preview, and batch printing with Acrobat.
Creating Searchable PDFs
How to make PDFs searchable — OCR on scanned documents, ensuring text is not image-only, and verifying searchability in Acrobat.
Optimising PDF Files for Web Delivery
Linearisation (Fast Web View), image compression, font subsetting, and removing unused resources to reduce PDF file size for the web.
Automating PDF Workflows with Acrobat Action Wizard
Creating multi-step automated document processing sequences — OCR, redaction, watermarking, and custom JavaScript actions.
Adobe Acrobat for Architects and Engineers
Measurement tools, drawing markups, revision comparison, and PDF Portfolios for construction project documentation.
PDFs in Academic Research and Publishing
How PDF is used in academic publishing — journal distribution, accessibility requirements, and data extraction from research PDFs.
Converting EML Files to PDF
How to convert EML email files to PDF for archiving, legal discovery, and record-keeping — manual and programmatic methods.
How to Rotate Pages in a PDF
Permanently rotating individual or all pages in a PDF using Acrobat — temporary display rotation vs. saved rotation.
Converting Excel Spreadsheets to PDF
Converting Excel to PDF while preserving formatting, controlling page layout, print areas, and handling multi-sheet workbooks.
How to Edit PDF Files in Adobe Acrobat
Editing text, images, and pages in PDFs with Acrobat's Edit PDF tools — capabilities, limitations, and when to go back to the source.
Adobe Acrobat vs Free PDF Editors
What free PDF tools can do vs where Acrobat Pro's OCR, redaction, accessibility tools, and Action Wizard justify the cost.
How to Encrypt and Password-Protect PDF Files
Open passwords vs permissions passwords, AES encryption options, and step-by-step password protection in Adobe Acrobat.
Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat
Foxit, PDF-XChange, Nitro, Bluebeam, LibreOffice, and web-based tools — choosing the right PDF editor for your workflow.
Electronic Signatures with Adobe Acrobat Sign
How Acrobat Sign works for collecting legally binding e-signatures — sending, tracking, multi-party workflows, and API integration.
Converting PDF to PowerPoint
How to export PDFs to editable PowerPoint presentations using Acrobat — what converts well and how to handle complex layouts.
Customising Adobe Acrobat for Your Workflow
Toolbars, preferences, custom stamps, keyboard shortcuts, Action Wizard sequences, and enterprise deployment with Acrobat Customization Wizard.
Troubleshooting Common Adobe Acrobat Problems
Solutions to slow performance, PDF display issues, plugin conflicts, printing errors, signature validation failures, and update problems.
Adobe Product History
The stories behind the Adobe applications we develop for.
History of Adobe Illustrator
Tracing the evolution of Adobe's premier vector graphics application.
History of Adobe InDesign
How InDesign became the industry standard for page layout and publishing.
History of Aldus/Adobe PageMaker
The desktop publishing pioneer that changed the printing industry.
Inspiring Innovation: How Adobe Transformed Creativity
The history of Adobe Inc. and how their work at Xerox PARC changed the software industry.
Adobe Inc: Company Overview and Recent Developments
Adobe's milestones, acquisitions, and the generative AI era from 2018 to the present.
Datalogics: A PDF Technology Pioneer
The company behind the Adobe PDF Library SDK, and its role in the PDF technology ecosystem.
History of Adobe Acrobat
The story of how Acrobat and the PDF format transformed document exchange from its 1993 origins to the present day.
News & Announcements
All Mapsoft Plugins Now Available for 64-bit Adobe Acrobat
Our complete product range now supports both 32-bit and 64-bit Adobe Acrobat, with automatic detection during installation.
Mapsoft Releases 64-bit Windows Versions
Announcing 64-bit support for Mapsoft plugins on Windows.
PaperlessProofs: Online Proofing for Print
How Mapsoft helped build PaperlessProofs — the online PDF proofing service that removes weeks from publishing production schedules.
Have Questions?
Get in touch to discuss Adobe development, PDF solutions, or any of our products.