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Overlay of Pdfs makes text unselectable

Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2018 11:01 am
by RaduC
Hi,

We are trying to overlay two pdfs, both of them containing selectable text, into a single pdf using the printer driver v6. After the printing, the outputPdf.pdf file, contains selectable text only from the overlay file and all text from the initial pdf is not selectable. I am setting the following:

_pdfPrinter.set_Option("Overlay.Enabled", true);
_pdfPrinter.set_Option("Overlay.OverlayFile", overlayPath);
_pdfPrinter.set_Option("Overlay.Fit", true);
_pdfPrinter.set_Option("Overlay.KeepAspect", true);

I was expecting that all the text in the new pdf is selectable. Am I missing some properties?

Best regards,
Radu

Re: Overlay of Pdfs makes text unselectable

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 10:45 am
by Will - Tracker Supp
Hi RaduC,

Thanks for the post - We've taken a look here and can see what you mean, but the actual output is equally as often affected by the application you're printing from, as the printer you're printing to. Can you advise what app you're printing from (e.g. MS Word)?

Thanks,

Re: Overlay of Pdfs makes text unselectable

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 11:46 am
by RaduC
Hi Will,

Yes, the app the document was first created and printed from was Microsoft Word 2016.

Best regards,
Radu

Re: Overlay of Pdfs makes text unselectable

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 1:03 pm
by Will - Tracker Supp
Hi Radu,

Thanks - To clarify, are you specifically referring to the OutputPdf.pdf file? It's for this one that we need to know where you're printing from.

Thanks,

Re: Overlay of Pdfs makes text unselectable

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2018 7:32 am
by RaduC
Hi Will,

Sorry for the missunderstanding. The TestDocumentPrinted.pdf and TestOverlay.pdf were initially created using Word 2016. The actual overlaying of the pdfs (TestDocumentPrinted.pdf overlayed with TestOverlay.pdf) and the creation of the outputPdf.pdf was done by printing through the "PDFXCview.exe" version 2.5.322.5 (after setting the pdfPrinter properties) using the following command line:

PDFXCview.exe /print:showui=no "TestDocumentPrinted.pdf"

Best regards,
Radu

Re: Overlay of Pdfs makes text unselectable  SOLVED

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2018 8:46 am
by Will - Tracker Supp
Hi Radu,

Thanks for that - I suspect that the issue is this setting in the Viewer:
https://imgur.com/4YxLalz

As with all printers, our printer is extremely dependent on how the application you're printing from passes the data to it. Many apps choose to rasterize text, whereas others choose to print text as curves (like the Viewer, in this particular case). We obviously have no control over that, at least not through the printer. In this instance, it can be controlled through the Viewer itself, as above.

I would also suggest that re-printing a PDF to PDF is rarely a good idea and we don't often recommend doing it. You might be better served with the watermarks (from file) features of the Editor or PDF-Tools, if that's a possibility. If not, it's better to do the overlay on the original file before the conversion to PDF.

Thanks,

Re: Overlay of Pdfs makes text unselectable

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2018 7:52 am
by RaduC
Hi Will,

The watermark (from file) feature would work if it would accept also pdf files. From what I have seen, the only types allowed are images. Also overlaying the initial file before the conversion in pdf will not work, because some of our initial files are directly pdf files.

You were right, that the setting in the viewer was the problem for my test documents. By changing the setting, I was able to have all the text from both pdfs selectable. I managed to use the property from the command line, by exporting the application settings of the viewer in a .dat file and loading the settings before printing with overlay.

Thanks Will for pointing me in the right direction.

Best regards,
Radu

Re: Overlay of Pdfs makes text unselectable

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2018 2:28 pm
by Will - Tracker Supp
Hi Radu,
The watermark (from file) feature would work if it would accept also pdf files. From what I have seen, the only types allowed are images.
Apologies, I'd forgotten that Standard can't use file watermarks. I'll see if this can be added, but there may be a good reason why it's not there.
Also overlaying the initial file before the conversion in pdf will not work, because some of our initial files are directly pdf files
Understood, that was merely a suggestion if at all possible.
You were right, that the setting in the viewer was the problem for my test documents. By changing the setting, I was able to have all the text from both pdfs selectable. I managed to use the property from the command line, by exporting the application settings of the viewer in a .dat file and loading the settings before printing with overlay.
Glad to hear that! If I haven't misunderstood, everything is solved for now?

Thanks,