HTML to PDF conversion and XML to PDF conversion made easy!

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RealObjects PDFreactor is a powerful formatting processor for converting XML and XHTML/HTML documents into PDF. It uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to define page layout and styles. The server-side tool enables a great variety of applications in the fields of ERP, eCommerce and Electronic Publishing. It allows you to dynamically generate PDF documents such as invoices, delivery notes and shipping documents on-the-fly. Fully integrated clean-up processes also enable the processing of legacy HTML web content. PDFreactor allows you to easily add server-based PDF generation functionality to your application or service. Since PDFreactor runs on a server, the end-user in general does not need any software other than a free PDF viewer.

PDFreactor is a practical choice for software architects, developers and Web designers looking for a cross-platform, easy to deploy, cost-effective XML and XHTML/HTML printing solution that does not require any XSL-FO skills to quickly achieve great looking results. It offers comprehensive features such as:

Our latest PDFreactor customers

Remarkable What-You-See-Is-What-You-Print functionality
Compared to other formatter or printing over the Web using a browser, PDFreactor provides real What-You-See-Is-What-You-Print functionality to your application. So, users won't be disappointed by unsatisfactory print results while you can offer unmatched print capabilities.

Strong support for CSS
PDFreactor offers strong support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), including CSS 2.1. CSS is a powerful formatting language for XML, is widely used and has become very popular on the Web. It is efficient to use, easy to learn and offers the flexibility to style the most common document layouts.

Multi-channel publishing with CSS
RealObjects PDFreactor enables multi-channel publishing using CSS for styling XML and XHTML/HTML documents to be published in print or on the Web. You have to deal with one style sheet and consequently one style language only. Streaming the output either to print media or over the Web just requires the definition of two media types within the CSS.

To achieve the same result with the transformation-based processing model of XSL/XSL-FO, you need two different style sheets in two different style languages. CSS for publishing on the Web, XSL/XSL-FO for publishing in print.

For more information about the differences between the styling-based processing model of CSS and the transformation-based processing model of XSL/XSL-FO, please review the section CSS vs XSL.

Print any XML document
Unlike many other formatters PDFreactor can print almost any XML document. Authors and publishers are able to typeset and print documents written in XHTML/HTML or one of the many XML-based document formats. PDFreactor supports DTDs and XML-Schema, allowing the print of documents with extensive illustrations and layouts. Automatic DOCTYPE and encoding detection is also supported.

Strong support for legacy HTML Web content
Fully integrated clean-up processes also allow legacy HTML Web content as input. PDFreactor then parses, formats and renders the input according to the style definitions and clean-up processes used. The output can be returned to a Web client, used in mailings or streamed to printers and other devices.

Print XHTML Web content
PDFreactor comes with a default XHTML style sheet. XHTML is the successor of HTML and the XML language of the World Wide Web. Using PDFreactor you are able to easily print Web content written in XHTML.

Built-in support for XSLT processing
PDFreactor allows you to style the most common document layouts by using CSS only. You do not have to master the complexities of XSL/XSL-FO syntax and programming. However, PDFreator comes with built-in support for XSLT processing that offers further flexibility and interoperability for those who need to include a XSLT style sheet on top. For example, a XSLT style sheet would be necessary to calculate the total from values of a XML-based invoice. For more information about XSLT support please see the section How it works?.

HTML forms
PDFreactor allows you to specify, layout and render HTML form elements (INPUT, BUTTON, SELECT and TEXTAREA) and stream them as PDF to your output device. This allows you to create a great variety of business forms for printing or usage in electronic mail workflows. The HTML form layout and rendering capabilities of PDFreactor match or surpass common web browsers such as Firefox or IE. For details please review the HTML Forms Sample document, which is included in the PDFreactor GUI Demo application and part of every PDFreactor installation/trial package.

Interactive PDF forms, or "PDF AcroForms", i.e. the ability to create functional PDF froms out of (X)HTML forms
The PDFreactor AcroForms support allows you to create PDF forms using (X)HTML form elements such as buttons, checkboxes, text and input fields, combo boxes or list selections. The properties of HTML elements can be edited and form data can be saved as part of the PDF form itself or processed on the server-side. For details please review the Interactive PDF Forms Sample document, which is included in the PDFreactor GUI Demo application and part of every PDFreactor installation/trial package.

Tagged PDF
Besides graphics, bookmarks, links and other content elements PDF documents created with PDFreactor can also include "structure", which is a set of instructions (expressed via "tags") that define the logic that binds the content together – e.g. the correct reading order, and the presence and meaning of significant elements such as figures, lists, tables, etc.

A PDF document created with PDFreactor and equipped with well-formed tags can be "re-flowed" to fit different page or screen widths, and will display well on handheld devices. Tagged PDF files also work better with the screen-reader devices used by many blind and other disabled users and in most cases are necessary in order to make a PDF documents comply with Section 508.

Concatenated PDFs
PDFreator allows you to concatenate newly rendered PDF content with an existing PDF document.

Cross-platform, modular and open architecture in 100% Java
PDFreactor offers a modular and open architecture and is written in 100% Java. For example, it comes with built-in formatters for SVG and Barcode as well as built-in support for XSLT processing.

W3C standard compliance
PDFreactor is based on the latest W3C standards, providing the highest flexibility and interoperability with your system.

Flexible and quick integration
PDFreactor is easy to integrate into Servlets, EJB, Java Web Services and can also be used from PHP, ASP.NET and other scripting languages. A PDFreactor Enterprise Edition with direct support for J2EE Application Servers (e.g. Sun Java Application Server, BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere) will be available soon.

You can either use the Command Line Interface or easily integrate PDFreactor into your Servlets, EJB or Web Service by using the comprehensive Java API. PDFreactor can be directly called from Java and Apache Ant, which e.g. allows the automatic generation of documents (manuals, user guidelines etc.) during an automated software built process.

In the simplest case you only have to specify and input and output file to generate a PDF document. It is also possible to use the operating system's standard input (stdin) and output (stdout) streams to read and write content. This is especially useful when using PDFreactor with server-side scripting languages such as PHP.

PDFreactor is provided as a single Java library including all necessary dependencies. Thus it can conveniently be used on the Command Line using its powerful Command Line API or can directly be integrated into Java server applications using the Java API. It also includes high-performance .NET and PHP APIs. The installation package comes with a comprehensive integration manual in PDF and HTML format.

You do not have to master the complexities of XSL syntax and programming. CSS is widely used and has become very popular on the Web. It is easy to learn, simple to use and offers the flexibility to style the most common document layouts.

Paged Media support: powerful W3C standards-oriented layout capabilities
By implementing the W3C specification for Paged Media and print, PDFreactor provides great control over the paged output, enabling a real What-You-See-Is-What-You-Print approach. It is very easy to set page sizes, margins and pagination for specific elements, page headers and footers. Using proprietary CSS properties, it is possible to set PDF specific information, to generate outlines and links for your documents and even to add meta information about the author or keywords. PDFreactor's main layout capabilities include:

• Pagination
• Page size, orientation, style and page breaks
• Dynamic headers/footers, page numbering and duplex printing via CSS
• Tables with automatic layout and running headers/footers
• Floats and absolute positioned blocks
• Lists with customizable bullets or numbers
• CSS counters

Extensive PDF output

• Hyperlinks and bookmarks
• Document security, e.g. disable printing, modifications or extracting of content, lock PDF with a password
• 40-bit/128-bit encryption
• True Type and Open Type fonts embedding
• Compression

Built-in SVG support
PDFreactor comes with a built-in formatter for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), which enables CSS-based multi-channel publishing of high-quality graphics on the Web and in print. Please review also the mortgage calculation sample document, which is included in the PDFreactor GUI Demo application and part of every PDFreactor installation/trial package.

Built-in Barcode support
PDFreactor comes with a built-in formatter for Barcode, which enables comprehensive documents to be displayed on the Web or to be streamed to printers and other devices. Please review also the Barcode sample document, which is included in the PDFreactor GUI Demo application and part of every PDFreactor installation/trial package.

Barcodes supported include:

• EAN-13
• EAN-8
• GS1-128 (EAN-128)
• UPC-A
• UPC-E
• Code 128
• Code 39
• Codabar
• Interleaved 2 of 5
• POSTNET
• Royal Mail CBC
• DataMatrix
• PDF417

Comprehensive sample documents and live demonstrations
RealObjects provides a collection of comprehensive sample documents and interactive live demonstrations to help in evaluations and assist in development. These demos show how a simple declarative Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) with selected styles and layout options can be used to easily convert XML, XHTML/HTML or even legacy HTML Web content into superb PDF. Some demos also include a XSLT style sheet, which is supported through PDFreactor's built-in support for XSLT processing.

Apart from the interactive live demonstrations, all sample documents are included in the PDFreactor GUI Demo application, which is part of every PDFreactor installation/trial package.

User-friendly PDFreactor GUI Demo application
The PDFreactor installation/trial package comes with a user-friendly GUI Demo application, which is for testing purposes only. It allows you to easily and quickly experience PDFreactor's XML and XHTML/HTML printing capabilities.

Apart from the interactive live demonstrations, the PDFreactor GUI Demo application includes various sample documents. It offers a browser like WYSIWYG view as well as a single and double page PDF preview. You can directly create a PDF document and save it to your computer.

The document's source code and inline style sheets (used in some documents) can be modified in order to experience the styling-based processing model of CSS. Style sheets and advanced properties of all documents are exposed in separate views as well.