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Version 1.4 of the PDF Library PDF4Smalltalk Released to the Public Store (with MIT License)

Posted on in Categories Smalltalk, VisualWorks

The library now supports Smalltalk images (pictures) to be inserted into PDFs. Any Smalltalk image can be added to a PDF (with masks and alpha transparency). The following link is a demo page that’s used as a teaser http://christianhaider.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=pdf:images.

The implementation is supposed to be complete in the sense that ALL Smalltalk images should be convertible to PDF. However, there is one drawback. Due to missing image compression algorithms (JPEG, JBIG2 and others), the most space-saving representation is not used (only Zip compression).

Also, not all images found in PDFs can be converted to Smalltalk images. This is again due to missing image compression filters. And, for PDF images with color spaces other than /DeviceRGB and /DeviceGray, this is due to missing color conversion methods.

The feature is well tested and reasonably efficient, but of course there will be bugs that are unknown at this time. Christian asks that if you find something “fishy,” please let him know so that he can fix it.

The library works in all Cincom® VisualWorks® versions from 7.10 and up (Jenkins tested). If anyone uses the library with previous versions of VisualWorks, Christian would like to know about it.

Christian notes that this overdue feature was realized thanks to the encouragement of Bob Nemec, author of Report4PDF, and with funding from his employer, the Canadian engineering company HTS.

Christian also tells us that he will be moving his business more towards PDF, and he will try to develop tools and services around PDF. If anybody is interested in projects regarding PDF related work, he would be glad to hear about it.

Contact Information

You may contact Christian Haider at christian.haider@smalltalked-visuals.com.