Here is what you will need in order to create customizable PDF's.

A licensed copy of Adobe Acrobat Full version 7 or above (PC) or 8 or above (MAC) installed on your computer.

1. The PDFlib Block Plugin ver5 works with the following Acrobat versions:
   Acrobat 8/9/X/XI/DC Standard, Professional and Pro Extended on Windows
   source: https://www.pdflib.com/download/block-plugin/
2. 2 versions of a PDF collateral piece. Version 1 should have the default content. Version 2 should have the content you want editable, removed from the PDF.

Important Considerations

1. For PDF files that will be sent to print, please note that a high resolution PDF (300dpi) with crop marks (marks showing final trim size with images that need to print to edge over lapping the final trim size by at least 1/8th of an inch) is recommended.
2. For digital versions of PDF files that will be sent through email or via a link, a lower resolution file,(no lower than 150dpi) is recommended. This will help reduce the overall file size to keep download times shorter while keeping good quality.

Compress your PDF File

To get your PDF file size down for both print and web quality, use Acrobat Distiller. This will flatten images and text which is important for Flip Books.  The Acrobat Distiller program comes with all Full versions of Adobe Acrobat. Be sure to review the Acrobat documentation for additional help on PDF settings for print or web.

If your file is already in .PDF format, start at step 1. Otherwise, skip to step 2.

1.  Save your PDF file to a postscript file (.PS) by opening the file with Adobe Acrobat and choose  “File → Save As”  from the menu and choosing “Postscript (.PS)” as the file type.
2. Launch Acrobat Distiller from Acrobat by going to Advanced → Print Production → Acrobat Distiller. Select the appropriate “Default Settings” from the drop-down menu. For print quality resolution choose “Press Quality”. For online resolution choose “Standard”.
3. Drag and drop your Postscript (.PS) file into Distiller. You will find the rendered PDF files in the same directory as the original Postscript (.PS) files.
4. Another way to reduce your file size is to go to Advanced → PDF Optimizer. More information about this and the settings to use are in the quick tips section at the end of this document. 

Drawing PDF Lib Blocks

1. Access the PDFlib Blocks tool by selecting the tool from the menu or by clicking on the tool icon as shown.
2. Once the tool is active, to draw a PDFlib block, click and drag your mouse to the desired size, then release the mouse button. 

Setting the PDFlib Block Type

This window will pop-up to allow you to edit the block properties. First set the Block name. Make it something intuitive so a user will know what the block should contain.

Then choose the block Type. Options are:

- Textline – A single line of text

- Textflow – Multiple lines of text

- Image – A block reserved for a single image

- PDF – Use for “Rich Text” blocks (currently not covered in this document)

The following attributes are not supported and may case the document not to render if used.

• “LAB” or “Separation” color types
• Default contents (this will be set on the platform and is not recognized if set here)
• fontstyle: none
• monospace

Standard Editing Notes

1. To change a background or font color of any a PDFlib Block, click on  three dot button [...] next to the color field.
2. When the “Color Selection” prompt comes up, select “DeviceRGB” from the Color Space Name drop down menu. This will allow you to access a color pallet. If you choose “Device CMYK” you will have to type in the color manually. PDFlib color values range from 0-1 scale instead of the standard 0-255 scale you might be used to. To make this easier we recommend using the DeviceRGB color Pallet.
3. Once you've chosen the “DeviceRGB” color space name, click on the Select Color button to bring up the color pallet.  Then type in the R,G,B values at the bottom of the pallet and click “Ok”.

PDFlib Block – Textline and Textflow

1. To create a single line text customizable area, you need to draw a PDFlib block and select the “Textline” type from the drop-down. For a multi-line text area, choose “Textflow”.
2. Set the font type, color and size from the “Appearance” property group. Keep in mind a PDFlib block can only contain one font type, color, style and size for the entire block.
3. Set the alignment, leading and fitmethod(how the text should adjust to fit the size of the block) by going into the Text Formatting property group
4. Since PDFlib blocks cannot scale or re-size set the “fitmethod” under the “Object Fitting” property group. “Auto” will reduce the font size and leading to make the text fit to the block if it is too large. “Clip” will clip any text that falls beyond the bottom of the lib block.

PDFlib Block – Image

1. To create an Image customizable area, you need to draw a PDFlib block and select the “image” type from the drop-down.
2. Since PDFlib Blocks cannot move or re-size from within the system, you need to select the fit method you want the image to use.  The options you should use are:

•  nofit – No fitting will occur. If the image is too large it will exceed the size of the block area.
•  auto – Results vary with this option and we do not recommend using it for images.
•  clip – This will clip (or crop) the image if it is too large. No scaling will occur.
•  meet  – will meet 2 sides of the image by scaling proportionally but will leave white space if the                    image is not the exact aspect ratio of the block area.
• slice – image will be scaled proportionally until the block is filled completely, then slice off anything                 left outside of the block area
• entire – This will make the image stretch to fill the entire block area and may cause distortion.

PDFlib Block – PDF

1. To create a Rich-Text customizable area that will allow for different font styles, colors and sizes within the block, you need to draw a PDFlib block and select the “PDF” type from the drop-down.
2. Be sure to make these settings to ensure this block works properly for you. fitmethod = slice,  position = 0 100.  Text sent to this lib block will first be rendered as a PDF file from the platform, then sent to the lib block. 

Important Note:

When using the PDF block type for Rich Text, the platform assumes the block will be a full standard PDF size

(8.5 x 11 inches).  If your block is smaller, the rich text created on the platform for will be converted to the standard size PDF and then be re-sized smaller to fit a smaller lib block area.  Best use for rich text blocks is to use a full 8.5 x 11 inch block on your PDF document.

Font usage on Customizable PDFs

In order for PDFLib to render customizable text, the font must already exist on our server. Below is a list of all licensed fonts available on our server. The font name used in the PDF must match exactly to one of the font names listed. (Using a font not installed on the server will cause the document not to render) If the font you would like to use is not available on this list, we will have to purchase a license for it and install it on the server. Please go to one of the following sites and find the exact fonts link that you need. (myfonts.com, fonts.com, linotype.com) Then put in a support ticket via your DMP and we will verify license purchase. Purchase of the font license and labor for installation.

Setting Customizable Field Defaults

When you upload your PDF to the platform, you will be prompted to configure the default information and settings for your customizable fields. View the list of variable names to be sure all of your fields are shown and were all set to the correct field type in your PDF. From this window you can re-order the display of the fields, edit the field default content and set the edit and visibility permissions.

Quick Tips

When creating customizable PDFs, first create 2 versions of your PDF document. 1 version that looks like the finished PDF and  a 2nd version that has the customizable content removed. Create your PDFlib blocks over the customizable content on version 

1. Then copy the PDFlib blocks from version 1 PDF to version 

2. Then upload version 2 to the platform.You can copy PDFlib Blocks in 2 ways. Select all of your blocks and then go to Edit → Copy from the Acrobat menu. Then on the second document(be sure the block plug-in tool is active) select Edit → Paste from the Acrobat menu.  The other way is to open the second PDF and go to PDFlib Blocks → Import Export , and choose import. Then select the fist PDF that contains the drawn lib blocks.

When using the PDF block type for Rich Text, the platform assumes the block will be a full standard PDF size (8.5 x 11 inches).  If your block is smaller, the rich text created on the platform for will be converted to the standard size PDF and then be re-sized smaller to fit a smaller lib block area.  Best use for rich text blocks is to use a full 8.5 x 11 inch block on your PDF document.

When creating images for customizable areas, make sure they are the exact size of the PDFlib block. This will reduce any cropping or distortion when the images are loaded into the customizable area.

To keep image sizes down for web viewing, set the DPI of your images to 150dpi. For print only customizable PDFs, 300dpi is recommended.

To create a background color in your rich text blocks so they match the background color of your PDF file, use HTML background color code when filling out your rich text content. An example is below.

When using multiple languages use a unicode font. As a reminder the names are case sensitive. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<style type="text/css"><!--

.test {background-image: url('http://platformnane.dmplocal.com/... ');

background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:left top;

font-size:20px;color:black;height:1600px;width:1300px;padding:0px;}

.textarea{padding:280px 30px 20px 30px;}

--></style>

<div class="test">

<div class="textarea>Date<br /><br /> Address<br /> <br />

Content Placed Here

<br /> Sincerely,<br /> <br /> [p:first_name] [p:last_name]<br /> [p:title]<br />

[p:phone:"P: "][p:phone]<br /> [p:email]<br /></div>

</div>

When using Textflow, to create line spacing use the leading setting found under “Text Formatting”. Set this to 135% for a standard 1.5 spacing. For general single spacing 125% works well.

When creating your customizable PDF file, after every edit you make and are ready to save, use the” Save As” command from Adobe Acrobat instead of “Save”.  Using “Save” can cause file size to increase.

To ensure the smallest file size, once you have made all of your edits, go to

Advanced → PDF Optimizer  from the menu.  Then set the settings as shown in the example below and select OK at the bottom. Then save your file again.

Conditional Logic on PDF's

Conditional logic is now available on all variable types in a PDF which includes single, multi-line as well as rich text and image. It is also possible to use with content collections and paragraph blocks. 

Please note we recommend making all conditional logic not editable to end users.

Conditional logic examples:

• eq  (EQUALS)
• neq (NOT EQUALS)
• ||  (OR),
• |strstr:'string' (CONTAINS)

Example for image: 

{if $p.eap_app eq'yes'}https://communicationsbuilder.dmplocal.com/dsc/collateral/EAP_APP_Lockup_DownloadCopyLine_CMYK.jpg{/if}