- What are Mars and PDFXML?
- Why Mars?
- Who should use Mars?
- What technologies can I leverage with Mars?
- How does PDFXML relate to PDF?
- How does PDFXML relate to XSL-FO?
- How is a PDFXML document created?
- Can I convert between PDFXML format and PDF format?
- So what does PDFXML look like under the hood?
- What advantages does SVG bring to a PDFXML document?
- Is SVG animation and scripting supported?
- How are high-end print features supported in SVG?
- What are some example workflows that integrate PDFXML documents?
- Can an XML friendly file format also be speedy?
- What are some advantages to an application processing a PDFXML document?
- What is the transition or compatibility between a PDFXML document and an XFA PDF?
- Does Adobe LiveCycle support this?
- Does Adobe PDF Library Support PDFXML?
- Can an end-user create a PDFXML document?
- How can an end-user view a PDFXML document?
- Where can I find documentation and sample files?
- Is the PDFXML format frozen?
- If I save documents in PDFXML format today, will they continue to open forever as it does for PDF?
- When will the PDFXML format be frozen for 1.0?
- How do I send suggestions, comments, and bug reports?
- What are Mars and PDFXML?
- Mars is the code name for a project developing an XML-based representation of PDF documents called PDFXML. XML, Extensible Markup Language, is a cross-platform, extensible, and text-based standard for representing data of all kinds. PDF, Portable Document Format, is the global standard to reliably view, print, and share documentation over the web and with other people, regardless of a computer's operating system. PDF preserves all of the fonts, formatting, colors, and graphics of any source document.
- Why Mars?
- The Mars project was initiated to use XML and similar open standards in ways that enable more developers to better integrate a PDF into existing and future applications and solutions. The Mars project has been hosted on Adobe Labs so that developers can review, participate and provide feedback on the development of the PDFXML technology. Eager to receive feedback, the Mars forum and mail addresses are staffed by the Mars development team.
- Who should use Mars?
- Mars supports developers who want to leverage their XML tools and knowledge to create, manipulate and extract information from PDF documents. It also provides an XML document solution for organizations that have chosen to unify their infrastructure using XML as the base representation. Architects and developers working on enterprise integration solutions or AJAX web applications should definitely take a look at the Mars technology. Those working on document generation and conversion, data extraction and integration, form generation and publishing projects should be closely following the Mars project.
- What technologies can I leverage with Mars?
- Mars interoperates with XML and standards-based formats allowing application developers to leverage existing knowledge of XML-based technologies. Enterprises deploying J2EE or SOA architectures should be sure to have an architect review and monitor the progress of the Mars technology.
- How does PDFXML relate to PDF?
- PDFXML documents, like PDF documents, can be displayed within a viewer application. When viewed, PDFXML documents have the same appearance and behavior as a PDF document with similar content. Other than having a different file suffix, an end user would not see any difference between a PDFXML document and a PDF document. However, if you look under the hood, a document created in the PDFXML format will appear different, containing XML components that enable some exciting enterprise use cases. With the PDFXML plug-in, Adobe Reader and Acrobat can open, display, and operate on PDFXML documents.
- How does PDFXML relate to XSL-FO?
- PDFXML, like PDF, is a final form document. Each graphic element of a PDFXML document is precisely positioned on a page. XSL-FO (“formatting objects”) is an XML language for describing graphic objects and their styles and layout properties. An XSL-FO processor interprets the XSL-FO input to determine the precise position of each object described by the XSL-FO document. Different XSL-FO processors can have different interpretations depending on hyphenation dictionaries, ligature support and other issues. Many XSL-FO processors today create PDF and may create output files in the PDFXML format in the future.
- How is a PDFXML document created?
- PDFXML documents can be created by using XML components representing pages and the overall document structure and then combining them in a Zip package using off-the-shelf XML and ZIP tools. In addition, with the PDFXML plug-in and Adobe Acrobat, you can save PDF documents in PDFXML format. The PDFXML plug-in to create and view a PDFXML document is available on Adobe Labs. Additional documentation is also available on the Mars Labs site. The easiest way to get there is http://www.adobe.com/go/mars.
- Can I convert between PDFXML format and PDF format?
- Yes. They contain equivalent information and Adobe Acrobat with the PDFXML plug-in can open both formats and Save-as the other format. To put it technically, PDFXML and today’s PDF are two serializations of the same infoset. PDFXML uses ZIP and XML as basic building blocks, while today’s PDF uses structures called “Cos” and “streams” as basic building blocks.
- So what does PDFXML look like under the hood?
-
The information in a PDFXML document is organized similar to a PDF document. Mars represents document information by combining standard XML, images, fonts, and color formats within a Zip-based package. Page content is represented in SVG. In PDFXML, the pages, images, fonts, bookmarks, and other document components appear as separate files within the Zip package. The PDFXML components such as bookmarks are easier to manipulate by virtue of their XML representation.
Much like a web page which consists of a number of separate files referenced by a “root” HTML file, a PDFXML document consists of many files packaged together in a Zip file. There is a root "backbone.xml" file that references other files in the document.
You can look at the contents of a PDFXML file with any Zip tool or library. An application available as part of the Mars project, the PDFXML Inspector, will also view the internal structure of a PDFXML file.
- What advantages does SVG bring to a PDFXML document?
- SVG is an abbreviation for Scalable Vector Graphics, an XML-based, W3C standard language for describing graphics. Many applications and tools can create or manipulate SVG page contents. SVG page content can also be converted to PDF graphic operators using Acrobat Professional (8.1 & 9) and the PDFXML plug-in.
- Is SVG animation and scripting supported?
- DF defines a model for scripting and interaction and that is used in PDFXML documents. PDF graphic content represents static documents so features of SVG related to dynamic graphics or interaction are not supported.
- How are high-end print features supported in SVG?
- Where SVG does not have sufficient function to support capabilities in PDF, private namespace extensions have been added is a way that is consistent with SVG’s extension model. Over time, it is hoped that these features will be incorporated into the SVG standard.
- What are some example workflows that integrate PDFXML documents?
- The many possible workflows involving PDFXML documents include creation of PDFXML using XML tools and then converting to PDF for distribution and processing; conversion of PDF to PDFXML for use as a template; conversion of PDF to PDFXML for archiving; and later opening the PDFXML or conversion back to PDF. All of these workflows are made easy by use of XML and HTML-like references between document components.
- Can an XML friendly file format also be speedy?
- PDFXML documents are structured so that it is not necessary to load all of the components in the Zip package into memory ahead of time. With a PDFXML document, only the information required to perform a particular operation is read. Breaking the document into separate components provides a mechanism for efficiently accessing parts of the document. Each PDFXML component represents a separate entry point into the overall document that can be read independently of other content, thus, simplifying processing.
- What are some advantages to an application processing a PDFXML document?
- PDFXML enables improved manipulation of auxiliary content by allowing an application to more easily create and manipulate annotations, bookmarks, JavaScript, fonts, metadata, external references, specialized processing data, and attachments. PDFXML also improves upon document assembly and disassembly by simplifying the page-level assembly of documents. PDFXML also uses SVG, an industry graphics standard, to display page content.
- What is the transition or compatibility between a PDFXML document and an XFA PDF?
- XFA (dynamic) forms provide advanced capabilities around forms and processing XML forms data. As XFA is part of PDF, it is a corresponding part of PDFXML. Much like PDFXML does for other PDF features, PDFXML makes access to XFA components of a PDF easier.
- Does Adobe LiveCycle support this?
- A future release of Adobe LiveCycle servers will support server-side conversion between PDFXML format and PDF. Additional capabilities are also in the works.
- Does Adobe PDF Library support PDFXML?
- A future release of PDF Library will support the PDFXML format.
- Can an end-user create a PDFXML document?
- As with PDF, there are no restrictions or limitations on use of the PDFXML format.
- How can an end-user view a PDFXML document?
- With one of the plug-ins from Adobe Labs, Adobe Acrobat and Reader (version 8.1 or 9) users can open and view PDFXML documents. Additionally, Acrobat can be used to save a PDFXML document as a PDF document or vice versa.
- Where can I find documentation and sample files?
- Documentation is located at http://www.adobe.com/go/mars.
- Is the PDFXML format frozen?
- No. PDFXML is in a public evaluation period and we are actively looking for outside comment and suggestions. Changes to the format may result from such comments and suggestions.
- If I save documents in PDFXML format today, will they continue to open forever as it does for PDF?
- PDFXML is in an evaluation period and format changes based on public comment is expected. In order to engage with the PDF community on finalizing the details of the format and be able to incorporate their comments, the "opens forever" promise won’t be made until the format reaches a 1.0 release.
- When will the PDFXML format be frozen for 1.0?
- A date for this has not yet been set.
- How do I send suggestions, comments, and bug reports?
- Enter your suggestions, comments and bug reports in the Mars discussion forum or send email to mars-bugs@adobe.com or mars-comments@adobe.com.
