PDF guidelines

Please consider the following guidelines, if these are kept in mind uploading documents will be fast and easy.

No restrictions or password protection

OXOMI can only process unprotected PDF documents. Documents can be protected in different ways. To view the security settings for a document in Adobe Acrobat, click the “Security” tab in the "Document properties" dialog box. These specifications can only be changed by the author of the document.

Note: The integrated rights management in OXOMI is significantly more secure than the password protection of PDF files. By using levels of trade and partner roles, you can specify precisely which partner gets access to your documents.

No crop marks and color bars

Crop marks, register marks and color bars should not be included in the PDF document. This has to be set when creating the PDF with the respective layout program, e.g. in the "Export" settings of Adobe InDesign.

No double pages

PDF files are often created double-sided for printing - but this configuration is not suitable on the screen! This does not refer to the double-page view in Adobe Reader - but to single pages in PDF files, which actually consist of two document pages with two visible page numbers. This has to be considered when creating the PDF in the layout program.

Copyable text

Is it possible to copy text passages and numbers from the PDF and insert them in another software (such as MS Word)?

In rare cases, problems can occur and the actual text becomes a series of special characters. For example, the PDF file can contain "BM-450k" - but after copying and reinserting it becomes: ΠΠΠ•ΠΠ≠

This can have different reasons which are related to the font used or to an error while creating the PDF. Here, the layout designer must also try to prevent this situation. For example, by choosing another font or using the “Options” menu while creating the PDF.

Some PDFs are only consisting of images and have no text. This is the case when text documents are scanned and then saved as PDF files. Instead of real characters only pixels will be stored. In OXOMI these documents are only of low use, because the content can’t be searched. In addition, these files are disproportionately large.

Good image quality with acceptable file size

Basically, there are no specifications regarding the resolution of the images. However, OXOMI offers users the possibility to zoom a page - this should be considered when selecting the resolution. Open the catalog in Adobe Reader and zoom to 200%. If the display of your product images has a good quality, the document is optimally suited for OXOMI. A resolution of 150 dpi usually achieves a good result. Higher resolutions are not necessary for the screen display.

Print PDFs often have resolutions beyond 300 dpi and are hundreds of megabytes in size. This is important for your print service provider, but your customers can not do anything with such huge files.

In OXOMI documents should have a maximum size of 500MB. If the PDF is larger than that, there are some options in Adobe Acrobat, for example “Reduced Size PDF”. If the PDF is also available as web display version, this should be preferred in OXOMI. Are there any questions? If so, contact us via support@scireum.net

Table of Contents

OXOMI can interpret bookmarks from PDF documents as a table of contents, which makes it much easier to navigate within the portal. Bookmarks are named and are displayed in the navigation window (Adobe Acrobat / Reader) in the "Bookmarks" window. Each bookmark leads to another page in the document. Example: A tool manufacturer creates a bookmark called "Screwdriver" in his catalog. This bookmark refers to the page on which the chapter "Screwdriver" begins in the catalog.

But OXOMI can only process hierarchical table of contents. Within a hierarchy level, only one entry can refer to a page. If several entries should refer to the same page, they should be combined into one entry.

Front page

The front page should be included in your PDF catalog because it improves the appearance of your document. Moreover the navigation will be easier to use.

Some documents contain a complete cover (including back and inner side). The actual content starts only afterwards and has the page number "1".

This results in a page offset on the screen: Adobe Reader then displays for example "Page 3" - but the actual page is "1". Such a page offset can be avoided with the layout of the catalog.

Alternatively, the offset can also be specified when uploading a catalog into OXOMI (field "Page offset" when setting your own documents). The result is a compensation in the portal view.

Unique terms and item numbers

Via technical interfaces, catalog portals can be connected to other systems such as online shops. If a portal user selects a term or article number within a manufacturer catalog, he or she can request the item and place an order within the shop.

If manufacturer catalogs have a unique number or term for each item, this function will work – because the selected expression is passed to the connected online shop exactly as it appears within the catalog. A unique item name and / or item number is therefore very useful. The item number should be completely next to the item (no continuation tables with numbered extensions!).

Please contact us if you have any questions:

Phone +49 (0) 7151 90316-20 or via live support.