CVISION Announces New PDF Resource Library

Do you need a definitive answer about why PDF is a more robust file format than TIFF?

Do you need solid information on manual vs. automatic compression?

Are you writing a proposal in which you must demonstrate the return on investment you could achieve through using PDF compression?

Ever wish you could give a non-IT company executive an objective, easy-to-understand overview on the benefits of using compression?

CVISION's PDF Resource Library gives you the information you need to make your case to implement PDF technology on the job, or help you explain "the basics" to someone who needs a better understanding of information and image management - and it's all FREE!

If you want to take advantage of the combined years of CVISION staff expertise through targeted, easily accessible articles, go to: www.cvisiontech.com.

Be sure to check the Library frequently, because new articles are being written right now that tackle vital issues in the information and image management industry regarding PDF compression and the PDF format. If you have a burning question, write it in the Contact Us form on our website and we'll answer your question in a subsequent article.

News Monitor Services Find Solution to Document Size and Searchability within PdfCompressor

Sometimes the need is file compression. Sometimes the need is text searchability. For a news monitoring service (originally known as "press clipping service"), both compression and text search functions can be crucial. The clients of news monitoring services need to see what's being said about them in print and online. Storing and transmitting electronic files of clients' "press mentions" in a user-friendly format results in satisfied customers.

Both Argus der Presse AG in Europe and BurrellesLuce in the United States have found CVISION's PdfCompressor to be a solid partner for their needs as news monitors. In this issue, we visited with the friendly people at Argus. In the next issue, we'll have a report on BurrellesLuce.

Compression and Full-Text Search Combine to Enhance CVISION's Value to Media Monitor Argus der Presse AG

Argus der Presse AG, a Zurich-based media monitoring service, tracks mostly print media and the Internet for its clients. Argus offers clients relevant press and Internet clippings electronically in the form of PDF files, made available via e-mail, FTP or the specially-developed Argus Web platform.

A year ago, Argus began producing color clippings for its clients in JPEG format. Argus IT Director Thomas Studach commented, "Color clippings meant a threefold to fourfold increase in the size of the clip files. The color clip files were too big for many of our customers who are not equipped with high bandwidth Internet access."

In addition to file size challenges, Argus customers wanted the capacity to search the PDF files with a text-search function. Unfortunately, text-searching is not available with JPEG.

Studach discussed the compression and text-search issues with the vendor of the Argus scanner. The vendor mentioned CVISION's PdfCompressor as an option to solve those challenges-a suggestion that soon became a solution for Argus der Presse AG, because PdfCompressor converts standard-size JPEG into super-compressed PDF with no loss in image quality.

"Every media monitoring company could benefit from CVISION," Studach noted. "The size of a color press-clip page was about 300 KB before we began using CVISION's PdfCompressor, which reduced the file size to about 130 KB. Further, CVISION gave us the full text-search capability we were looking for on the compressed PDF files."

"CVISION's staff has been very supportive in helping with the little problems we've encountered. They made our PdfCompressor upgrade from version 2.0 to version 3.0 go quite smoothly."

Argus der Presse AG counts on CVISION for excellent PDF compression, sound OCR function, and reliable operation. That means, more easily than ever, Argus clients continue to see-and to search-what the media world is saying about them.

Cal State Library Uses PdfCompressor for Document Delivery while reducing Postage Costs

More than 35,000 students and faculty count on the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) library to keep them current with the information they need to succeed academically. The right technology has been crucial to keep the library's Web-based document delivery services running smoothly.

CSULB Technology Strategist Jill Horn commented, "As the impact of tightening budgets grew, more patrons required the use of interlibrary loan to obtain materials for scholarly work. The increase in this document delivery demand drove our search to find efficient methods to deliver documents and reduce postage costs. This, combined with the increasing demand from students for 24/7 access to reserve materials, increased the library's reliance on electronic documents.

"One of the biggest challenges was delivering PDF documents to our customers. Many of the PDF documents were too large for email and, even when posted to a web server for retrieval, too large for a 56K standard modem to reliably retrieve. Overcoming the document size and dealing with a large student body using slow modems was a huge challenge."

As the person who oversees, recommends and implements technical solutions for the library, Jill Horn took action. "I did a Google search on compression and noticed CVISION. We evaluated their PdfCompressor and loved it. Ralph Cafiero and the CVISION team helped us through the testing and evaluation process. They've been great."

Today, when an electronic document in PDF format enters the CSULB library system, it goes to a watched folder. There, the CVISION engine compresses the file and delivers it to its intended destination on the Web.

"CVISION PdfCompressor streamlines the documents for our servers," Horn noted. "It removed a technology roadblock that once existed. My dean is happy because faculty and students can get their documents seamlessly."

Speed, Accurary, and Ease of Use Updates Highlight PdfCompressor 3.1 Release

CVISION has announced the May 2005 release of PdfCompressor 3.1. The power of speed and accuracy enhancements combined with even greater user ease make PdfCompressor 3.1 unsurpassed in state-of-the-art compression technology.

CVISION PdfCompressor 3.1 offers clients a broad and formidable array of new features, including:

• Support for multi-threading
• New OCR engine with support for 60 languages
• Auto-smoothing for both B&W and color images
• Auto-cropping
• Decompression to PostScript
• More compact JBIG2 file size
• Enhanced color compression
• Turbo OCR for added OCR accuracy
• Multidirectional OCR
• OCR zoning
• Support for foreign Windows OS platforms
• Optional cover recognition module
• Optional conversion validation module