Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)

To import an Adobe Portable Document Format file
Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) technical notes

The Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format designed to preserve fonts, images, graphics, and formatting of an original file. Using Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat, a PDF file can be viewed, shared, and printed by macOS, Windows, and UNIX users.

You can open or import a PDF file. When you open a PDF file, it is opened as a Corel DESIGNER file. When you import a PDF file, the file is imported as grouped objects and can be placed anywhere within your current document. You can import an entire PDF file, individual pages from the file, or multiple pages.

Some PDF files are secured by a password. You are prompted to enter a password before you can open and edit a secured PDF file. For information about PDF security options, see PDF security options.

You can save a file in the PDF format. For more information, see Export to PDF.

Importing text

The method by which PDF files store information affects how text looks and how easily it can be edited. To help ensure the best results for your document, you can choose whether to import the text in your file as text or as curves.

Importing text as text maintains its full editability while also preserving text flow, layout, and formatting. This option is recommended if you have a PDF file with extensive text blocks, such as a newsletter, and you want to reformat or add text content. By default, paragraphs are intelligently converted into artistic and paragraph text objects based on line length and spacial proximity, ensuring an accurate representation of the original text structure and organization. Moreover, if effects have been applied, the import engine aims to preserve both the effect and the associated text, facilitating subsequent editing. Depending on your preferences, however, you can choose to import text solely as artistic text.

When you import text as curves, the appearance of the text, including all effects applied to it, are preserved, and each letter is converted to a curve object. With this option, the text formatting features can no longer be used to edit the text. If you have a PDF file that contains a small amount of text that does not require editing, or if you do not have the fonts used in the PDF file, you can import the text as curves. For more information about converting text to curves, see Find, edit, and convert text.

Importing comments

Some PDF files can contain comments and annotations. These may consist of text, curves, and other drawings or shapes that are added to the PDF document by a reviewer. If commenting rights have been granted, you have the option of importing the comments with the PDF file. When comments are imported, they are placed on a separate "Comments" layer in the document. By default, this layer is set as non-printable.

If the PDF document contains comments written by multiple reviewers, the comments are grouped on the "Comments" layer based on the author’s name.

Cropping content

Some PDF files may contain objects that fall outside the drawing page. You can crop object parts that are not on the drawing page, or you can leave them intact.

To import an Adobe Portable Document Format file

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1 Click File Import.
2 Locate the folder in which the file is stored.
3 Choose PDF - Adobe Portable Document Format or All file formats from the list box next to the File name box.
4 Click the filename.
5 Click Import.
If the file is protected by a password, type a valid password in the Password box.
6 In the Import text as area, choose one of the following options:
• Text — lets you edit and reformat the text from the PDF file
• Curves — converts text to curves. Choose this option when you do not need to edit the text from the PDF file, and you want to maintain the appearance of the original text.
If you are importing a multipage document, select the pages you want to import, and click OK.
By default, the import engine aims to preserve the structure of the original document. It converts consecutive lines into paragraph text, while isolated lines are usually rendered as artistic text. As a result, imported text includes paragraph text, artistic text, and text with effects. To import text only as artistic text, disable the Maintain paragraphs, text flow, and formatting check box.
If the document contains comments that you want to import, enable the Import comments and place on a separate layer check box.
If the document contains objects that fall outside the drawing page, you can choose to crop them to the drawing page or leave them intact by enabling or disabling the Crop content to drawing page check box.
7 Click the drawing page.

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If a block of text is imported as separate text objects, you can combine the text objects by selecting them and clicking Object Combine.

Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) technical notes

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Publishing a PDF file

• Texture fills created in Corel DESIGNER are exported and imported as bitmap patterns.
• Embedded 3D models are exported as embedded interactive 3D objects. If a document contains a 3D model, click Settings in the Publish to PDF dialog box, and choose Acrobat 9.0 or higher from the Compatibility list box to ensure that the 3D model is interactive in PDF readers.

Importing a PDF file

• Corel DESIGNER imports Adobe Portable Document Format files.
• Transparency applied to text and graphics is preserved.
• Character attributes of text, including OpenType features, are preserved.
• DeviceN color spaces may be converted to RGB or CMYK processed colors in the imported file, depending on the file content.
• Layers are preserved in files created with Adobe Acrobat 6 and later.
• Xform objects, headers and footers are converted to symbols.
• Symbols are preserved when PDF files created with version 1.3 or later undergo round-tripping.
• Comments are preserved and imported on a separate "Comments" layer in the document.
• Text annotations, including free text and pop-up annotations, are imported as paragraph text.
• Sticky Notes display as a rectangle with the appropriate background and border color. Headers in Sticky Notes are not supported.
• Line annotations display as straight lines with the appropriate width and color. Arrows with different fill and outline colors display fill and outline of the same color.
• Square and circle annotations display as rectangles and ellipses with the appropriate fill/outline properties. Polygon and polyline annotations are mapped as polycurves with similar fill/outline properties. Cloud shapes display as polygons.
• Text markup annotations, such as highlights, underlining, and strikeouts, are imported.
• Standard ink and stamp annotations are supported. Custom stamp annotations are not supported.

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