Stamps get invisible on reimporting XFDF (Vers. 2.5, B200)

[martin3]

Hello,

we have a severe problem with stamps annotations. We have embedded the Active-X control in our application and for special reasons we have to store annotations separately to the pdf content of a file. Thus we automatically export annotations as XFDF and reimport them if the pdf is shown again. Now some departements created an own stamp library, which is used to annotate files in a common way. But - since we switched to version 2.5 Build 200 - users recognized, that they no longer see the stamps-annnotations of another user. The annotations are still there, but the do not contain any visible content any more. We found out, that this is the case if they use another stamp library (i.e. the same symbols but defined in an own library file). It seems that the stamps are not (or no longer) correctly embedded into the pdf on reimporting them.

This is a severe problem for us, as we reimport the symbols at a certain point in our business process and send them to an external partner. This partner definitely does not have the identical stamps library installed and they immediately convert the pdf into tiff using ghostscript. And now all (!) stamps information is lost for them.

I attached a ZIP containing a downstripped stamps library and the following files:
- without-annotations.pdf: a pdf file which does not contain stamps annotations
- with-annotations.pdf: a file containing the stamps annotations
- annotations.xfdf: the annotations exported from with-annotations.pdf using PDF-XChange Version 2.5 Build 200

If you open with-annotations.pdf you will see the annotations regardless of having installed the stamps library or not. But if you open without-annotations.pdf and reimport the XFDF-file, you will see the annotations only, if you installed the stamps library. In the other case you can just see an empty outline if you select the annotation.

As far as users could tell me, this worked correctly for Build 194. But we had to switch to Build 200 because of another problem with reembedding annotations (they showed up perfectly in PDF-XChange, but broke other viewers like Adobe Acroread and the tif conversion by ghostscript).

[John - Tracker Supp]

Please advise if this partner can see the stamps - prior to the export to TIFF process by Ghostscript ?

Also please provide the PDF and stamp pallette files as they progress through the various processes of being modified so we can see at what point the content is being compromised.

For example original PDF before stamps are added, once stamps are added and before provision to you client and then after the export to TIFF process and finally after an unsucessful reimportation of the stamps.

I appreciate this may seem laborious (and possibly duplicating partly what you have provided) - but we need to be able to trace the process step by step in lieu of having the applications themselves to test and recreate ourselves.

Thanks

[martin3]

Hello John,

the fact that we export our PDFs to an external partner who does a TIFF conversion is not the main point. The main point is, that if we export the stamps via XFDF and reimport them again, they do not show up in PDF-XChanger Viewer any more, unless you have the identical stamps library. So our PDF is no longer "portable" - you would have to transmit the stamps library with your PDF. In Build 194 this worked perfectly.

You can see the effect just by looking on the provided files.
Just to give you a hint, how this parts fit together:
1. We typically get a PDF out of a paper scanning process, sign it and store it in a content management system
2. A user gets displayed the PDF and adds stamps. The annotations are exported as XFDF and stored in a separate part in the content management system.
3. At a certain point in our business processes either the same or another user may display the PDF again. At this point, we reimport the XFDF and show the PDF with its annotations.
4. In a final step, the PDF with its XFDF files is stored and exported to our external partner

Now with build 194, we had the problem, that step 4 was broken,as there was a bug in PDF-XChange that the annotations were not embedded correctly (see https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/ ... 36&t=11840). With build 200 this seems to work but now step 3 is broken. If another user - not having the same stamps library - opens the PDF he cannot see the stamps although they are there. And we recognized another effect that seems to be connected to this. Several users noticed me that if they print pages with stamps onto a PDF-Printer (FreePDF, i.e. an embedded Ghostscript), then these annotations are lost regardless of which stamps library they use. Thus there seems to be a new issue in the viewer regarding annotations.

The files provided show the effect:
- "without-annotations.pdf" is similar to the original PDF in step 1
- "with-annotations.pdf" is the above PDF with some stamps out of the stamps library provided - thus is the first part of step 2
- "annotations.xfdf" are the annotations exported out of the viewer - this is the second part of step 2
If you now simulate step 3 by importing the XFDF without (!!!) having the stamps library installed you will not see the annotations! There is not difference if you do this programmatically or manually by using the corresponding menu items.

Martin

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Martin,

Could it be that your colleagues experiencing problems with printing the annotations simply have not selected to print "Document and Markups"?

As for the issue with exporting annotations - it's true that the image data of annotations is not exported to .fdf/.xfdf files - and I will test with build 194 as soon as possible to check whether the behaviour there is different.

update: I just installed and tested with build 194 of our Viewer and have to say that it behaves the same way. The resulting fdf/xfdf file does not contain the image portion of the stamp information - attached is the xfdf file generated with build 194.

Best,
Stefan

[martin3]

Hello Stefan,

I am sure that the users selected to print the markups as we tried several options. The only way that worked was print as image. In this case the annotations were printed but the size of the document and printing time rises extremely.

Regarding build 194 - I am a little bit confused as users told be they haven't seen the effect in this build. And they worked with it over nearly a year. Maybe it worked as they all use the same stamps (although probably not the identical stamps file but at least a stamps library with stamps of the same names).

Nevertheless - shouldn't the image portion of the stamp be part of the XFDF? If not - does it make sense to be able to export stamps annotations at all?
Are there differences between stamps created from an image or stamps created from a pdf with text content?

Martin

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Martin,

We are ware of some issues with specific PS printers and the "print as image" option is the current solution we can offer, but annotations going missing should definitely not be affected by this. Yes the print time and spool file sizes will increase significantly as the whole page is sent as raster image to the printer.

Most likely the stamps with the same name is what caused it to work before. If the stamps are now synced once again - it should still be possible to export and import comments between users.

I will need to consult with one of my colleagues on including image data in fdf xfdf files, but I am pretty sure that if the specification allowed it - we would have been doing this already.

Best,
Stefan

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

HI Martin,

the development team have indicated that this issue has been resolved and that the fix will be available in ther next build of the Viewer. (202) I don't have an ETA for 202 at this point however.

RT#1467: Stamps get invisible on reimporting XFDF (Vers. 2.5, B200)

hth

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi martin3,

We have addressed this issue in the last build. Can you update and confirm this works at your end please?

regards