PDFTron Systems has unveiled a new version of its software development kit (SDK) to aid PDF development in document management systems.

PDFNet SDK 5 is designed to support PDF creation, content extraction, editing, viewing and printing. The toolkit is used by developers to improve PDF integration, performance and control within their commercial applications and enterprise workflows.

Capabilities such as PDF viewing, PDF to image conversion, PDF content extraction and advanced PDF editing operations are included. With PDFNet SDK 5, the toolkit’s features are expanded to include universal document conversion and enhanced PDF/A conversion as part of two brand new add-on modules to PDFNet: Convert Add-on and PDF/A Add-on.

The new modules provide developers the option to use the same toolkit for all types of PDF processing capabilities as well as for fast universal document conversion.

The Convert Add-on module offers conversion from any printable document format to PDF, XPS, EMF or SVG using a simple universal conversion API (application programming interface) based on the XPS print path, enabling conversion output on Windows 7 and Vista.

To provide quality output PDFNet implements a number of direct converters that preserve text, vector graphics, hyperlinks, colours and fonts. PDFNet can also seamlessly integrate with Microsoft Office to maintain metadata, text, and links when converting from Word, Excel, Outlook, or PowerPoint to PDF or XPS.

The PDF/A Add-on module enables direct PDF to PDF/A conversion, supporting both PDF/A-1a and PDF/A-1b. Included in this add-on are various customisation options and features to check compliance and produce reports.

Because PDF/A Add-on seamlessly integrates with the PDF creation, viewing, printing and document manipulation features of PDFNet, organisations can quickly implement their workflows without having to deal with a mix of incompatible components