User Guide

ARTS PDF Aerialist Professional User Guide
Layers
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9. Layers
9.1. Overview
The Layers feature extends the usability of PDF documents by allowing for the creation
and management of layers for such uses as versioning, multi-lingual publications, and
multi-purposing, to name but a few.
With the release of Adobe Acrobat 6.0 (PDF version 1.5), Adobe introduced Optional
Content Groups (OCGs) to the PDF Specification. OCGs (commonly referred to as
layers) are groupings of objects throughout a document that can be turned on and off
(visible and not visible). Adobe Acrobat’s PDF Maker add-on is now compatible with
popular design tools such as AutoCAD and Microsoft’s Visio, for creating layered PDFs
from these applications. Once the PDF has been created, objects can be added to or
removed from a layer, even new layers can be created.
The Layers feature allows document creators flexibility in how they create and manage
layers in PDF documents. For existing documents, the Layers feature provides an easy to
use method for creating layers, selecting objects and adding them to layers. For new
documents it provides an approach that allows multi-page documents to be converted to
PDF as small as a single page with all of the document content on layers.
ARTS PDF believes that the use of layers in creator applications is widespread, and that
users have long desired the ability to employ a similar level of functionality in Adobe
Acrobat. Combining the benefits of the PDF format and layer creation capabilities means
that usage of PDF can be extended to encompass a wider range of applications and
simplify document management.