Specifications

PDF2DTP® for InDesign® Manual - 45
PDF2DTP for InDesign - Text Conversion Tips
PDF2DTP for InDesign - How PDFs Render Text
It’s important to understand how a PDF renders text. The PDF contains various commands to move to a
location and draw a character. The PDF also contains the width of the character so that it can know where to
draw the next character. However, a space character is often absent from the text stream. In this case, after a
word has been drawn, the next command will be to move a short distance further to the right to draw the
character that begins the next word. A problem arises in determining what to do with this “gap” in the text
drawings. PDF2DTP performs several calculations in order to come up with the best estimate on how to
handle the “gap”, such as to insert a Space character, or to apply tracking (a form of letter-spacing) or to insert
a Tab if the spatial distance is fairly great.
PDF2DTP for InDesign - Underlined Text
There can be problems with text that was underlined in the original document. The PDF will draw a word and
then draw a line underneath. PDF2DTP attempts to detect this situation and if discovered will apply the
Underline attribute to the text. Otherwise a line object will be created. Note that Underlines are set using the
default line offset and width. A Character Style for the Underline will be conveniently created so that the
settings can be easily changed.