Technical FAQs

Question

When I click on the download button a ‘download options’ pane appears to the left of the Viewer.

Is there a way I can modify the client code such that clicking the download button skips this step and just downloads the document as a PDF, burning in all the marks/redactions/e-signatures?

Answer

To clear the event listener for the download button and attach your own, you can add this in your client-side JavaScript after the Viewer has been initialized:

$("button.pcc-icon.pcc-icon-download").off("click");

$("button.pcc-icon.pcc-icon-download").on("click", function (event) {
    $("div.pcc-select-download div.pcc-label").html("PDF");
    $("div[data-pcc-checkbox=\"burnMarks\"]").addClass("pcc-checked");
    $("button[data-pcc-download=\"download\"]").click();
});

This will add a new click listener to the download button. In the example above, the click listener sets download parameters (type is set to “PDF”, and marks/redactions/esignatures are included), and then immediately calls the click event on the “download” button that would normally be in the download pane. This should make it so that when the user clicks the download button, the notification dialog immediately appears instead of the download pane, as shown below:

From here the user can click the “save” button to download the resultant document.

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TAMPA, Fla. – 2021 marks the 30th anniversary for Accusoft Corporation, the longtime leader in content, processing, conversion, and automation technologies for developers.

Headquartered in Tampa, FL, Accusoft was founded in 1991 as Pegasus Imaging, a provider of technology and solutions to the photo and document imaging markets. In 1998, Pegasus Imaging expanded into medical compression technologies. This technology was adopted by some of the largest medical technology companies in the world, including GE Healthcare, McKesson, Phillips Medical Systems, Siemens Medical Solutions, and Toshiba.

Between 2004-2008 Pegasus Imaging acquired TMSSequoia and Accusoft which moved the company into the forms processing and image cleanup technologies. In 2012, Pegasus Imaging was rebranded to Accusoft Corporation. 

Today, after seeing three decades of change and innovation, Accusoft is proud to bring new technologies to market, driven by the goal of improving the document lifecycle experience for businesses and their employees. 

Most recently Accusoft created and launched OnTask and the Accusoft PDF Viewer. OnTask is a workflow automation tool that makes it easy for small to mid-sized businesses to digitally send and fill forms, get signatures on documents, and automate overall business processes.The Accusoft PDF Viewer is a JavaScript SDK that easily integrates into a developer’s web application to enable PDF viewing and annotation features with no server dependencies.

“Every day I am so amazed by the talent and passion of the team we have built at Accusoft,” said Accusoft CEO Jack Berlin. “30 years in business is a testament to our employees, as well as the innovation and quality of the products we bring to the market.”

For more information about Accusoft, please visit https://www.accusoft.com/.

About Accusoft: 

Founded in 1991, Accusoft is a software development company specializing in content processing, conversion, and automation solutions. From out-of-the-box and configurable applications to APIs built for developers, Accusoft software enables users to solve their most complex workflow challenges and gain insights from content in any format, on any device. Backed by 40 patents, the company’s flagship products, including OnTask, PrizmDoc™ Viewer, and ImageGear, are designed to improve productivity, provide actionable data, and deliver results that matter. The Accusoft team is dedicated to continuous innovation through customer-centric product development, new version release, and a passion for understanding industry trends that drive consumer demand. Visit us at www.accusoft.com.

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The ability to watermark documents is essential for many businesses. By utilizing watermarks, organizations can quickly brand their assets and take steps to protect their valuable intellectual property. When identifying mission critical document features for their applications, developers need to keep in mind all the ways that watermarks continue to be deployed for a variety of use cases.

What Is a Watermark?

A watermark is a semi-transparent line of text or an image that is embedded into a file to indicate that it belongs to a person or organization and cannot be reproduced or distributed without permission. In most instances, watermarks are visible, but some text-based watermarks are embedded in such a way that they only become visible after the document is scanned or printed.

Digital watermarks are one of the earliest and most effective forms of security for documents and images. They are most commonly used by photographers who want to protect their images from unauthorized usage. Their watermark is superimposed over the image, making it difficult to remove without also damaging the source image in the process. 

The same basic principle applies to documents, especially PDF files that are easy to download, view, and distribute. Many organizations continue to add specialized watermarks to their documents to protect both confidential information and intellectual property. Understanding which types of watermarks to use and why is an important aspect of effective document security.

Why Should You Watermark Documents?

There are a few reasons why an organization may want to watermark documents. Although they’re most often associated with security, they can be used for other purposes as well. Here are a few major use cases involving document watermarks:

Classify Documents More Easily

File management can be a challenge for organizations of all sizes. While steps like naming conventions can help somewhat, it can be difficult to keep track of which files can be shared openly and which ones should only be opened and viewed within a secure application environment. Watermarks can be added to documents to indicate how they should be handled. A contract that’s labeled “Confidential,” for instance, makes it clear to the user that they should follow the proper security precautions when viewing the file, such as not leaving the screen open unattended or not sharing their screen with another participant on a video call. It also removes any ambiguity about the nature of the document.

Track Your Documents

While many free watermarking tools only allow users to add a generic logo or text to a document, dedicated viewing solutions like PrizmDoc Viewer can create watermarks that contain unique identifiers, making it easier to track documents throughout their lifecycle. This makes it easier to track down the source of a leak or breach if a file ends up somewhere unexpected. In addition to the security benefits, customized watermarks that include a user name, time stamp, or revision number helps organizations maintain better version control over their documents and avoid any confusion over which file is the most up-to-date.

Discourage Unauthorized Distribution

Watermarks are an easy way to indicate ownership of a document and its contents. While many files, and PDF files especially, are protected by some form of digital rights management (DRM) that limits who can open, edit, or copy them, this form of security is often circumvented by inventive tactics like taking a screenshot, capturing video footage, or even photographing a screen with an external device. 

If the captured document has a watermark, it will be quite difficult for someone to distribute the file without revealing the owner. While it’s possible to remove a watermark without damaging the document contents, doing so can be a difficult and time-consuming process that often isn’t worth the effort. More importantly, if the watermark contains identifying information, it’s often possible to find out where a security breach occurred and then locate those responsible for it.

How to Watermark Documents

While many organizations understand the value of adding watermarks to their documents, they often don’t have the tools in place to do so effectively at scale. There are a number of free watermarking web applications available, but these sites typically require a file to be uploaded first, which creates a huge security risk for most businesses. In many cases, this process is also irreversible because it burns the watermark into the document itself. 

Microsoft Word can easily add watermark text or images to a document, but they’re also quite easy to remove. In fact, a quick Google search points to multiple resources for removing Word-based watermarks from both DOCX and PDF files.

PrizmDoc Viewer supports multiple forms of document watermarks natively within an application, including identifying text, diagonal text, and images. More importantly, since the watermark is associated with the document viewing session, it isn’t applied to the source document itself, which remains secure within the main application. Watermark document properties can be specified to include more than one watermark in a viewing session, even supporting mixed types on different areas of the page.

Text Watermarks

The watermark API for PrizmDoc Viewer allows users to adjust the location, size, and style of the text. Information included can be adjusted based on document needs.

Diagonal Text Watermarks

PrizmDoc Viewer can apply a single directional text watermark across the center of the page. By including control characters in the text string, it’s possible to create line breaks in the text.

Image Watermarks

The watermark API can also add a transparent PNG file to the document, which is ideal for displaying a company logo. PrizmDoc Viewer can adjust the opacity of the watermark regardless of whether it’s an image or text.

By adding multiple watermarks, organizations can easily brand their files across the company while also providing effective tracking information for individual documents.


Start Watermarking Documents Today with PrizmDoc Viewer

A fully-featured HTML5 viewer, Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Viewer is easily integrated into web applications in need of comprehensive viewing and document management capabilities. In addition to watermarking, it delivers conversion, OCR, annotation, and redaction support for more than 100 different file types. Get a hands-on view of how easily PrizmDoc Viewer can apply custom watermarks to your documents with our watermarking API demo.

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Question

For ImageGear .NET, what are the feature differences between an OCR Standard license, an OCR Plus license, and an OCR Asian license?

https://www.accusoft.com/products/imagegear-collection/imagegear-dot-net/#pricing

Answer

ImageGear’s OCR library has three different functionality options that you can choose for your website or application. The primary difference between the three options is the output formats created by the OCR engine. The options for your development are as follows:

  1. OCR Standard:
    The standard edition creates output formats for Western languages such as English. The standard edition outputs text only files and generates a PDF. The file formats it includes are searchable text PDFs and text documents.

  2. OCR Plus:
    The standard plus edition creates formatted outputs for Western languages like English. The formatted output is created with recognition technology that identifies font detail, locates image zones, and recognizes table structure in order to create a representation of the original document. The file formats it includes are Word, Excel, HTML, searchable PDF, and text documents.

  3. OCR Asian:
    The Asian edition creates a formatted output for Asian languages like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. This formatted output is created with the same recognition technology as the Standard Plus that identifies font detail, locates image zones, and recognizes table structure. It also creates a representation of the original file. Formats include Word, Excel, HTML, searchable PDF, and text documents.

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Question

I am trying to retrieve documents and files to view in PrizmDoc Viewer. The files are located in a NAS device. The file server is available via an HTTP link but I would prefer not to use the HTTP put method.

Answer

A NAS device is short for Network Attached Storage. Typically, to access these devices would be no different than a shared network drive from a server.

You can setup Prizm Application Services (PAS) to point to a NAS device, if there are actual file shares set up on that device. Also, a key note to remember is that both PrizmDoc and PAS should be running with a domain id which has full access to that share so that the services can access the files when called.

For instance, you have a folder on the NAS device called PrizmFolders and it is shared with a network drive share of \mynasdevice\PrizmFolders. You can modify the pcc.win.yml file to point to that root folder by updating the document.path as outlined below. Keep in mind that the backslashes have to be escaped so you will need an extra backslash for each backslash in the path:

documents.path:"\\\\mynasdevice\\PrizmFolders"

Once this is done, when posting a viewing session through PAS, you can simply specify the subfolder\filename. For instance, if there was a folder called northregion and a file called metrics.pdf (\mynasdevice\PrizmFolders\northregion\metrics.pdf) you would be able to specify northregeion\metrics.pdf in the post command.

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Question

Do you have sample code available?

Answer
  • Yes, we have two samples available to get you started quickly:
  1. An HTML page that uses the viewer via a <script> tag and CDN URL to display a PDF
  2. A React app which uses the viewer to display a PDF.
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Introduction

A large government agency with millions of employees needed to manage personnel records and payment information while also making documents and images easily accessible for all users. Each document trail spanned the duration of the employee’s time with the agency, resulting in a repository containing hundreds of millions of documents. The existing system used a combination of custom-developed, Windows-based image viewers that were cumbersome, difficult to maintain, and presented security risks. 

Overview

As the system struggled to keep up with demand, employees became increasingly frustrated with the system. Rather than viewing documents within the system, they began using workarounds like printing out files or saving them to another device, both of which presented serious security risks since the records contained personally identifiable information. The agency needed a solution that could manage hundreds of millions of documents while still providing users with simple, secure, and quick access to personnel records and payment information. 

Although the document repository’s legacy viewing solution was no longer able to meet the agency’s needs, developing a new document viewer was prohibitively expensive and required expertise its IT team did not possess. Rather than building a solution from scratch, it made more sense to evaluate viewing integrations available on the market. The agency set out to find a viewer that could support multiple document types, including TIFF and PDF/A, for both viewing and archival purposes. Whatever solution the IT team chose to adopt would have to integrate smoothly into the existing legacy system to avoid a costly and time-consuming overhaul. 

Challenges

After evaluating several options, the agency turned to Accusoft’s PrizmDoc® for Java, formerly VirtualViewer®. As a Java-based viewer that uses HTML5 to render files for viewing, PrizmDoc® for Java would allow the document repository to access files quickly and easily. PrizmDoc® for Java’s extensive file format support allowed the agency to render PDF, Word, Excel, AFP, DWG, TIFF, and more in one universal viewer. The integration’s built-in library eliminated the need for a third-party application or additional license, further simplifying the agency’s document management processes. 

Another key priority was giving employees the ability to access documents from multiple devices. In the past, the system’s legacy viewer only allowed them to open and view documents on a desktop with the right software installed. To streamline the employee experience, the agency required a viewer that could be accessed from any device that supports a web browser, including tablets and smartphones. PrizmDoc® for Java’s true cross-platform support and complete mobility provided the flexibility the agency needed to access documents from anywhere, at any time. The integration’s HTML5 technology and Java-based viewing allowed users to view and manipulate files within the browser, eliminating the need for an external application. 

PrizmDoc® for Java’s quick installation and integration process made it the ideal solution for the agency. Installing PrizmDoc® for Java’s document viewer took less than 10 minutes for proof of concept (POC) testing on any desktop, laptop, or virtual machine. The integration also provided APIs and developer tools to make integrating and leveraging the technology simple and easy, including RESTful content handlers that allowed for a more flexible development and deployment process.

Results

PrizmDoc® for Java’s high-speed viewing for large files allowed document rendering and processing to be split between the server and browser, delivering an extremely high-speed response. The integration’s advanced features, including annotation, redaction, splitting, merging, and more, provided far more functionality than was possible under the legacy viewer. PrizmDoc® for Java’s robust thumbnail panels also simplified working on large documents using full-panel thumbnail displays, as well as the option to adjust thumbnail size. 

By implementing PrizmDoc® for Java, the government agency was able to provide more streamlined access to personnel and payroll records, saving employees and HR personnel time and money while eliminating security and management issues associated with the previous viewing solution. Millions of users are now able to view critical information related to their records via any device that has access to a web browser. PrizmDoc® for Java’s robust document support and easy-to-use interface made it an essential tool for the agency’s document management and collaboration processes. The agency was able to continue using their existing repository system while also gaining the benefits of a modern, user-friendly document viewer.

About Accusoft

Founded in 1991, Accusoft is a software development company specializing in content processing, conversion, and automation solutions. From out-of-the-box and configurable applications to APIs built for developers, Accusoft software enables users to solve their most complex workflow challenges and gain insights from content in any format, on any device. Backed by 40 patents, the company’s flagship products, including Docubee, PrizmDoc Viewer, and ImageGear, are designed to improve productivity, provide actionable data, and deliver results that matter. The Accusoft team is dedicated to continuous innovation through customer-centric product development, new version release, and a passion for understanding industry trends that drive consumer demand. Visit us at www.accusoft.com.  

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Enterprises are continuously engaged in a process of evaluating their operations to identify opportunities for improvement. When one of the world’s leading mortgage lenders took a closer look at how it was handling documents to process applications, it quickly recognized the need to implement a solution that would allow them to scale capacity and enable faster loan processing. The company’s diversified businesses included banking, capital markets, and insurance, all of which combined to handle more than $1 trillion in mortgages, with nearly $2 billion in new loans each day.

Overview

For many years, the lender had processed applications by hand, entering information from paper and electronic forms into a mortgage processing application. While users had to thumb through paper documents, electronic loan documents were made available through a content management system and a dual-monitor workstation. One screen contained the loan processing application and a list of electronic loan documents. The other screen displayed the selected document and allowed the user to browse its contents. 

In examining their loan purchasing process, the lender discovered that while it took 7-9 days to close a paper document loan, electronic documents closed in just 4-5 days. Unfortunately, the legacy content management system limited scalability and performance, and a grossly underpowered document viewing application further impacted user productivity. The potential revenue gain in expanding their use of electronic documents was enormous – in terms of enhanced efficiency alone. To retain their competitive edge in a challenging market, the lender made the decision to replace their legacy CMS with an enterprise solution.

Challenges

But in order to realize the full productivity potential of the new enterprise CMS system, the lender also needed to upgrade its client document viewing application. The new viewer needed to provide reliable viewing for various types of electronic forms, including scanned documents, faxes, and emails in TIFF, JPEG, and PDF formats. To meet productivity demands, the first page of each document had to be accessed within two seconds. The technology also had to be entirely web-based since no documents could be stored on a client’s desktop or hard drive due to compliance constraints. From a user experience standpoint, the viewing solution also needed to provide scalable thumbnail rendering, accommodate mouse and keyboard navigation with “hot keys,” and be able to meet rigorous load-testing requirements. 

After a thorough review of available options, the lender selected Accusoft’s PrizmDoc® for Java, formerly VirtualViewer®, HTML5 viewing technology to address its complex functionality and security requirements. Critically, PrizmDoc® for Java supported the lender’s required document set of PDF, TIFF, and JPEG, as well as AFP, PCL, MS Office, and many other important business document formats, which provided the growing lender with additional flexibility for future expansion. The viewer also delivered a variety of thumbnail features, including page rotation sync, full panel view, and adjustable size options. PrizmDoc® for Java’s configurable user interface would also make it easy to implement navigation options and hot keys that enhanced productivity. 

The lender had little time to dedicate to the integration with its new enterprise CMS solution, especially since much of the integration time would be taken up by the load-testing process. Fortunately, PrizmDoc® for Java’s intuitive API made it easy to incorporate the product seamlessly while leaving plenty of time for load testing. 

Results

Replacing their legacy content management system and integrating Accusoft’s powerful PrizmDoc® for Java high-speed HTML5 viewer enabled the lender to achieve its desired performance standards. Because PrizmDoc® for Java is completely web-based and requires no software to be installed on the client’s desktop, the lender could easily roll out a scalable solution that met critical security and business continuity objectives within a single, high-speed viewing application. 

The viewer’s server component renders and delivers individual pages to the client quickly and seamlessly, well within the lender’s required sub-two-second access requirements, even when accessing large, multi-page loan documents in various geographical locations. PrizmDoc®for Java now helps to increase the mortgage lender’s productivity by allowing users to access, view, annotate, and manipulate loan documents on the fly without ever touching the client’s local hard drive.

As a result, the lender can now import daily peak loads of more than half a million documents and deliver them to users across the enterprise in under two seconds, improving their overall mortgage processing time by more than 40 percent.

About Accusoft

Founded in 1991, Accusoft is a software development company specializing in content processing, conversion, and automation solutions. From out-of-the-box and configurable applications to APIs built for developers, Accusoft software enables users to solve their most complex workflow challenges and gain insights from content in any format, on any device. Backed by 40 patents, the company’s flagship products, including Dcoubee, PrizmDoc Viewer, and ImageGear, are designed to improve productivity, provide actionable data, and deliver results that matter. The Accusoft team is dedicated to continuous innovation through customer-centric product development, new version release, and a passion for understanding industry trends that drive consumer demand. Visit us at www.accusoft.com. 

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Gain Peace of Mind with GDPR Compliant Document Viewing Tool for Secure Collaboration

These days there is a heightened awareness of the risk of opportunity for a data breach or cyber attack. Whether the spike in attention came from a global pandemic, brink of international war, or an unknown hacker that set its sights on Elon Musk, there is a general consensus that our personal data is at risk at any point through a breach of security.  This becomes more potent for companies as the cost of such insecurity could potentially end its tenure.  According to an IBM Data Breach Report, 2021 had the highest average data breach cost in a 17-year history of $4.24M. Securing data and maintaining an individual’s privacy is a priority for many organizations throughout the world, but following a strict standard has only been attempted by the European Union (EU) thus far.  

The EU has taken this priority a step further than just suggesting companies and organizations increase data protection – since 2018, they’ve mandated and enforced specific requirements through the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Given the broad parameters covered under GDPR compliance, ensuring the standards are met can become a time-consuming, stressful and ongoing issue if not resourced properly.  The parameters go beyond the protection of personal data and go as far as requirements, to prove security measures are set in place.  

Who Needs to Maintain GDPR Compliance?

While often only associated within the European Union, the requirements and legislation of the GDPR extend as far as all “entities who are offering goods or services to anyone residing in the EU (even if those services are provided free of cost).  Any global business either has to become compliant for all of its users/customers or be able to accurately identify EU residents and enable compliant systems to handle only that subset of the customer base.”

GDPR requires companies to know the following as related to personal data:

  • What personal data is being shared 
  • Where it is being shared 
  • How it can be deleted at a moment’s notice if necessary

The GDPR also highly encourages that an organization designates an employee to be the point of contact and in control of the data security processes and systems to maintain compliance.  A first step to having an effective process in place is choosing the right tools with security features to protect data being shared within the company.

Managing Risk through Secure Document Viewing

As risk management becomes an essential part of strategic planning, the importance of IT security and data encryption skyrockets to the top of priorities for most companies. GDPR suggests encryption as a means to manage risk in file sharing but does not outline explicit instruction.  With PrizmDoc™ Viewer, companies gain added data security, aligned with GDPR compliance, in document viewing and sharing without heavy client-side installations or downloads. 

PrizmDoc™ Viewer is created with Multi-Level Data Protection including:

  • 256-bit AES encryption 
    • (Advanced Encryption Standard) is an international standard that ensures data is encrypted/decrypted following this approved standard. It ensures high security and is adopted by the U.S. government and other intelligence organizations across the world.
  • Configurable user permissions add a strong measure of privacy and protection to document content.

A Simple Path to Secure Document Sharing

Remote work or not – collaborating on a project today means sharing documents among many colleagues to finalize a document, project, or presentation. To do that with security in mind, organizations are cobbling together tech stacks to meet their productivity needs along the way, and several different file types can come across their desks in a single day.  

PrizmDoc™ Viewer integrates into your current application to render and display a multitude of file types with high fidelity and speed.  The ease of use features include:

  • Flexible use across many platforms
  • A self-hosted version that resides on any organization’s servers
  • Empowers developers to provide their users with responsive file viewing
  • Search and redaction can be easily turned on/off

PrizmDoc Viewer is also designed to run on all devices with a zero-footprint viewer that makes it easy for employees to work where and how they wish. The white label services give an organization the flexibility to brand and customize while gaining peace of mind in data security.

Open and View an Image Securely the First Time

While documents have a range of formats from Word, PDF, spreadsheets, and more – images are often more of a culprit when it comes to difficulty viewing, let alone being able to download, edit, markup, or save information as a separate file. Workers find themselves quickly downloading a media player just to open the image.  Having multiple solutions in place is not only confusing, but it also contributes to inefficiency and human error which means added risk for images to remain secure. 

As photographs can constitute personal data under the GDPR, this means organizations must be able to quickly and easily remove all images where the individual can be identified.  

With ImageGear, an organization is able to add powerful image processing capabilities that enhance secure collaboration such as:

  • PDF manipulation that includes managing access with digital signatures for added security levels
  • The image processing library offers developers a set of methods for modifying an image including to resize, crop, merge, rotate, and flip.
  • An option to add OCR for document search and data capture support

Getting Started 

To quickly gain peace of mind with secure collaboration, contact us today. 

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