Adding markup to a PDF file

You use RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat to add markup to a PDF file that represents your production PDF files. You mark up a PDF file by drawing a box around existing content or by drawing a box to add new markup. You can preview the PDF file as you add markup to verify its content and placement on specific pages. When you are done enhancing the sample PDF file, you save your changes to one or more control files and make them accessible by a RICOH ProcessDirector server so it can apply the control files to production PDF files.

Before you add markup to a PDF file, you must define the page grouping for the documents in the PDF file. See Defining a page group for more information. When previewing the page placement of markup, you may not be able to view the placement or content that RICOH ProcessDirector applies to markup when processing your RICOH ProcessDirector workflows. RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat may not have access to all of the properties that you use to define both page placement rules and markup content (such as in text and barcodes). See Previewing markup for more information.

When RICOH ProcessDirector applies markup defined in the control files that you specified in a BuildPDFFromDocuments step, RICOH ProcessDirector applies the markup in this order:

  • Hidden areas
  • Images
  • Text
  • OMR marks
  • Barcodes

In this section:

  1. Adding a barcode to a PDF file
    To add a barcode to a PDF file, select the area where you want to place the barcode, specify a barcode type, and add content. You can limit the placement of a barcode to specific pages in each page group by specifying a rule or typing page numbers.
  2. Adding OMR marks to a PDF file
    You can add a variety of OMR marks of different height, width, and pitch to a PDF file. You can limit the placement of OMR marks to specific pages in each page group by specifying a rule or typing page numbers.
  3. Adding an image to a PDF file
    You can add JPEG images, such as a logo or an advertisement, to the PDF file. You can limit the placement of an image to specific pages in each page group by specifying a rule or typing page numbers. RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat can process only JPEG files that are in RGB format; the CMYK format is not supported.
  4. Hiding an area in a PDF file
    You can hide an area of a PDF file by defining a cover block to keep an area on a page from being shown or printed when you process a production PDF file in RICOH ProcessDirector. You can limit the placement of a hidden area to specific pages in each page group by specifying a rule or typing page numbers.
  5. Adding text to a PDF file
    You can add fixed text or variable text to a PDF file. You also can combine fixed and variable text in one text box. Fixed text is text that you type. Variable text is data from document properties, job properties, or statistics.

Related information:

Setting up to use documents in PDF jobs
Parent topic: Using RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat