Saving from browser plugin changes content

Forum for the PDF-XChange Editor - Free and Licensed Versions

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btz
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Saving from browser plugin changes content

Post by btz »

Hi,

is there any setting to force the PDF-XChange Editor plugin to save a verbatim copy of the viewed document?

When I view a document with the browser plugin and save it, I don't get the downloaded file on my hard disk but something modified by PDF-XChange Editor. This can't be the intention!?

After all, I think that people most times don't want to edit PDF files. IMO there should be a "viewer" mode inhibiting accidentally changes. I don't understand the decision to discontinue the PDF-XChange Viewer.

Oliver
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: Saving from browser plugin changes content

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi Oliver,

Thanks for the post, but I'm not sure that I understand the issue. What changes are made, specifically? Can you please advise on the specific build of the Editor you're using? The copy saved should be, as you said, verbatim.

Thanks,
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Best regards

Will Travaglini
Tracker Support (Europe)
Tracker Software Products Ltd.
http://www.tracker-software.com
Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: Saving from browser plugin changes content

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

For Tracker Support it would be good to have an example of a situation where the content of the saved PDF shows differences when compared with the original file.

So, can you post:
1) the internet address of a page where there is a hyperlink to a PDF that shows the problem?
2) the PDF that you get when it is saved locally (with a little explanation where you see the differences)?

Advise to download the verbatim/original file:
Instead of clicking the hyperlink and open the PDF, do a right mouse click on the hyperlink and click "Save target as ...".

Best regards.
btz
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Re: Saving from browser plugin changes content

Post by btz »

Will - Tracker Supp wrote:Thanks for the post, but I'm not sure that I understand the issue. What changes are made, specifically? Can you please advise on the specific build of the Editor you're using?
I get different files on my hard disk. For example https://www.pollin.de/shop/downloads/D551241D.PDF results in the two files attached to this posting.

I use the current Version 6.0, Build 319.0.

Oliver
Attachments
D551241D_download.PDF
downloaded directly by right click, not viewed
(34.99 KiB) Downloaded 113 times
D551241D_saved.pdf
viewed and saved from PDF-XChange Editor
(36.19 KiB) Downloaded 96 times
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: Saving from browser plugin changes content

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi btz,

Thanks for that, but I'm not entirely sure that I follow. I don't see any obvious differences between the three. Can you elaborate on the specific differences that you see (apologies if I'm being dense!)?

Thanks,
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Best regards

Will Travaglini
Tracker Support (Europe)
Tracker Software Products Ltd.
http://www.tracker-software.com
Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: Saving from browser plugin changes content

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

I do not see any differences neither. The PDF in hyperlink and the 'download.pdf' being the same file.

I suppose that Oliver sees mainly a difference in file size and also when you compare the binary content of the two PDF files, attached to Oliver's post (by opening them in a text editor like Notepad), you see a clear difference.

At my opinion that is not so strange, because each application (be it PDF-XChange Editor, Adobe Acrobat, PDF24 Creator via GPL Ghostscript, ...) has its particular way to write all the information about text- and paragraph-formatting, text positioning, etc.

So, if you open a PDF with an application that differs from the one with which that PDF was created, and then you save that PDF, you can almost be sure that internally there will be differences. But, normally, these will be transparent for the end-user.

On the other side, what Oliver would like to see, is that - in case if there were no modifications made to the PDF - that PDF should be saved in its "verbatim" form, untouched. Almost like "Save a Copy ...". I do not know if it is possible to incorporate that in the browser plugin.

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Patrick-Tracker Supp
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Re: Saving from browser plugin changes content

Post by Patrick-Tracker Supp »

Hi Willy,

Good Idea!

btz - Does this help you?

Cheers!
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Cheers,

Patrick Charest
Tracker Support North America
Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: Saving from browser plugin changes content

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Hello Patrick,

In fact, the last sentence of my previous post was rather a question for Tracker Support/Development:

"I do not know if it is possible to incorporate that in the browser plugin ?"

So, would it be possible to implement something in the plug-in that makes it possible to save the native version of the PDF that was opened via the hyperlink?

Actually, even when you click the File-menu (presented in the PDF-XChange plugin - in IE 11) and then you click "Save Copy As ...", the saved PDF is a re-written version of the original.

At this moment, a possible work-around to save the verbatim/original PDF on a local disk, is (like already mentioned before): Do a right mouse-click on the pdf-hyperlink and click "Save target as ...".
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Re: Saving from browser plugin changes content

Post by Patrick-Tracker Supp »

Hi Willy,

This may be possible to implement however, I do not suspect it will be given such a high priority as the dev team are currently working on finalising build 320.

I have forwarded this to the dev team to see if this can be done. If it can, it will almost certainly not be in build 320 (unless it were already planned).

Cheers!
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Cheers,

Patrick Charest
Tracker Support North America
btz
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Re: Saving from browser plugin changes content

Post by btz »

Patrick-Tracker Supp wrote: Good Idea!

btz - Does this help you?
I don't know what you mean. Will wrote "Save a Copy ..." but "Save a Copy ..." also modifies file contents.

As I wrote: Saving files in the browser must IMSNHO write a verbatim copy of the content retrieved from the internet.

Not a "similar looking" PDF but exactly the bytes received from the source.

But before we continue: What is the future of the browser plugin, anyway? Isn't it deprecated and will be unavailable with Firefox 52? Then we don't need to spend time in this thread.

Oliver
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: Saving from browser plugin changes content

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi Oliver,

That's correct - Firefox are set to remove support for NPAPI plugins fairly soon, so there is little point in us pursuing this at this stage.

Thanks,
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Best regards

Will Travaglini
Tracker Support (Europe)
Tracker Software Products Ltd.
http://www.tracker-software.com
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