PDF CanOpener is an Adobe® Acrobat® Plug-In for detailed analysis and COS level  manipulation of PDF documents.  It provides instant access to information about drawn objects (fonts, color spaces, page location, etc.) as well as a COS level tree view  for analysis and manipulation of the internal object structure. (see the screen shots)

This is an amazingly useful tool for any serious PDF user, from creative professionals and print specialists to software developers.

Who can PDF CanOpener help?

Learning the PDF Spec?:  New to PDF, need help understanding how documents are put together?  PDF CanOpener's visualization of how a real document is put together is a powerful aid in helping you understand the PDF Specification.

Creative and Print Professionals:   Are your current tools just not giving you the level of detail you need?  PDF CanOpener Spanner tool provides instant access to info for drawn objects by simply moving the cursor over the object. Object info can be printed, pasted on the page for review, or saved to a file for later use.  For greater detail and control the Spanner tool navigates to related content, color space, pattern, font, and graphics state objects in the COS tree. Edit content streams directly for low level control of drawn page objects.

Software Developer:  Need to build or modify a structure within a PDF Document?  Instantly analyze and modify existing structures in a PDF, build new structures from scratch.  PDF CanOpener is the ultimate PDF developers tool for analysis, rapid prototyping, and verifying the results of your own code.

PDF CanOpener Features:

• COS Object Tree structure displayed in an easy to navigate Explorer format (Screen Shot)
• PDF CanOpener Object Spanner Tool identifies graphics objects on a PDF page (Screen Shot)

  • Color coded object highlighting

  • Cursor displays object type.
  • Popup info windows on hover or click (colors, fonts, location, transparency, blending modes, render intent, image compression, and other object specific info).
  • Discover and identify overlapping objects with arrow keys or Ctrl+Click.
  • Navigate directly to the location of related drawing resources (fonts, color spaces, graphics state, etc.) in the COS tree with one click or through the right-click menu.
  • Save XObjects to a bitmap file.
• COS Object Search Dialog provides text or indirect ID searches of the COS tree. Several options for controlling scope of search.
• Stream Viewer allows the contents of any stream to be viewed in one of 4 formats, text (Unicode or ASCII),  hexadecimal, XML, or a rendered image (viewable objects only, page contents, XObjects, type 3 font char procs, patterns, and thumbnails). Entry point for stream editing. (Screen Shot)

• Simple font embedding/un-embedding.
• Add, Delete, Create, Modify, Rename, and Copy/Paste COS Objects anywhere within a PDF Document or between Documents.
• Convert Indirect COS Objects to Direct, or Direct to Indirect.
• Edit stream data with the built-in stream editor or external editors of your choice (Text, XML, or Hexadecimal).
• Import or export stream data from/to an external file.
• Change stream encodings, or any encoding/decoding parameter.
• Create JavaScript icons from image XObjects
• Preview changes made to stream data before writing new data back to the file.  Try changes without fear of damaging a PDF.
• Easily create prototypes of COS Object structures.
• Print any of the info displayed by PDF CanOpener for offline analysis, review, or record keeping.

See what’s going on under the covers of your PDF documents.
You’ll see PDF in a whole new way.

See PDF CanOpener in Action here