Summary for DaVince Tools

Version: 2.0.0

Last Modified: December 13, 2001

Introduction

DaVince Tools is a group of programs for converting JPEG, TIFF and text files to Portable Document Format (PDF) files. These programs can either be run from a Windows application or in a DOS command line environment. As a bonus, included with the product is a TIFF tag viewer and a program that creates 2-dimensional mazes in PDF.

These are stand-alone programs, which means they are not plug-ins for other applications nor do they require other software in order to run. There is a converter for each file type. For example, "tiff2pdf" is used to convert TIFF files to PDF. The Windows application, wdavince.exe, provides a single interface for all the converters. This is the application most users will use for converting files to PDF. A DOS command line environment is also available, where program execution can be controlled by either the command line or a command file. This environment is typically used for automated or batch conversion. Each converter uses a configuration ".ini" file to store commonly used profiles. All converters use the same command line syntax.

Features Common to All Converters

Starting with version 1.3, all converters share a significant amount of common features. Using a common command line syntax, all converters provide both many to one file conversion and one to one file conversion. Each converter can also traverse through a directory tree if specified on the command line. Each converter uses its own configuration file, however, there are several configuration options that are common in all converters. Automatic bookmark creation and page compression are some of the options specified in the configuration file. DaVince Tools comes with several predefined profiles in the configuration file that are ready to use.

Also starting with version 1.3, all converters support the use of a command file. A command file provides more versatility in conversion than what can be accomplished using just the command line. A list of files and/or directories is specified for conversion in the command file. This overcomes command line buffer limitations when specifying a large number of files on a command line. Also, custom bookmark settings and multiple configuration profiles can be specified in a command file, something that can not be done on the command line. The command file can also be considered as an application programming interface (API) for controlling PDF conversion via a program. The Windows application wdavince.exe is an example of a program that utilizes command files as its API.

DaVince Tools is Shareware

DaVince Tools is shareware, which allows you to use this software free for 30 days. After 30 days you need to either register this software or remove it from your computer. You can register your software at the DaVince Tools web site http://www.davince.com. Your software registration promotes shareware as a viable method of selling software and encourages future enhancements to DaVince Tools. This software is fully functional; there are no crippling or timeout restrictions in the program. We trust you. However, to encourage you to register your copy of DaVince Tools, registered copies will display a registered status during the execution of the program and in the generated PDF file, and the DaVince Tools annotation will not be created on the first page of a generated PDF file.

Refer to the release notes for instructions on installing DaVince Tools.

With the exception of wdavince, all DaVince Tool programs run in a Windows 9x/NT/2000 DOS window in a batch or command line environment. The tool set was written using the DaVince C++ class library, a library for creating PDF documents from C++ applications. The same author developed both DaVince Tools and the DaVince C++ class library. You can contact the author for more details about this product at info@davince.com .

 

Description of Programs  

DaVince Tools contains the following converter programs:

wdavince

Windows program for interfacing with the DOS based converter programs

jpeg2pdf

DOS program to convert JPEG files to PDF

tiff2pdf

DOS program to convert Group 3 and Group 4 encoded TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) files to PDF

txt2pdf

DOS program to convert text files to PDF

 

The following bonus programs are also included with DaVince Tools:

pdfmaze

DOS program to create maze puzzles in PDF automatically.

tiffdump

DOS program to view the TIFF file data structure for a specified TIFF file


A brief syntax summary for any program can be displayed when using the "-?" command line option when executing any of the programs listed above.

For the latest news, documentation and upgrade information, visit the DaVince Tools web site at http://www.davince.com.