¶ PDFlib Dialog Box
The following box pops up once you finish drawing the block. Options highlighted on the image are defined below.
| Block Name |
By default, the Block Name is set to “Block_0” for your first block. The number in the Block Name will increment automatically with each new block added (next block will be “Block_1”, etc .). Users will not see Block Name when personalizing their template. This number does however dictate the order in which blocks appear to the customer. If you have more than 10 blocks on your page, it’s advisable to name them “Block_00”, “Block_01”, etc. to retain good order. |
| Description |
Users will see this as a description for the block. This should be a clear description of the contents of the block . |
| Type | Textline: This will create a single line text block. Textflow: This will create a multi-line text block. Image: This will allow a user to use an image in the block, either from upload or from an image gallery created by you. PDF: This option is not supported. |
| Property Group: Rectangle |
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| Rect (inches) |
The numbers shown in this box are the x and y coordinates of the upper left and lower right corners of the block that was just drawn. You can edit these coordinates to reflect the desired location of the block. |
| Status | The status of your block should remain active. |
| BackgroundColor | Color of the block’s background. See Creating a CMYK Build for more information. |
| BorderColor | Color of the block’s border. See Creating a CMYK Build for more information. |
| Linewidth |
Stroke width for the block border. If no bordercolor is set, border won’t appear. |
Property Group: Appearance
Upon clicking the Appearance property group, the following options appear. Options highlighted on the image are defined below.
| Property Group: Appearance |
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| fillcolor | Color of the font to be used in the block. If you enabled Detect Underlying Font and Color, it should place the color here. To change the color, click the ellipsis and choose your color space. More on fillcolor on the next page. |
| fontname | Name of the font to be used in the block. You can type the font name or choose from a system font by clicking the ellipsis. If you enabled Detect Underlying Font and Color, it should place the font name here. Please note: the font name used here must exactly match the font name in the Designer Admin. See Selecting a Font Name for more information on this option. |
| fontsize | Size of the font to be used in the block. If you enabled Detect Underlying Font and Color, it should pick up the font size as well. |
| fontstyle | This field should always be set to normal. |
Property Group: Appearance | Creating a CMYK Build for Text Fillcolor
To change the fill color of the text, simply click the ellipses next to the fillcolor option. To create a CMYK color build, select DeviceCMYK as the color space. You will then see 0 0 0 0. These are the CMYK values of the color. The range for these values is between 0 and 1, not 0 and 100. Tints should be represented as decimal points. For example, if you want 50% cyan, it would be specifically represented as 0 .5. 100% Black would be represented as 0 0 0 1 collectively.
Property Group Appearance | Assigning Colors from a Color Book for Fillcolor
To change the fill color of the text, simply click the ellipses next to the fillcolor option. To utilize a color from a color book, like a Pantone color, select Separation as the color space. You will then see a list of color books appear. Choose the color book you’d like to use and the subsequent color itself. Then assign a Tint Value to the color. The range for these values is between 0 and 1, not 0 and 100. Tints should be represented as decimal points. For example, if you want 50% Pantone 185 C, Tint Value would be represented as 0 .5.
Property Group: Appearance | Selecting a Font Name
If you have enabled Detect Underlying Font and Color, a Font Name should appear in the box. If you’d like to use a different Font Name, you can either type the name of the font you’d like to use or you can click the ellipsis and a box will appear of the open fonts on your computer. Choose the font you’d like to use from the list and click OK at the bottom. Please note: the Font Name field here must be typed exactly as the Font Name within the Designer Admin. That means if your font is named “AGaramondPro-Bold in the Designer Admin, it must appear as “AGaramondPro-Bold” here . Any variance will cause the final PDF to fail during generation.
Property Group: Object Fitting
Upon clicking the Object Fitting property group, the following options appear. Options highlighted on the image are defined below.
| Property Group: Object Fitting |
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| fitmethod | Strategy to use if content doesn’t fit into block. It’s advised to leave this as autofit. This selection will not cut off content that doesn’t fit, nor will it make the text disproportionate. It will shrink the type size until the contents fit into the block. |
| position | Controls horizontal and vertical alignment of the text. Click the ellipses to make adjustments to alignment. Please note: this selection only applies to Type: Textline (or single line) text blocks. Alignment for Type: Textflow (or multi-line) text blocks is handled differently. |
| rotate | Rotation of text within the block. To use this effectively, draw your block horizontally as you normally would but position it so that the upper left corner is the anchor point from which the block rotates. |
Property Group: Default Contents
You can populate a block with content so that when a user goes to personalize the template, text will appear in the block by default. Place any text you would like the user to see in the defaulttext field.
Using Block Type: Textflow to Create a Multi-line Text Box
By setting Type to Textflow, you create a multi-line text box. The following options should be noted.
Horizontal alignment is handled in the Property Group: Text formatting, using the alignment dropdown.
Vertical alignment is handled in the Property Group: Object Fitting, using the verticalalign dropdown.
Default text works the same as with Type: Textline, but to get a line break you’ll need to insert <nextline> where you would like the line break to appear. It must be typed exactly like this to work properly: <nextline>
