Cookbook for the pCOS Interface
The Cookbook for the pCOS interface is a collection of pCOS coding fragments for solving specific PDF query problems. It is maintained as a list of sample programs. The Cookbook topics are written in the Java language, but can easily be ported to other programming languages since the API is identical for all supported language bindings. Each Cookbook topic denotes the pCOS interface version required for the topic's execution.
The pCOS interface is an integrated part of the following PDFlib GmbH products:
- PDFlib+PDI
- PDFlib Personalization Server (PPS)
- PDFlib TET (Text and Image Extraction Toolkit)
- PDFlib PLOP
- PDFlib PLOP DS
- PDFlib TET PDF IFilter supports metadata queries based pCOS paths, but does not offer the pCOS programming interface and therefore cannot be used to run the Cookbook.
The pCOS Cookbook supports a generic Java interface so that the Cookbook topics can be used with any of the products listed above. All packages contain relevant pCOS documentation; the pCOS Manual for pCOS interface 12 is also available separately. See below for pCOS interface versions supported in specific product versions.
All Cookbook topics can be used with the free product evaluation packages.
Availability of the pCOS Interface
As the pCOS interface is extended and new features are added, the pCOS interface number is increased. The table below details the pCOS interface numbers which are implemented in various product versions.
| pCOS interface | supported PDF input version | corresponding Acrobat version | PDFlib GmbH product name and version |
| 8 | PDF 1.7 extension level 8 | Acrobat X/XI | TET 4.1+, TET PDF IFilter 4.1+, PDFlib+PDI 9.x, PPS 9.x, pCOS 4.0 |
| 9 | PDF 1.7 extension level 8 and PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2) | Acrobat X/XI | PLOP 5.0, PLOP DS 5.0 |
| 10 | PDF 1.7 extension level 8 and PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2) | Acrobat X/XI/DC | TET 5.0, TET PDF IFilter 5.0 |
| 11 | PDF 1.7 extension level 8 and PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2) | Acrobat X/XI/DC | PLOP 5.1+, PLOP DS 5.1+, TET 5.1, TET PDF IFilter 5.1 |
| 12 | PDF 1.7 extension level 8 and PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2) | Acrobat X/XI/DC | PLOP 5.3, PLOP DS 5.3 |
pCOS interface versions implemented in PDFlib GmbH products.
Browse all pCOS Cookbook Topics
Each topic can be viewed individually in the browser together with its source code, description and the output generated by pCOS. For a complete list of Cookbook topics see Browse all Topics.
pCOS Cookbook for Java
The pCOS Cookbook package contains the Java files and sample input data, as well as an Ant build file and an Eclipse project. The Cookbook topics can conveniently be compiled and run with the Java build tool Apache Ant. Alternatively, you can manually compile and run the samples. For installing and working with the pCOS Cookbook, see the "readme" file in the "doc" folder of the Cookbook Package.
The pCOS Cookbook package contains an Eclipse project file that allows the direct import of the Cookbook into an Eclipse workspace.
As a prerequisite for using the PDFlib pCOS Cookbook topics the Java binding for one of the PDFlib GmbH products with an integrated pCOS interface must be installed (see list above).
Download the full pCOS Cookbook package:
pCOS-Cookbook-2020-08.tar.gz (2,7MB)
pCOS-Cookbook-2020-08.zip (2,7 MB)