Acrobat and PDF software solutions

Integrate personalization variable data (VDP) and Web-to-Print

Engage Connect

Engage Connect is part of the Engage family of products and is for use by web designers and software developers to integrate the Engage functionality into a web site. We can provide a service where we can integrate Engage connect into your web site and/or train your designers how to do this.

The Engage Product Family

It is designed to integrate the Engage engine into existing workflows or could be used to develop and complete Web to Print solution . It can also be used to reproduce the functionality of Engage Variable Data Printing into a web environment. Engage is built using .NET and therefore is suitable for running on Microsoft Windows Server based platforms.  

Highly complex workflows can be achieved using the base SDK

Engage Connect uses the Adobe® PDF library underneath. This can ensure that the PDF files that you are working with retain their integrity. It also ensures that as the PDF standard evolves and new versions of Acrobat are released that we can support these new features. The Adobe® CC Suite products also use the PDF library when they save or export PDF files and the Adobe® PDF library is also the engine used in Adobe® Acrobat® and Adobe® Reader.

The Engage Connect workflow:

Engage SDK Workflow

The process:

  1. PDF files are pulled into Acrobat and variable fields are created in the PDF file using the Engage Acrobat plug-in. For more information on the plug-in please see the Engage Designer Acrobat plug-in User Guide.
  2. The template is uploaded to the server.
  3. The file is processed according to settings in the template and interactions with the user.
  4. The PDF file(s) are put into a folder (usually a printer hot folder) where they can be printed.

Beyond this simple workflow Engage Connect is highly configurable. Other possible variations from this simple workflow might be:

  1. A web to print mode where web user is asked for various options such as typing in some text, selecting from a library or small selection of images and possibly selecting from a range of colours and fonts.
  2. A preview mode where thumbnails or higher resolution previews show the user how the final output will look.
  3. A batch run using a database containing data that needs to be merged with the template. This is often called Variable Data Printing.
  4. Creating website forms from the XML generated from the PDF template.
  5. Inputing data to the template via the XML or directly, that changes the output when the internal Engage JavaScripts are run.

It is impossible to list all the possible uses for the system, but for detailed documentation please contact us for more information at or to discuss this further.

The developer documentation can be found here