Solid Documents is a global productivity software company which creates document reconstruction and archival resources for businesses and individual consumers. Most notably, the same technology used by its Solid Framework SDK is licensed by

Adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

for Acrobat X.

History

Established in

Redmond, Washington Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 73,256 at the 2020 census, up from 54,144 in 2010. Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America. With an an ...

in 2001, Solid Documents, LLC was founded by CEO Michael Cartwright with the goal of becoming the leader in document productivity software. Cartwright leveraged his extensive

software development Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development invol ...

document management A document management system (DMS) is usually a computerized system used to store, share, track and manage files or documents. Some systems include history tracking where a log of the various versions created and modified by different users is r ...

, internationalization, and

localization Localization or localisation may refer to: Biology * Localization of function, locating psychological functions in the brain or nervous system; see Linguistic intelligence * Localization of sensation, ability to tell what part of the body is a ...

experience to establish an organization with the vision of the Portable Document Format (PDF) as the universally-acceptable, standardized format for document interchange. Partnering with the

PDF Association The PDF Association promotes the adoption and use of International Standards related to PDF technology by assisting enterprise content management (ECM), document management system (DMS) and advanced PDF users with the implementation of PDF technol ...

in 2008, Solid Documents assisted in the creation of a series of standardized tests used to ensure compliance of

PDF/A PDF/A is an ISO-standardized version of the Portable Document Format (PDF) specialized for use in the archiving and long-term preservation of electronic documents. PDF/A differs from PDF by prohibiting features unsuitable for long-term archiving, ...

validators and converters with ISO 19005-1 archival standards. Shortly after these standardized compliance tests were created, the company began offering a free service to analyze PDF documents and provide feedback on whether or not they comply with ISO 19005-1 archival standards. In 2011, co-founders Tamara and Michael Cartwright relocated to the south island of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

establishing a base of operations as Solid Documents Limited from management offices in

Nelson, New Zealand (Let him, who has earned it, bear the palm) , image_map = Nelson CC.PNG , mapsize = 200px , map_caption = , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = ...

Products

Solid Converter PDF

The company's flagship product,

Solid Converter PDF Solid Converter PDF is document reconstruction software from Solid Documents which converts PDF files to editable formats. Originally released for the Microsoft Windows operating system, a Mac OS X version was released in 2010. The current version ...

, was released in 2003 and has been translated into 15 languages and distributed in over 60 countries. This product allows documents to be converted into and out of PDF and securely archived in accordance with

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

standards. The last major update to this product, version 10.1, was released in May 2021 and included functionality improvements for better reconstruction enhancements and editing of output. Solid PDF to Word for Mac (renamed to Solid Converter Mac in 2015) was released in April 2010 allowing

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

users to manipulate documents out of PDF into

Word A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...

Excel ExCeL London (an abbreviation for Exhibition Centre London) is an exhibition centre, international convention centre and former hospital in the Custom House area of Newham, East London. It is situated on a site on the northern quay of the ...

PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired PowerPoi ...

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...

text Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including: **Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred **Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...

, or

iWork iWork is an office suite of applications created by Apple Inc. for its macOS and iOS operating systems, and also available cross-platform through the iCloud website. It includes the presentation application Keynote, the word processing and desk ...

formats. An updated version 2 of the tool was released to Mac users in September 2013. Solid Converter Mac version 2.1 was updated in May 2021 to include all the improvements included in Solid Framework.

Solid PDF Tools

In 2007, Solid Documents released Solid Converter PDF version 3.0 and launched Solid PDF Tools, a premium product which included scanning and archival features in addition to conversion. Both products were a departure from the previous dialog box-focused user interface by offering a distinctly

WYSIWYG In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, is a system in which editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed d ...

user experience. Version 4.0 released in 2008, adding

language localization Language localisation (or language localization) is the process of adapting a product's translation to a specific country or region. It is the second phase of a larger process of product translation and cultural adaptation (for specific countries ...

for French, Spanish, and Chinese users as well conversion to and from additional formats like Excel, PowerPoint, and HTML. In December 2010 version 7.0 was released with continued product enhancements including selective conversion, table and workflow improvements. Version 9.0 released in June 2014 increases the number of languages supported by the OCR technology and includes a number of conversion and reconstruction improvements. Version 10.1 was released in May 2021 and includes all improvements that are in Solid Documents' Solid Framework SDK.

Solid Framework SDK

In September 2010, Solid Documents entered into a strategic partnership with activePDF, Inc. licensing Solid Framework SDK to convert PDFs into a variety of editable formats, in addition to PDF/A validation and conversion already existing in their activePDF DocConverter™ product. Later that year in November 2010,

Adobe Inc. Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the crea ...

licensed Solid Framework SDK for

Adobe Acrobat X Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software and Web services developed by Adobe Inc. to view, create, manipulate, print and manage Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The family comprises Acrobat Reader (formerly Reader), Acrobat (former ...

and has continued this partnership with its most recent product, Acrobat DC. By harnessing the Solid Framework PDF to Word, PowerPoint, and Excel conversion capabilities, Acrobat users are able to reliably repurpose PDF content. In June 2014 an update to version 9.0 was released which provides enhanced flexibility for application development with the SDK. Version 10 of Solid Framework SDK was released in October 2018. The Solid Framework SDK is updated with reconstruction improvements on a continual basis. Details can be found at https://solidframework.net/release-notes/

References

{{Reflist

External links

Solid Documents websiteSolid Framework SDK websitePDF Association Membership
Defunct software companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Redmond, Washington American companies established in 2001 New Zealand companies established in 2001 Software companies established in 2001 2001 establishments in Washington (state) Software companies of New Zealand Nelson, New Zealand