Wednesday, January 14 2004
Cambridge: The European Aeronautical Group (EAG), suppliers of route documentation, flight planning and navigation data to the airline industry, has licensed the Jaws PDF Editor software development kit from Global Graphics Software, a subsidiary of Global Graphics SA (Euronext: GLOG), to integrate PDF viewing and printing capability within its electronic route manual (eRM) which is widely used by the airline industry throughout the world. Global Graphics is a leading developer of high-performance software solutions for document creation, management and printing and launched its Jaws PDF Editor technology as a software development kit a few months ago to assist software developers, OEMs and system integrators to bring PDF-based applications to market quickly.
EAG's software development team required a built-in PDF viewer to obtain a more solid solution to certify eRM with the Civil Aviation Authorities. eRM is a set of charts and information necessary to make a flight from point A to point B and is currently used by around thirty different airlines including Austrian Airlines and the SAS Group. Traditionally documentation has been supplied in printed form but the airline industry is moving steadily towards electronic solutions and EAG has pioneered the concept of the electronic flight bag.
Their electronic route management solution offers great efficiency and savings but, critically, enhances accuracy and information security, allows much quicker updates to be made and permits integration with other onboard or ground systems.
EAG's product manager Christian Eriksson comments, "We needed a set of robust PDF components and the Global Graphics' Jaws PDF Editor software development kit gives very good performance. For eRM we took advantage of the functionality it offers for view, zoom, the ability to pan across information, as well as the option to print. Crucially, the technology was easy for our development team to work with and the SDK is excellent as an ActiveX component."
ActiveX control allows developers to link together and embed functionality in their applications. The full set of features available with the Jaws PDF Editor SDK include: PDF rendering; file display views, navigation and interaction; thumbnails; bookmarks: comments and markup; document assembly and manipulation; editing tasks, and print preview. A comprehensive set of software tools provided with the Jaws PDF Editor SDK enables a low cost but powerful and easy way for in-house development teams like those at EAG, to develop new, stand-alone applications or to include flexible and multi-featured support for PDF files within existing customized products.
James Bidewell, Global Graphics' PDF Sales Director in Europe, comments, "The eRM represents a significant evolutionary step in the widely used Route Manual from a paper-based document to an electronic media version. The benefit to pilots and ground staff is that the eRM will be kept up to date automatically and will avoid the costly and time-consuming work of manually updating and revising the Route Manual. The Jaws PDF Editor technology will be used to provide easy access to and fast navigation of the eRM."
Source:
http://ep.pennnet.com
