HTML DOM Color Encoding for PDF Semantic Preservation
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional document conversion techniques, such as converting web pages to PDF, are lossy and fail to maintain semantic and structural information, leading to inaccurate and unreadable documents, especially on varying screen formats, and require recoding with updates to web browsers or rendering engines.
Innovation Solution
The system encodes semantic and structural information using color properties in the HTML data object model, allowing it to be retained during the conversion process, enabling the extraction and application of these attributes in the resulting document, thus producing a visually identical and readable PDF without requiring updates to existing rendering engines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If conventional document conversion techniques are used to convert web pages to PDF, then the conversion process is simple and fast, but semantic and structural information is lost resulting in inaccurate and unreadable documents
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary encoding of semantic and structural information into color properties of nodes in the HTML DOM before the rendering process. This allows the information to be preserved through the conversion pipeline without requiring complex post-processing or modifications to the rendering engine.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses color properties as an intermediary carrier to transmit semantic and structural information through the rendering pipeline. The color codes serve as a mediator that bridges the HTML DOM and the final PDF output, enabling information preservation without direct modification of the conversion process.
2Adaptability or versatility
If conventional HTML to PDF generators with web capture capabilities are used, then web page conversion is possible, but recoding is required upon web browser or rendering engine updates
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses color properties, which are universally supported by all web browsers and rendering engines, as the carrier for semantic and structural information. This universal approach allows the system to work with any browser or rendering engine without requiring recoding, as color is a fundamental property maintained across all implementations.
3Ease of operation
If conventional document conversion techniques are used, then the conversion process does not require additional encoding, but the resulting document is not easily readable on screens of varying form factors
Solution Approach 1:
The system preliminarily encodes structural hierarchy information into color properties of nodes before rendering. This encoded information is then extracted after rendering to generate appropriate PDF tags and constructs, ensuring the final document maintains proper structure and readability across different screen formats without requiring complex real-time adaptation.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure is directed toward systems and methods for maintaining semantic information in a document from a web page. For example, one or more embodiments described herein encode unique colors into an HTML DOM associated with a web page prior to passing the HTML DOM through an existing rendering engine. In response to receiving a color-coded graphical objects representative of the HTML DOM, systems and method described herein apply the original semantic attributes of the web page into the graphical objects based on the unique color encoding.