Q: I have a requirement to extract all paths from a PDF file which
are imaged using a particular spot color. For example, if a PDF is
using the colorants C, M, Y, K and Pantone 123 CVC. Can the PDFNET
SDK extract all the path objects imaged using Pantone 123 CVC?
--------------------
A: Yes this is possible. Using ElementReader (as in ElementReaderAdv -
http://www.pdftron.com/pdfnet/samplecode.html#ElementReaderAdv) you
can traverse all elements on the page and inspect the fill and stroke
color space for each 'e_path' element. You will be probably interested
in pdftron.PDF.ColorSpace.Type.e_separation or e_devicen which are
typically used to represent spot color. You can obtain colorant
name(s) for separation/devicen color space as described in the
following article:
How do I read the names and the colorants of every separation inside
a PDF page?
http://groups.google.com/group/pdfnet-sdk/browse_thread/thread/4ca75e87c6b54dc2/c2c35aeea80a0505
After you identify that a given path element is using a given sport
color you can extract its path data using element.GetPathPoints()/
GetPathTypes() and other path related methods in Element interface.
Selective extraction of specific path elements to a new PDF page (or a
new document) is even simpler - as demonstrated in ElementEdit sample
(http://www.pdftron.com/pdfnet/samplecode.html#ElementEdit).