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10.5 Standard Properties for Automated ProcessingPDFlib supports general properties which can be assigned to any type of block. In additionthere are properties which are specific to the block types Text, Image, and PDF. Someproperties are shared, which means that they can be assigned to multiple blocks at onceusing the Block plugin.Properties support the same data types as option lists except handles and actionlists.Many block properties have the same name as options for PDF_fit_image( ) (e.g.,fitmethod) and other functions, or as PDFlib parameters (e.g., charspacing). In these casesthe behavior is exactly the same as the one documented for the respective option or parameter.Property processing in PDFlib. The PDFlib Block functions PDF_fill_*block( ) will processblock properties in the following order:> If the backgroundcolor property is present and contains a color space keyword differentfrom None, the block rectangle will be filled with the specified color.> All other properties except bordercolor and linewidth will be processed.> If the bordercolor property is present and contains a color space keyword differentfrom None, the block rectangle will be stroked with the specified color and linewidth.> Text blocks: if neither text nor default text has been supplied, there won’t be anyoutput at all, not even background color or block border.There will be no clipping; if you want to make sure that the block contents do not exceedthe block rectangle avoid fitmethod nofit.To use a separation (spot) color in a block property you can click the »...« buttonwhich will present a list of all HKS and PANTONE spot colors. These color names are builtinto PDFlib (see Section 3.3.2, »Spot Colors«, page 61) and can be used without furtherpreparations. For custom spot colors an alternate color can be defined in the Block plugin.If no alternate color is specified in the Block properties, the custom spot color musthave been defined earlier in the PDFlib application using PDF_makespotcolor( ). Otherwisethe block functions will fail.10.5.1 General PropertiesGeneral properties apply to all kinds of blocks (Text, Image, PDF). They are required forblock administration, describe the appearance of the block rectangle itself, and managehow the contents will be placed within the block. Required entries will automatically begenerated by the PDFlib Block Plugin. Table 10.4 lists the general properties.Table 10.4 General block propertieskeywordpossible values and explanationBlock administrationNameDescription(String; required) Name of the block. Block names must be unique within a page, but not within a document.The three characters [ ] / are not allowed in block names. Block names are restricted to a maximumof 125 characters.(String) Human-readable description of the block’s function, coded in PDFDocEncoding or Unicode (in thelatter case starting with a BOM). This property is for user information only, and will be ignored whenprocessing the block.240 Chapter 10: Variable Data and Blocks