Most businesses and government agencies rely on PDF technology for everything from invoicing to project management to records storage. But what do CIOs, IT managers and ECM strategists really know about the electronic document format prevalent worldwide? Do they leverage the power of PDF to reduce costs, mitigate risks and create new opportunities for serving […]
View PostPDF/UA is the ISO standard for accessible PDF technology. The PDF Association’s PDF/UA Competence Center has released an algorithm encompassing all “shall” statements in ISO 14289-1 (PDF/UA). This document, the Matterhorn Protocol, provides the definitive technical blueprint for accessible PDF files. There’s already an implementation of the Matterhorn Protocol in PAC 2.0, the free accessibility checker […]
View PostMillions of US citizens must use assistive technology (AT) to read electronic content. A decade ago this month, the US Federal government’s Section 508 regulations went into effect to ensure equal access to information. Just as intended, the regulations – applicable to both the Federal government and its contractors – accelerated commercial activity around meeting […]
View PostHighlights from last week’s meetings in Salt Lake City. Determining the future trajectory of a technology – if you’re interested in the technology and in the uses to which that technology is put – can be fascinating. If your business or institution has a significant investment in electronic document technology, then you’ll probably find it useful to […]
View PostCIOs and IT managers care a very great deal about keeping the computer systems on their networks free of viruses. Most don’t concern themselves with the details of antivirus strategy. Very understandably, they prefer to leave the inner-workings of virus-scanning to the software vendors. No one wants to second-guess their vendor. But maybe you should. […]
View PostAV vendors once again claim to be “surprised” by an attack vector they should have expected. A new complaint is running rife in the antivirus community, this time about PDF and Adobe Reader, the new frontier for viruses, worms and other cyber creepy-crawlies. Let’s unpack a paragraph from the Avast! blog post: Another nasty trick […]
View PostSome secrets are trivial, some are critical. It’s probably a matter of perspective, but failing to redact key information from sensitive military memos on nuclear submarine operations would tend to fit most definitions of “critical”. Ignorance of basic realities about computers and the lack of proper procedures for releasing information is a toxic combination for […]
View PostFew know it yet, but a new paradigm for document capture begins in 2011. This is the year in which PDF/A and PDF/UA become cornerstone International Standards for electronic documents in the decades and centuries ahead. This is the year in which document capture begins its fourth paradigm – semantics. My old company started life as […]
View PostSome of us, those who have never read a paper book, may be forgiven for asking: “what’s a page number?” Apparently, the customers of Amazon’s Kindle software/service combination aren’t among them. The humble page is fighting back via the Kindle user; witness today’s announcement by Amazon that version 3.1 of their Kindle software will add “real […]
View PostThoughts on this week’s Beyond the PDF workshop and suggests that scientists join engineers in pioneering real-world solutions for science publishing. The Beyond the PDF Workshop is currently in-session, running from January 19-21, 2011 at the University of California, San Diego. Why is the workshop entitled “Beyond the PDF”? It’s a plain, unvarnished fact that much […]
View PostContents Executive Summary Introduction The Australian Government’s Report What the Report Gets Right What the Report Misses What the Report Gets Wrong Conclusions References & Endnotes Appendix: Four Basic Policies to Promote Accessible Documents Executive Summary This article analyzes the recent Australian Government’s study into the Accessibility of the Portable Document Format for people with a […]
View PostLet’s step back a moment, and get metaphysical about electronic content. Can we do that? Whatever else they might possess, electronic documents always possess two things: objects and semantics. Document “objects” are the physical characters, images, lines, bullets and other features that consume ink or toner when printed. Document “semantics” define the logical relationships between the aforementioned objects. Most […]
View PostPDF is one of the most common file-formats on the planet. Why is it so pervasive? Why is it PDF that serves mankind as the undisputed universal electronic equivalent of paper, and not some other technology? A large part of the answer lies in the fact that PDF is extraordinarily sophisticated; clever and robust enough to […]
View PostTime for a fresh look Last March we reviewed a crop of free PDF readers available for Windows. This time, we add a new contender to the list (Nitro’s PDF Reader) and check for updates to the software reviewed in our previous survey. Bloatware? Really? It’s a sad fact that the quality of PDF files […]
View PostWhy PDF “reading order” is irrelevant to accessibility Introduction This article attempts to explain the concept of “reading order” in PDF files. Why is this necessary? End users are often frustrated by inconsistent and often illegible results when attempting to read PDF files on mobile devices, search for PDF content online, or when using assistive […]
View PostThe latest International Standard for PDF is almost here! Today in Schaumburg, near Chicago, Illinois, Adobe’s Greg Pisocky, Appligent’s Duff Johnson and Microsoft’s Cherie Ekholm together offered a presentation describing ISO/DIS 14289, better known as PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility). This page includes a very basic overview of the new Standard. Scroll down for the ATIA presentation. The […]
View Post