“Adobe owns PDF, so PDF is a proprietary format” I’ve heard it said so often. I’ve decide to correct it once and for all. While PDF was invented by Adobe, the company no longer owns PDF. We all do. Let me explain. Most people closely identify PDF with Adobe Systems, and I can’t fault the […]
View PostSo, you think PDF is a problem when it comes to accessibility and Section 508 compliance? Let’s talk about that expensive and widely used word-processing software known as Microsoft Word. Word appears unaware of Section 508 requirements for tables. In Word, column heading cells occur only when an option to repeat headings on following pages […]
View PostFULL DISCLOSURE: While Duff Johnson was an occasional consultant to Adobe Systems (among others), this review is objective. NOTE: This review has been superseded by an expanded review of 5 PDF Readers Cutting through the Bloatware Bloviation Almost every review of PDF software (some examples are at Brush Technology, Make Use Of, and CNET Download.com) starts […]
View Post“Tags” sounds like HTML, doesn’t it? What’s that got to do with PDF? PDF was invented to provide an electronic equivalent of paper. As such, it’s perfectly natural for PDF files to contain characters and images located at such-and-such coordinates on a page – and that’s it. No concept of paragraphs, sentences or even words. […]
View PostTo those trained and experienced in .NET, Visual Basic, C libraries and other non-shell interfaces, the command-line may seem like an old-school way to get things done. (If you’re already lost, here’s a good introduction to the basic concepts). If your focus is on ease-of-development and server uptime, however, command-line applications are often a smarter […]
View PostIt’s fairly commonplace to think of PDF as a format for official or reference documents, or perhaps as a simple way to share content without worrying about whether end-users have the software to view it. It’s also fairly commonplace to think of PDFs as nothing but dumb pages, with no zippy interactive features or capabilities. […]
View PostThe 2010 CES featured a notable proliferation in slate/tablet/oversized handheld devices, with media attention to match. Consumers now await the unveiling of Apple’s iThing, now scheduled (in an unfortunate collision with Obama’s State of the Union address) for January 27. With several false starts in the past dozen years, never have expectations for a new […]
View PostFrequent readers of this blog may recall that I recently took the Read Out Loud feature in Adobe Acrobat out for a good flogging. It’s not an accessibility tool, nor is it an accessibility testing tool, and my life’s work (it seems) is becoming a long-drawn out effort to convey this simple, uncomplicated fact to […]
View PostRecent news accounts have highlighted some security vulnerabilities in current releases of Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader, with the latest such vulnerability to be addressed (Adobe says) in an update due out January 12. Very little public information out there offers readers a useful sense of the risks and how to mitigate them. The common […]
View PostIt’s not obvious how Section 508 applies to PDF content, and that’s frustrating. What is for sure is that perceived accessibility and usability depend on making the document work well rather than work poorly, no matter how formally “compliant” it is. Here, we offer a few issues worthy of consideration when developing your Section 508 […]
View PostRecent versions of Adobe’s Acrobat and Reader software include a feature called “Read Out Loud” (ROL). A well-intentioned effort, ROL was (originally) meant to provide a snazzy new feature that would look good on sales calls, impress gullible executives, that sort of thing. It would just be super cool, it seemed, to be able to […]
View PostI spend a lot of time talking to the folks who manage online content, some of the unsung heroes of the web. PDF, viewed from the content manager’s perspective, is a black box. Traditionally, no-one expects content managers to modify PDFs; they’re supposed to simply post them when requested to do so. Under this model, […]
View PostI recently returned from 4 days in Orlando, Florida, where committees of the International Standards Organization (ISO) met to discuss, among other things, the future and direction of the PDF format (ISO 32000) and various subset PDF standards, including PDF/A (Archive), PDF/E (Engineering) and PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility). PDF Standards set technical benchmarks for PDF technology […]
View PostAs the iPhone continues to grow in popularity, business applications for the iPhone OS are proliferating. Inevitably, a number of these applications focus on electronic documents, which is another way of saying (whether their developers recognize it or not) that they focus on PDF files. This article surveys a few of the current crop of […]
View PostI just installed Apple’s latest Snow Leopard operating system (OS X 10.6), and headed straight for the updated Preview utility, which now claims the ability to annotate PDFs, a key feature of Adobe’s flagship Acrobat software. I opened a PDF into Preview, tapped the new Annotate button, and was rewarded by a slight shrinking of […]
View PostUsers of Adobe Acrobat Professional have a variety of reasons to become familiar with the PDF Optimizer (Advanced > PDF Optimizer). From debugging problem PDF documents to reducing file size and enhancing online performance, the Optimizer is a smart last step before securing and deploying your PDF files. This article introduces the value, rationale and […]
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