The vast majority of Acrobat users have no interest in scripting. For most, they get their money’s worth (they think) if PDFs are easy to make, work reliably, are of small file-size, are reasonably secure, and so on. Little do most users suspect what scripting can do for their PDFs, and (thereby), their electronic document […]
View PostI’m always intrigued by new browsers, and Google is always intriguing anyway due to the company’s strategic heft. Of course I had to look at their just-announced browser, Chrome. I’m going to try to live with this browser for a while and will report my views in greater detail, but I’m still getting used to […]
View PostPDF/A (‘A’ is for ‘archive’), otherwise known as ISO 19005, is the subject of my latest feature article, The Content that Endures: What to know about PDF/A. Opening with the question “What happens in the year 2023, when someone has to open an Outlook PST file from 2003 to settle a lawsuit?” the article draws […]
View PostBack in 1996 when I started Document Solutions, Inc., most of our services revolved around scanning to PDF. This background may help explain why I’m so fascinated with Adobe’s new ClearScan technology introduced with Acrobat 9. The ClearScan concept is disarmingly simple. Starting from a scanned page, the software analyzes the image to determine which […]
View PostWhat’s the difference between a document and the software used to view the document? In the paper or microfiche worlds, no software is needed, so the question is meaningless. The only potential barrier to legibility is the physical condition of the document. Electronic documents are different. The physical condition of the document is assumed, otherwise […]
View PostThe installer is a big download and the application starts kinda slow – why use Adobe Reader when other free Readers are faster? Some pan Adobe Reader because it’s not as lightweight as some 3rd party options such as the Preview utility in Mac OS X. They argue that Reader is a dinosaur who’s time […]
View PostAdobe’s goal of moving PDF from a publicly documented proprietary format to a true international standard is moving into higher gear. AIIM’s new Portable Document Format (PDF) Reference Committee is holding its first meeting on July 16-17 (yes, in less than 2 weeks time), in Silver Spring, Maryland. The page on AIIM’s website offers contact […]
View PostI want to begin highlighting 3rd party sources of information about PDF technology, and one important place to start is with non-English language sources. Today, I’ll mention two such well-established established sites that provide lots of valuable information in languages other than English. Critically, both sites include forums in which users can ask questions and […]
View PostOrganized by Christopher Smith’s AGI (recently acquired by Aquent), last week’s 2007 Adobe Acrobat PDF Conference in Orlando, Florida was a notable success. The co-location with the CRE8 conference for graphic designers expanded the scope to the benefit of all attendees. The Scene From the opening welcome party complete with Mickey Mouse and open bar, […]
View PostI learn something (in fact, usually two or more somethings) at every single PDF event. Last week’s Adobe Acrobat PDF Conference in Orlando was no exception, and I’m not talking about Al Gore’s magnetic presentation on global climate change. This tip is really worth the mention because it is so simple, yet of real value […]
View PostPDF was originally designed to do one thing: deliver an author’s intent to screen or printer in an efficient, precise and platform-independent manner. This “print paradigm” persists today, and colors the issue of accessible PDF in subtle but pervasive ways. To understand how the print orientation in PDF presents a challenge to accessibility, begin with […]
View PostThe PDF/Universal Accessibility (PDF/UA) Committee met at the AIIM Conference and Expo in Boston this past week. If you are interested, you can read the agenda from the public portion of PDF/UA’s Wiki. We welcomed new members and had a productive day-and-a-half of meetings covering a wide range of issues, from MathML to table structure, […]
View PostI hear some version of the following question over and over: “Which software accurately converts PDF to Word?” Converting PDF to Word (or other word-processing applications, HTML or whatever) is not a simple, push-button affair, as almost everyone who has ever tried it knows (thus the questions). Even so, most people are looking for a […]
View PostI was on vacation when Adobe announced that the latest 1.7 edition of the venerable PDF Reference was to be shepherded towards an ISO Standard via AIIM. I checked Adobe’s own FAQ for the move to ISO — it is certainly forthright. Perhaps like most others in this business, I next thought: “great idea, just […]
View PostIntroduction What are bookmarks? We’re not talking about strips of cardboard or dog-eared pages. When present, PDF bookmarks appear to the left of the page (the F4 key toggles the bookmarks “panel” on and off). In the most common application, bookmarks allow users to instantly skip to other locations in the document. That’s VERY handy, […]
View PostOriginally appeared in: Introduction I was on vacation when Adobe announced that the latest 1.7 edition of the venerable PDF Reference was to be shepherded towards an ISO Standard via AIIM. Now the initial dust cloud is settling, I’ll address this move in two articles. For brevity’s sake, I will provide links for the technical terms […]
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