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TEN YEARS OF PDF

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CHAPTER INDEX ADVERTISEMENT TEN YEARS OF PDF DESIGN & CREATION •Contents • Adobe’s Gary Cosimini reflects on ‘First • The PDF/X Solution •Ten years of PDF Acrobat PDF Decade • A first look at Adobe Reader 6 •Masters of PDF • PDF Makes Computerworld’s top 35 list • PDF as necessary evil •Security & accessibility • The past, present and future of PDF • The Making of Good PDFs •Design & creation • Giving PDF a Chance – Really • 100 Portable Historical Educational •Acrobat best practice �� • Bill Gates biographer suggests Microsoft ‘Milestone Documents’ •Future of PDF �� ceded key format victory to Adobe PDF ACROBAT BEST PRACTICE • Top 25 Best-selling Adobe Acrobat/PDF products for 2002 • Helping Reader Orientation

MASTERS OF PDF • PDF usability put to the test �� • Exploring Full Screen mode �� • Max Wyss �� • John Warnock • Turning paper into searchable PDFs �� • Aandi Inston • Opening Acrobat Faster II �� • Ted Padova �� FUTURE OF PDF �� • Pattie Belle Hastings • Planet PDF takes first look at Acrobat 6 �� SECURITY & ACCESSIBILITY �� • Planet PDF’s take on Acrobat 6.0 �� • Duff Johnson offers strategic review of �� • The first thoughts on Acrobat 6: �� PDF accessibility Leonard Rosenthol • ElcomSoft found *Not Guilty* on DMCA charges • Digital memory loss www.activePDF.com • PDF Sniper Letter More Revealing Than • Acrobat Expectations: Chizen Bets the PAGE 2 of 71 Intended Farm on PDF Cash Cow

CHAPTER INDEX Business Development Director of Adobe’s did you first learn about Acrobat, what Creative Professional Product Group, about it appealed to you as someone with •Contents TEN YEARS OF PDF also is the person from whom I first heard a publishing background – why were you •Ten years of PDF about a unique software product code- so interested in it that you left a job with •Masters of PDF named “Carousel.” We recently linked up the Times? ADOBE’S GARY COSIMINI with him to reflect on his career-changing •Security & accessibility REFLECTS ON ‘FIRST ACROBAT interest in Acrobat and PDF, and to trace PDF DECADE •Design & creation some of the highlights of the product and •Acrobat best practice Will give keynote at DigiPub Solutions’ PDF format’s soon-to-be 10-year history (it was Conference in June introduced in New York on June 15, 1993). •Future of PDF By Kurt Foss, Planet PDF Editor PLANET PDF: EDITOR’S NOTE: GARY COSIMINI: Gary, thanks for agreeing to talk with Planet PDF is a founding co-spon- “Actually, the betting line at the time was Planet PDF about your work at Adobe sor of the PDF Conference that I’d join Apple! Systems in general and, in particular, the (www.pdfconference.com), developed and first decade of Adobe Acrobat and PDF. I was introduced to Acrobat by Wes hosted by DigiPub Solutions Corp., and we Let’s back up the tape up to a point before Lem, this great guy from Adobe’s New were delighted to learn recently that Gary the June 1993 public introduction of a York office. He came by one day really Cosimini of Adobe Systems, Inc. will be product-in-development previously known excited and said I had to see this demo. the keynote speaker for the June 2-4 event by its “Carousel” codename. Adobe knew me because I was an early in Bethesda, MD. In the past, this event PostScript enthusiast. While working at has had a significant focus on government We knew you in a previous life as the very The Times, I tracked Adobe’s innovations and enterprise uses and users. For the technology savvy Senior Art Director for closely and implemented a lot of their upcoming event, they’ve added a track The New York Times, someone whose technologies in ways that later became for creative professionals. With Cosimini’s knowledge and experience was widely standard practice. We were among the publishing background – prior to joining respected within the newspaper industry. first users of Illustrator and Photoshop, and Adobe, he was the Senior Art Director Some certainly were surprised when you created workflow and automation tools for The New York Times – and long-term eventually resigned that position to work based upon them for mapping, charting and Acrobat/PDF involvement and interest, for Adobe, especially as a point person for photography. he’s a perfect choice to help commemo- a new and unproven technology we’ve rate ‘The First Acrobat/PDF Decade.’ come to know as Acrobat and PDF. Can The product Wes showed me was a rudimentary document viewer and had a PAGE 3 of 71 Cosimini, still based in New York as the you tell us how that situation evolved: How

CHAPTER INDEX splash screen which said ‘New Technology,’ The application of this technology for customers and developers, and to catalyze not Carousel. It must have been 1991, transmitting finished documents was change in the entire industry. PDF had the •Contents before laptops, and he had to install it on obvious! At the time we were making potential to transform the way literally •Ten years of PDF my computer. It was really, really interest- photostats of pages to distribute by everyone communicates and does their •Masters of PDF ing, so naturally I poked into some of the airfreight overseas and scanning pages at work. files after the demo. This is cool, I thought: high resolution to ‘fax’ them by satellite or •Security & accessibility it’s PostScript for viewing. It had a lot of microwave for printing. If making digital •Design & creation the characteristics of PostScript, but was pages could be as simple as converting a •Acrobat best practice declarative like Illustrator rather than in- PostScript file, everyone would save a lot terpretive, which is good for efficiency, and of money and all that bandwidth could be •Future of PDF had a clear representation of the notion of put to better use. pages and fonts and images. And a Cross The trouble was that very few people Reference Table allowed rapid access to all understood the position of PostScript in the file’s components. What a great idea! the manufacturing chain. I thought Adobe So on January 1, 1992, I made a fateful would need someone to explain this to New Year’s resolution – to ask Adobe ADVERTISEMENT

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CHAPTER INDEX for a job representing Acrobat. Because of Sales, who taught me just enough about and when there were several competing so many of the industry decision makers the software business to get by. My job products? •Contents essential for Acrobat to succeed came to was to wear a suit, push the mouse, and COSIMINI: •Ten years of PDF work every morning in Manhattan, my one create eggs without chickens; that’s what “In addition to defining features for •Masters of PDF condition was that I work from a New Business Development is. My assignment Acrobat and to PDF, creating a business York base.” was to identify leverage points for Acrobat, •Security & accessibility model and value proposition were the and then craft and implement programs to PLANET PDF: hardest parts of developing the product. At •Design & creation capture these opportunities.” What was your first job title and role? one point in negotiations with a New York •Acrobat best practice PLANET PDF: banking firm, we were told that Acrobat COSIMINI: •Future of PDF What was your expectation for Acrobat was not worth more than a screen saver: “The first day I reported to duty in and PDF in 1993? ouch. Another time, I was actually booed Mountain View was in May 1992 – the by an audience at the Boston Computer same day [Adobe co-founder and former COSIMINI: Society because the Common Ground CEO] Chuck Geschke was kidnapped. I “We all shared John Warnock’s vision and demo guy had to run to the phone and call was sitting in a office not 100 feet away, but were on the same wavelength: We thought

out of the line of sight, from the parking it would take five years before anyone ADVERTISEMENT lot where it took place. Chuck impressed recognized how useful this technology everyone with his fortitude and depth of could be, and another five before the character by addressing his employees in whole world took it for granted. If we person the day after he was freed. Adobe achieved that timetable, we’d feel we had grew up a lot that year; I think it became been successful. more serious and committed to doing This was, of course, in the days before something important. Perhaps Acrobat mid-quarterly updates for analysts! Wall provided us with a type of mission, and Street now expects earth-shattering news John and Chuck supplied the imagination every 45 days.” and leadership. PLANET PDF: My job title at Adobe – Business Were you surprised by the less-than-enthu- Development Manager – was something siastic adoption of Acrobat 1.0, back when they found in an HR manual. I reported to Reader was *not* a free product, when Clint Nagy, Adobe’s original Vice President PAGE 5 of 71 the Distiller for the Network *was* free

CHAPTER INDEX tech support in the middle of a demo, and of course, were the keys to Acrobat’s So we had LOTS of animated arguments. I smiled! Actually, I think they were most ultimate dominance. In the end, the opinion which converted •Contents upset that I didn’t bring any Frisbees or me came from the graphic arts students of When you think back, our real competitors •Ten years of PDF hats. We did pretty good presentations, KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology in were overnight delivery and the fax •Masters of PDF but had lots to learn about marketing. Stockholm where I was invited to speak. machine. Swedes are very interested in fairness. •Security & accessibility Our two competitors, Replica and The free viewer was a philosophical They told me, ‘You don’t have to pay Common Ground, had free viewers with •Design & creation challenge. How do make money by giving for your eyes to read.’ A very European very small footprints; one could even software away? This was a long time ago, argument. You can’t disagree with the •Acrobat best practice embed the viewer in a document, which remember. You couldn’t even download reasoning. Eventually we came to the •Future of PDF was a perfectly idiotic idea if you think Acrobat because the connections – AOL, correct conclusion: Charge for the razors, about it. But they both took shortcuts with Compuserve and Prodigy – were slow and but give away the blades!” fonts and couldn’t get them to work cross- unreliable; floppies, CDs and pre-installs platform. Fonts, and the PDF file format Part 2 on Planet PDF ... were the only viable options. Computers did not yet come with CD players built-in. ADVERTISEMENT

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CHAPTER INDEX PDF MAKES COMPUTERWORLD’S complex formatting across multiple sented a combined past, present and future platforms, irrespective of the viewing of PDF. Sullivan’s journey from the cave •Contents TOP 35 LIST By Kurt Foss, Planet PDF Editor machine’s specific configuration and avail- to the present PDF-enabled office was an •Ten years of PDF able font library. Adobe’s timing was good, affectionate tribute to a technology we Computerworld celebrates 35 years of and PDF became an instant success; today didn’t know we needed until we had it... •Masters of PDF covering the technology industry with a it’s the worldwide standard for document •Security & accessibility special anniversary issue, featuring articles De Abrew began with an early 1990’s distribution over the Web.” •Design & creation that look back at important developments promotional clip from Adobe and took us, in tools and at technology’s now-vital role Calling PDF an “instant success” seems Matrix-style, to a variety of points in the •Acrobat best practice in business. debateable – the first couple versions of future: •Future of PDF Acrobat didn’t exactly take the world by Among the special “35 Years of 1. Near Future (1-2 years) storm, as memory serves. How many $50 Technology” coverage is the publication’s copies of Acrobat Reader 1.0 did Adobe 2. Medium Future (3-5 years) attempt to find “the 35 most important sell? advances in corporate IT.” The top five 3. Distant Future (5-99 years) “technologies that shaped the industry,” But there’s no debate that Acrobat and In the near future, De Abrew predicts a according to Computerworld, are: PDF have found their place – and/or domino effect whereby smaller companies that users have discovered in increasing Dynamic RAM will follow the lead of larger firms in the numbers the varied, diverse applications use and acceptance of PDF. Also that the • Graphical User Interface – during the last three product releases. It’s Adobe marketing machine, coupled with nice to see Computerworld acknowledge • Internetworking continued third party support for PDF, it. • Microprocessors will cement Acrobat as a truly ubiquitous application. • Electronic Spreadsheets THE PAST, PRESENT AND At the other end of the list, sandwiched FUTURE OF PDF De Abrew sees a refining of print standards between Linux at #32 and Storage- at Open Publish such as PDFX, increased electronic area Networks at #34, is the Portable delivery of tailored information, greater By Craig Kirkwood Document Format. Computerworld uptake of PDF-based online forms and explains its #33 selection: Among the notable presentations at Open more use of annotation tools such as Publish this year was a double-act with PageSeeder - either within Acrobat or as “Adobe Systems Inc. created this electronic activePDF’s Tim Sullivan and BinaryThing third party tools. document in 1993 as a way to preserve CEO Karl De Abrew who together pre- PAGE 7 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX Down the track somewhat, De Abrew sees document exchange and archiving in the and sizes then something more flexible is an “Acrobat-like product” (not necessarily wake of improved screen technologies required. This is the problem that reflow •Contents Acrobat itself) becoming as pervasive and accessibility. Finally, we could see a based on content tagging has attempted •Ten years of PDF as MS Office and that PDF creation will reduction in paper use (decades after it to solve with PDF but right now, these •Masters of PDF eventually be free of charge (a suggestion was first mooted) through acceptance tags are only created with MS Word or which was met with a resounding “yes” of digital signatures and validity of the a dedicated application such as Adobe •Security & accessibility from the delegates present) given the electronic document. FrameMaker. •Design & creation already widespread existence of tools such Beyond the five year mark, De Abrew sees De Abrew suggests that another player •Acrobat best practice as Ghostscript. the move from paper and ink to digital such as Microsoft may release a PDF •Future of PDF Paperless at last paper and digital ink with PDF being used alternative into MS Office although as ‘digital paper’. “Faxing, photocopying he acknowledges that Acrobat has a Significantly, De Abrew’s predictions and even printing may finally die once reasonable head start. “A start-up may for the mid-term future include greater users experience real improvements in develop a format that has a greater lean on-screen use of PDF for review, computer usability and screen readability” towards Web-based distribution” says De said De Abrew. “Keeping PDFs on Abrew, “but PDF is becoming so ingrained ADVERTISEMENT workstations will, over time, improve that it will surely be around for a while workplace efficiency and technological yet.” Perhaps it will become the legacy �� improvements will eventually make digital format of the next 10-20 years... � paper preferable to paper.” �� Where to from here? Future proofing De Abrew quotes Acrobat Bible author Unlike XML, PDF is based around a and regular Planet PDF contributor, Ted page metaphor. Thus while it is well Padova: “In the year 2012 Adobe Acrobat suited to the task of moving from will see more than 50 million installed paper to electronic communication, it users.” Says Padova “The Acrobat Reader is not necessarily the most appropriate Software will be installed on over 1 billion �� technology to move beyond that point. computers and the Reader will be launched �� worldwide more than 100 billion times a Having a fixed “form factor” is ideal where year. the form itself is constrained but if the PAGE 8 of 71 �� output includes a range of media types

CHAPTER INDEX “Adobe Acrobat version 14.05 will be feature(s) or benefit(s) to highlight? To was *not* developed to grab *your* (or launched by users as near as Sydney’ Star take it a step further, given that so much my) attention. •Contents City Casino (where Open Publish was communication these days is non-text- The highlighted attribute featured is “plat- •Ten years of PDF held) and as far away as the planet Mars based, how would you convey and support form compatibility,” with a headline on one •Masters of PDF by US and Russian Astronauts. The next that same message visually (assuming, page of the spread directly beneath the generation of desktop printers will all be for the sake of discussion, print-based •Security & accessibility smallish Adobe “Block A” logo: based on PDF replacing an old language communication)? •Design & creation people used to call PostScript. Adobe’s Windows. Clearly the opportunities and options •Acrobat best practice PDF development utilities will enable users Mac OS. are plentiful, some more likely to prove to dynamically create, edit, and modify Palm. •Future of PDF effective than others – depending in part documents designed for imaging, office Yes, we can on the type of audience you’re trying to use, Web pages and eBooks.” all get along. reach and what you might know in advance about their aptitude for and environment The “fine print” beneath it adds the key GIVING PDF A CHANCE – REALLY in which they utilize technologies such as phrase “Platform Compatibility” along with Peaceniks for PDF Acrobat and PDF. the following brief description: By Kurt Foss, Planet PDF Editor One example appears in the August 5, “Easily and reliably exchange, open and If you’ve ever tried to explain the primary 2002 issue of The New Yorker magazine print documents, presentations and use(s) and virtue(s) of PDF to a new or (and probably in a number of others) – a proposals created on any platform, in any non-user of Acrobat, you understand two-page ad spread across the inside cover program. Really. Adobe Acrobat. Create an Adobe’s marketing challenge. There’s and opening page of the weekly magazine. Adobe PDF and do more with your docu- so *much* to say, but so little time to I must confess to some personal surprise ments.” say it. That is, unless someone is already at the approach taken, which is not to Last on the page comes the slogan “Adobe interested, they’re only going to give you suggest it won’t achieve its goal. You can be Acrobat 5.0 – Tools for the New Work.” a brief window of opportunity to explain sure a lot of thought and money went into (Oddly enough, the file format is more of why they should be – or why *you* believe developing this marketing effort by folks the ad’s focus than Adobe’s commercial they should be – interested. who know a lot more about their particular Acrobat software.) line of work than some of us in the bleach- If you had to develop a promotional ers. Still, we get to express our thoughts, The left page of the two-page ad contains campaign for Acrobat, for example, how keeping in mind that if you’re already a the primary visual component: a color would you decide on which attribute(s), PAGE 9 of 71 serious Acrobat/PDF user, this message photographic illustration of what can best

CHAPTER INDEX be described as a political-type button For anyone who isn’t yet a convert, here’s another modified slogan from the same •Contents seemingly pinned on a pair of blue-denim jeans (on the back pocket?). The image on era: “Give PDF a Chance.” (Or, in keeping •Ten years of PDF the button is a reddish hand giving the two- with the main textual portion of the ad, •Masters of PDF fingered “Peace” sign, with the overprinted perhaps “Give Adobe PDF a Chance?”) In other words, try it and see what it can do •Security & accessibility words: “PDF NOW” across the lower half – on one or many platforms. You might be of the button’s face. •Design & creation pleasantly surprised. •Acrobat best practice If you don’t have access to The New One other thing: the *last* place I’d pin •Future of PDF Yorker and haven’t seen this ad – emphasis on “sharp pointed thing” – such elsewhere, I apologize for the simplistic a button is the backside of my pants. Not Earlier this week the Times coverage representation. But I hope you can compatible. Really. veered from the blow-by-blow, inside- comprehend the general concept. Granted, the-courtroom proceedings – nine states “platform compatibility” doesn’t exactly BILL GATES BIOGRAPHER currently are seeking greater sanctions lend itself to a lot of quick-to-comprehend SUGGESTS MICROSOFT HAS against Microsoft than were levied and images. That said, somehow this particular CEDED KEY FORMAT VICTORY accepted by the U.S. Department of Justice choice doesn’t quite work for me – it TO ADOBE PDF (DOJ) and other involved states – to look at a seemingly noteworthy consequence of conjures up a different environment than Had proposed direct competition in infa- the prolonged legal wrangling. the workplace, and a different set of mous 1995 ‘Tidal Wave’ memo issues than getting computers to exchange By Kurt Foss, Planet PDF Editor Free-lance technology writer Paul Andrews, author of “How the Web Was documents. Likewise, “PDF Now” doesn’t The lingering Microsoft antitrust case is a Won: How Bill Gates and His Internet quite click for me as a call to action. major technology news story pretty much Idealists Transformed the Microsoft everywhere, but certainly nowhere more Anyway, as I said earlier, this ad isn’t aimed Empire” and co-author of “Gates: How than in Seattle, Washington, the metropoli- at those of us who are already believers. Microsoft’s Mogul Reinvented an Industry- tan home for the software goliath based in For us, “PDF Now” *is* the right mantra And Made Himself the Richest Man in Redmond. The Seattle Times newspaper – we understand its myriad possibilities. America” [shown at right] suggests in his has been providing special, extensive Seattle Times business and technology We all get along with Acrobat/PDF as a coverage of the trial. viable solution for many kinds of workplace column that Microsoft failed in its mission PAGE 10 of 71 problems and situations.

CHAPTER INDEX to derail Adobe Acrobat and PDF in favor importance as paid content expands on the AOL and Novell and yada yada yada. The of an Internet standard format of its own. Web.” truth is that Microsoft has also benefitted •Contents from inept competition, and where its foes In an April 1 Times column titled ‘Microsoft On his personal Web site – a Weblog •Ten years of PDF have been as clever and persistent as the can’t topple Adobe Acrobat,’ Andrews named “The Paul Wall” – Andrews plugs •Masters of PDF Boys from Redmond, they’ve often man- surmises that contrary to its once-stated the column, adding: aged to prevail.” •Security & accessibility intent, “Microsoft has all but ceded a “Adobe’s success in the face of Bill Gates’ significant Internet function to Adobe •Design & creation clear 1995 directive to crush Acrobat Systems.” Due to an allegedly failed has largely gone unremarked upon. Yet •Acrobat best practice Microsoft strategy, Andrews concludes it occurred to me the other day as I •Future of PDF that “Adobe Acrobat and its familiar .PDF downloaded my umpteenth .pdf file that (portable document format) have become somehow the Evil Empire had let one get the de facto standard for distributing and away. As the antitrust debacle yawns on, Andrews cites the now infamous “Internet displaying richly formatted documents over everywhere else you will read about how Tidal Wave” memo – Bill Gates’ once- the Internet - a function that may grow in Microsoft victimized Palm and Linux and confidential 1995 directive to Microsoft

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CHAPTER INDEX executive staff imploring that the company “The limitations of HTML make it posed to be a combination of extended needed to make the Internet (and impossible to create forms or other metafiles and Word but these plans are •Contents Netscape) its primary focus – as evidence documents with rich layout and PDF has inadequate.” •Ten years of PDF that Adobe, its Acrobat software and become the standard alternative,” Gates Andrews notes in his recent Times’ article •Masters of PDF PDF were among the companies and wrote some seven years ago. “For now, that Microsoft’s long, still-underway technologies poised to cause competitive Acrobat files are really only useful if you •Security & accessibility efforts to defend itself against allegations problems for Microsoft’s OS and software print them out, but Adobe is investing of monopolistic practices have certainly •Design & creation products. And which therefore needed to heavily in this technology and we may see worked to Adobe’s benefit, providing the •Acrobat best practice become targets for Microsoft. that change soon.” San Jose-based company time to focus on •Future of PDF In perhaps his most telling comment, Gates its own strategic efforts to establish PDF underlines the importance of the mission as a de facto standard while occupying to his management team in emphasizing Microsoft’s financial and logistical forces that “once a format gets established, it is elsewhere. [Adobe faced a different chal- extremely difficult for another format to lenge and challenger in 1998 when rival come along and become equally popular.” Quark attempted a hostile – and ultimately In Gates’ nine-page Tidal Wave memo [Several plaintiffs in the ongoing antitrust unsuccessful – takeover.] – that has since become Government trial might argue that it helps significantly Exhibit 20 in US v. Microsoft, filed in 1998, to have an industry-dominant operating available for download in PDF from the system to lessen the difficulty.] DOJ’s Web site – you can sense the dire situation the co-founder foresaw for his Accordingly, among the topical ‘action company if it missed becoming a major items’ on Gates 1995 shortlist was one Internet player. He admits spending some related to file formats, which includes the 10 hours browsing the 1995-era World passage: Wide Web, only to report that he’d found “We need to decide how we are going to “almost no Microsoft file formats.” compete with Acrobat and QuickTime Viewed from a distance, Microsoft and Apparently among the file formats Gates since right now we aren’t challenging them. Adobe appear to have established some did discover online was PDF, noting in his It may be worth investing in optimizing our common ground, cooperating where and detailed treatise that “even the IRS offers file formats for these scenarios. What is when it makes sense, competing on other tax forms in PDF format.” our competitor to Acrobat? It was sup- fronts. For example, Adobe participated in PAGE 12 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX Microsoft’s launch of its latest XP operat- guides [shown at right] for its MS Office involved in publishing related and printing ing system release, and develops special for Macintosh OS X software and other related standards activity, and what kind of •Contents PDF-creation utilities – Acrobat PDFMaker products. integration of effort between Adobe and •Ten years of PDF – that integrate with Microsoft’s popular Microsoft might we expect to see relative During an audience Q&A session following •Masters of PDF Office products. They compete directly to, say, XML meets PDF over a cup of a rare appearance by Gates at the 1997 in the eBooks arena, where Adobe’s PDF Java?” •Security & accessibility Seybold Seminars Publishing Conference is pitted against Microsoft’s LIT format, in San Francisco, he was asked about Considering his intended-to-be private •Design & creation and free Reader versus free Reader, each Microsoft’s propensity for attempting thoughts in the 1995 Tidal Wave memo, •Acrobat best practice seeking industry adoption as a standard. to create its own solutions rather than Gates seemed almost enthusiastic in While PDF clearly isn’t the default file •Future of PDF adopting and working with external ones his public comments about PDF and on format on Microsoft’s own Web site, it favored by a particular industry. Following Microsoft’s relationship with Adobe: is used for a variety of purposes, such as Gates presentation, which he began by recent datasheets about its Windows XP “Well, the answer is yes, absolutely. citing “a renewed partnership between OS, its XML-based .NET initiative and user Microsoft’s a company that, once we get Microsoft and Adobe,” a member of the involved in something, we’re very serious predominantly print publishing audience about it. And this is a market that’s really ADVERTISEMENT posed the following to him: going to drive our technology, push it to

�� “Currently, this industry is in the process of the limits. In a lot of the high-end Windows �� retooling its business process, its content NT workstations, the need for graph- �� streams around PDF. PDF is the successor ics performance, the need for a richer �� to postscript. Now XML is very important software base, the need for document �� for the very reasons you mentioned, but management – it’s going to come out of �� in terms of the kinds of standards that the publishing industry. And so it’s valuable �� are needed to integrate commerce, the to us not only as a big market, but also �� content streams, the media streams for as something that improves our products �� both print and non-print media, and the for an even broader market that we’re �� process models that work in the graphic involved in. In terms of PDF, I agree PDF �� arts would imply getting together with the is important. I don’t see it being the sole �� standards activities to relate to these kinds standard of importance. We are working � � � � � � � � � � �� of business concerns. Question: Do you with Adobe on PDF. PDF is where you’ve �� PAGE 13 of 71 �� really, really love us, and will Microsoft be done your layout; you’ve decided to be

CHAPTER INDEX print-based; and when you have material ics market and the electronic document collaborative document review, scanning/ that that’s the only way you’re going to sharing markets. We believe that, due to optical character recognition (“OCR”), and •Contents deliver it, then, great, you can transmit Microsoft’s market dominance, any new security capabilities, in competition with •Ten years of PDF it in that form. And so it should have a Microsoft products in these markets will similar features offered by Adobe’s ePaper •Masters of PDF close relationship to the other standards, be highly competitive with our products. products family. to HTML and XML. And our relationship If competing new products achieve wide- •Security & accessibility In the PDF file creation market, our Adobe with Adobe is very complementary. They spread acceptance, our operating results ePaper product family faces competition •Design & creation do high-end publishing tools; we do not would suffer.” from clone products such as the Jaws •Acrobat best practice do high-end publishing tools. And so we’re In another section of the annual report product line from Global Graphics able to sit down together, and say, hey, •Future of PDF describing “Competition” for Adobe’s (formerly Harlequin), and other smaller how can we grow the market very easily, various product segments, Microsoft is PDF creation solutions that can be found and that’s the dynamic you’ve seen over again referenced in regards to perceived for free on the World Wide Web. In the the last 18-month time period.” challenges to its ePaper products and area of electronic forms solutions, we face On the other hand, Gates’ assurances applications: competition from Cardiff and Microsoft, and the recent Andrews article not as well as from Accelio (formerly Jetform) “In electronic document delivery, withstanding, Adobe by no means takes unless and until our proposed acquisition of exchange, collaboration, and archive for granted Microsoft’s potential as a Accelio is consummated.” markets, the electronic forms market, and competitor for several of its own software the PDF file creation market, our Adobe One of Adobe’s markets of greatest products, including the Acrobat family ePaper product family faces competition Acrobat penetration and continuing focus is within its ePaper Solutions Group. In its from entrenched office applications within the various branches of government, 2001 annual report, Adobe notes in a and increased competition from new as its major presence at the recent FOSE section on “Factors That May Affect Future emerging products and technologies. conference made clear. Yet Microsoft Results of Operations” that: Current office applications and Internet hasn’t surrendered that key market to “The market for our graphics and ePaper content creation/management tools that Adobe or PDF, as “Government Computer applications is intensely and increasingly use Microsoft Word, XML, HTML, and News” reported last year in its “Microsoft competitive and is significantly affected by Tagged Information File Format (“TIFF”) stakes e-gov claim on XML” article: product introductions and market activi- file formats compete with Adobe PDF “Seeking to stake out a large chunk ties of industry competitors. Additionally, and Adobe’s ePaper product family. In of territory in electronic government, Microsoft has increased its presence in the addition, Microsoft’s new Office XP suite Microsoft chairman Bill Gates declared the PAGE 14 of 71 low-end consumer digital imaging/graph- targets business users that want improved

CHAPTER INDEX Extensible Markup Language the language to help identify some of the popular Adobe Crackerjack (Lantana) - Windows & of government and Microsoft’s Windows Acrobat plug-ins, products and tools Macintosh •Contents .NET initiative as the best way to build people appear to be using. It also offers A powerful plug-in that enables PDF-based •Ten years of PDF e-gov applications.” a degree of insight into common types color production printing; also includes •Masters of PDF of PDF usage, suggesting for which niche While you await the final (?) outcome of the Crackerjack Pilot for watched folder applications people seek enhanced features •Security & accessibility current Microsoft antitrust hearings, you automation. Crackerjack extends the beyond Acrobat’s available toolset. •Design & creation can read more about the company’s latest usability of Acrobat and PDF by providing .NET-centric intentions in another Gates At year’s end, we’ve expanded the list expert control over print output and •Acrobat best practice memo from June 2001. In the four-page, to highlight the 25 top-selling products associated devices, such as imagesetters, •Future of PDF public message addressed to Developer offered in the PDF Store – based on proofers, platemakers, digital presses, and and IT Professionals, Gates elaborates on purchases made and fulfilled online during plotters. With the pre-separated output what the next generation of the Internet 2002 – as follows: option, you can also proof separations on will look like: “at the heart of the solution PostScript desktop laser printers. ARTS Split & Merge Wizard (A Round is eXtensible Markup Language,” Gates Table Solution) - Windows Amyuni PDF Converter (Amyuni says; industry watchers will know where Consultants) - Windows to insert the phrase ‘Microsoft’s endorsed Allows you to easily split or merge a version of ...’ in that sentence. number of PDFs. The wizard interface Convert virtually any document under provides straightforward instructions Windows to PDF format; concatenate It’s all spelled out and available for down- throughout the process. or append multiple print jobs into one load from Microsoft’s Web site – in Adobe PDF file; interface with any Windows PDF. StampPDF (Appligent) - Windows & programming language, including VBA. Macintosh This interface allows you to set output TOP 25 BEST-SELLING ADOBE Lets you add permanent text to any PDF directory, file name and concatenation ACROBAT/PDF PRODUCTS FOR document by just choosing a menu item options without user interaction. 2002 within Acrobat: no need to launch a Gemini (Iceni Technology) - Windows & Highlighting PDF Store’s top plug-ins and separate application. Text may be added in Macintosh applications for past year any position: diagonally across a document We tabulate the Top 10 best- as watermarks (Draft or Confidential for Advanced PDF content extraction tool. selling products at the PDF Store example), or as headers and footers. Running as a plug-in for Adobe Acrobat, (www.pdfstore.com) each month in part Gemini can extract text and images from PAGE 15 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX PDF documents producing HTML, RTF ARTS PDF Tools (A Round Table Solution) ARTS PDF Stamper (A Round Table (for Microsoft Word), ASCII, JPEG, TIFF, - Windows & Macintosh Solution) - Windows •Contents BMP, PNG, OEB and WML output. •Ten years of PDF A customizable toolbar for Adobe A flexible stamping tool for Adobe Acrobat. Jaws PDF Creator (Global Graphics Acrobat 5.0 that comes with more than Apply any combination of text, image and •Masters of PDF Software) - Windows & Macintosh 70 pre-defined tools. In addition to these action stamps to one or more PDF files. •Security & accessibility time-saving tools, the plug-in lets you make You can create the precise stamp you need Offers simple, efficient and cost effective your own tools – giving you quick access to with options such as overlay/underlay, •Design & creation PDF creation. Generated PDFs can be your own pre-defined tasks and shortcuts rotation, position, opacity, color and font •Acrobat best practice used with Acrobat products, or 3rd party – and lets you copy and share them with type. PDF tools. •Future of PDF other users. ARTS PDF Workshop (A Round Table ARTS Import (A Round Table Solution) DocuCom PDF Driver (Zeon Corporation) Solution) - Windows - Windows - Windows Designed to help you manage your PDFs. It Lets you convert your image files to PDF A stable and powerful PDF creator for the collates the document and file info of your faster than ever before; you can convert PDF user. PDFs - title, subject, keywords, pages, etc. large batches of BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, RLE - into a spreadsheet to simplify managing and TIF files, all without the need for Quite Imposing (Quite Software) - lots of PDFs. Adobe Acrobat. Windows & Macintosh BCL Drake (BCL Technologies) - Windows ARTS PDF Splitter (A Round Table A plug-in for Acrobat to perform Solution) - Windows & Macintosh imposition – combining pages onto larger Application that automatically converts sheets to make books, booklets, or special PDF documents into RTF documents Split your PDF files in a number of ways. arrangements. Features include n-up pages, utilizing the MS Word(R) drawing features. After splitting, all links are updated to booklet making, adding page numbers. A The resulting RTF page structure will adjust for the changes, saving you the labor particularly important feature of the plug-in match the page structure in the original of individually adjusting each of them for is that the combined pages are a new PDF PDF file, allowing the information to be each new PDF you create. The product document, giving a way to check each presented accurately. can also be used to rearrange the order of sheet instantly, saving time and money. pages in a PDF file while keeping the links in the file intact.

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CHAPTER INDEX ARTS Link Tool (A Round Table Solution) much or as little of the text from your PDF to HTML including DOC, XLS, PPT, TXT, - Windows & Macintosh document that you need, saving time and BMP, JPEG, TIFF, CHM and PDF with •Contents increasing your efficiency. highest possible accuracy. •Ten years of PDF Extends Adobe Acrobat’s tools for editing links in PDF files. PDF Snake (Jeffrey Glen Rennie) - Variform PDF (Lantana) - Windows & •Masters of PDF Windows Macintosh BatchPrintPDF (Brook House Publishing) •Security & accessibility - Windows A complete imposing solution. It can do N- Extends the usability of Acrobat forms. •Design & creation up, make booklets, stamp documents, and Allows you to merge delimited text files Automatically printout multiple documents; can even process hundreds of documents into Acrobat forms, and print the results •Acrobat best practice works with both Acrobat and the free with a single command. or save them to file (PostScript or PDF via •Future of PDF Acrobat Reader. Batch-Print bridges Acrobat Distiller). Great for a myriad of this gap by offering a variety easy to use TallPDF.NET (Tall Components) - Windows mail merge, forms filling, and other variable functions to optimize and automate output. Create PDF documents either data applications. PDFlib (PDFlib GmbH) - multiple platforms programmatically or from XML. activePDF Toolkit (activePDF) - Windows TallPDF.NET allows you to serve dynamic Premier software component for PDF from any .NET application including A “grab bag” of goodies that will make generating PDF on the fly. ASP.NET pages and web services. your PDF development a breeze. The ARTS Link Checker (A Round Table form filling capabilities make PDF forms a Jaws PDF Editor (Global Graphics Solution) - Windows & Macintosh snap to implement and with the merge and Software) - Windows extraction technology, creating complex Automatically checks for dead links. A PDF manipulation application, aimed at PDF documents is now easier than ever. Moving pages in a PDF file or between files the corporate marketplace or single user, With the PDF information properties, can break your links. Finds and reports on where the most common functions in PDF you can easily develop a document these broken links. Links to external files editing are required. management system for your intranet. are also checked to ensure that the file Toolkit also supports placing arbitrary text exists and is in the proper location. BCL Magellan (BCL Technologies) - and PDF logos on existing documents. Windows iCopy (Image Solutions) - Windows An advanced stand-alone document Copy, edit and reformat text from conversion tool that allows for dynamic image-based PDFs with ease. Using OCR content formation. BCL Magellan 6.0 technology, iCopy allows you to select as converts any printable Windows document PAGE 17 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX and PDF by Adobe Systems, Planet PDF advanced skills workshop on “Scripting CEO Karl De Abrew is conducting a series and Enhancing PDF Forms” in Columbus, •Contents MASTERS OF PDF of brief “Masters of the PDF Universe” Ohio – and he tells us today there is still •Ten years of PDF profiles with key members of the Planet room for a couple more interested folks to •Masters of PDF PDF MASTER: PDF community. Today Karl talks with Max register! Wyss of Prodok Engineering, based near •Security & accessibility MAX WYSS TALKS WITH PLANET KARL DE ABREW: Zurich, Switzerland. Highly regarded for •Design & creation PDF’S KARL DE ABREW Today many Acrobat & PDF users will be his expertise in PDF-based forms – and Reflects on his first Acrobat encounter, familiar with you because of your work •Acrobat best practice especially known for some of his legendary, legendary expertise in PDF forms and with PDF forms. When and why did you •Future of PDF interactive forms that integrate JavaScript Acrobat JavaScript first get involved with Acrobat/PDF? for added functionality – Wyss also is a EDITOR’S NOTE: consultant on the “Smart PDF Workflow” MAX WYSS: As part of our ongoing reflection on the concept and a popular speaker at industry “My very first contact with Acrobat was June 1993 introduction of Adobe Acrobat conferences and events. In fact, later this back in version 2.0 times, where Adobe week (March 11-12) Max is leading an had a short-time bundle of Acrobat with ADVERTISEMENT

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CHAPTER INDEX Illustrator. And I happened to get my Another significant development is the a need for separating out this functionality update at that time. My first use was to get whole community which evolved around •Contents to make it easier to use? CAD drawings into Illustrator, in order to PDF. And the amazing thing is that, despite •Ten years of PDF enhance them for the service manuals. It its size, it is still a ‘pretty friendly bunch of WYSS: •Masters of PDF did work, but of course, we noticed the people.’ And, unless ‘corporate’ types start “This is a consequence of the versatility of the Portable Document Format. It can •Security & accessibility problems which are still there, caused poisoning it, it looks as if it will remain so by the different ways to describe curves, for some time. be intimidating, but I don’t think that it is a •Design & creation and the line plotter-orientedness of CAD good idea to separate out such functionali- DE ABREW: •Acrobat best practice programs. ties because it can be that the next day, you Acrobat and PDF are now used in so many suddenly may need it. What, on the other •Future of PDF Then there was some quiet time until I got industries and in so many ways, do you that infamous project for the belt-drive- see new areas that haven’t perhaps been hand, would be an advantage is some way component catalog. This, together with tapped much yet? to customize the user interface, giving the Acrobat 3, was what I would call the ‘new user the best possible working environ- WYSS: “PDF is so open and versatile that era’ for me with PDF and Acrobat.” ment. Such an approach would also allow a essentially everything is possible. I remem- wider-spread use of the application.” DE ABREW: ber a commercial ‘If you can imagine it, Briefly describe the most significant change you can do it.’ I am not quite sure if it was DE ABREW: in the development or use of the technol- from Adobe, or from Disney, or someone Pondering the future of Acrobat and/or ogy, since you first began working with else, but it pretty much says it. This means PDF, what most excites you about the next Acrobat/PDF, and why do you consider it that I would not be surprised wherever few years? significant? it comes up. It could come up anywhere where information has to be presented. WYSS: WYSS: And considering the other layers of the “That there is a surprise just around the “For me, the most significant develop- PDF format, a lot is imaginable.” corner. Another thing which is amazing is ment was definitely the introduction of still how many people don’t know about interactivity, by means of the forms feature. DE ABREW: A first step came with Acrobat 3, and then Acrobat has grown into a large, multi-func- the potential PDF (and Acrobat) has, – of course – the big boost with the 3.5 tion tool for use in so many areas – includ- particularly if it comes to interactive func- Forms Update which brought us Acrobat ing document management, presentations, tions. More than often I hear people say JavaScript. This step was definitely the end collaboration, forms and prepress – and it after some presentations ‘I did not know of the notion of PDF being a static format. can be intimidating for new users. Is there that this is possible.’ PAGE 19 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX DE ABREW: of the product. I still hear “I got Adobe, KARL DE ABREW: According to Adobe’s development cycle why can’t I do this or that?”. Well, those Today many Acrobat & PDF users will be •Contents for Acrobat, a new version is expected people have the free Reader, and want to familiar with you because of your work as •Ten years of PDF sometime in early- to mid-2003. What do things that Reader can’t.”. the founder of Adobe Systems and creator •Masters of PDF additions or enhancements would you like of the Portable Document Format (PDF). to see in the next major upgrade, and why? What originally motivated you to create •Security & accessibility PDF MASTER: JOHN WARNOCK TALKS WITH PLANET PDF’S KARL Acrobat/PDF? WYSS: •Design & creation DE ABREW “Oh, there are many wishes, and there JOHN WARNOCK: •Acrobat best practice will be even more when the product finally Founding Father of Acrobat relishes “I have been in the Computer business •Future of PDF comes out. One thing I really, really wish success of PDF, sees future potential for since 1961, and the problem of communi- is that Adobe remembers the ‘P’ in PDF, multi-media content and archiving cating documents has always been around. namely ‘Portable,’ and that there will be no EDITOR’S NOTE: In the early years when most printers were difference between the functionality of the As part of our ongoing reflection on the impact printers, the approach was to sepa- various platforms: Mac, Unix (OK, let’s be June 1993 introduction of Adobe Acrobat rate form and content. SGML was invented modest, and just say Linux and FreeBSD), and PDF by Adobe Systems, Planet to solve that problem. Unfortunately the Windows. The question ‘does it work PDF CEO Karl De Abrew is conducting SGML approach never quite solved the on ...?’ should no longer be needed. The a series of brief “Masters of the PDF diversity needed in formatting complex question should be ‘is it possible to do?’, Universe” profiles with key members of documents. and the answer would be either ‘Yes’ or the Planet PDF community. Today Karl When PostScript became a broadly based ‘No, but we are working on it.’” tal ks with John Warnock, co-founder of desktop standard driving raster devices, Adobe Systems, retired CEO and current DE ABREW: it occurred to me that by capturing the Chairman of the Board – and perhaps most Briefly describe a common misconception PostScript stream and redefining the significantly in this venue, the mastermind about or frequent prob em you’ve seen imaging operators, we could write a small, behind Adobe Acrobat and the Portable with Acrobat/PDF that you’d like to try to static output stream that would accurately Document Format (PDF). In his 1991 clarify for others and/or provide a tip to capture the “look” of the document and “Camelot” report, later published on address. give page independence. Planet PDF, Warnock publicly detailed WYSS: for the first time the foundation for and Furthermore, we did not need ‘permission’ “Hmmm... well, I think it is still the ques- concept of PDF. The rest, as they say, is from any of the document-creation ap- PAGE 20 of 71 tion about available functionality and price history – and a rich one it is. plications. (All other attempts at universal

CHAPTER INDEX document formats actually needed ogy, since you first designed Acrobat/PDF, I also think PDF could be a much more •Contents companies to agree on the approach and why do you consider it significant? flexible format for carrying all kinds of – which has been the death-nail of multi-media content. If, for instance, you •Ten years of PDF WARNOCK: universal document formats). look at the DVD spec, you will find one of “The most significant change in the devel- •Masters of PDF the worst format designs on the planet. A It was always part of the plan to first ac- opment of PDF has been to add capabilities •Security & accessibility PDF-based spec could do a much better, curately capture the look of the document, so that PDF documents and the computers and more universal job. •Design & creation and then extend the format to capture the that use them can mimic a wide variety of One of PDF potential and important uses is •Acrobat best practice most important aspects of the document’s paper processes that occur in widely used as a rock-solid archiving format. Care must structure. I’m happy to see this is happening.” business workflows. •Future of PDF be taken to subset PDF in such a way so DE ABREW: These new capabilities amplify the eco- that this done robustly and correctly.” nomic benefits of using electronic docu- Briefly describe the most significant change DE ABREW: in the development or use of the technol- ments, and can potentially really improve Acrobat has grown into a large, multi-func- the efficiencies of a lot of businesses.” tion tool for use in so many areas – includ- ADVERTISEMENT DE ABREW: ing document management, presentations, ARTS Split Pro Acrobat and PDF are now used in so many collaboration, forms and prepress – and it industries and in so many ways, do you can be intimidating for new users. Is there The industrial strength, stand-alone tool a need for separating out this functionality see new areas that haven’t perhaps been for intelligent splitting of PDF files. to make it easier to use. tapped much yet? WARNOCK: WARNOCK: “Acrobat and PDF-based technologies are “I think the imaging model upon which very general and hard to understand. Once Acrobat is based can be used much more a user has used Acrobat extensively, then effectively on the Web. As we all know, they finally “get it.” I hope that over the simple things like printing are not easy or years, people will develop a mental model reliable in Web based applications. Using of what it is and what it is good for. I don’t Acrobat technology can solve this problem know whether splitting the product up and make everyone’s Internet experience will really solve the basic understanding PAGE 21 of 71 much more enjoyable. problem.

CHAPTER INDEX DE ABREW: application quite like it, users have a very KARL DE ABREW: Pondering the future of Acrobat and/or hard time putting it into a category. Today many Acrobat & PDF users will be •Contents PDF, what most excites you about the next familiar with you because of your regular Unfortunately, I think the only way to •Ten years of PDF few years? involvement in PDF-related user forums understand this thing is to use it.” and discussion lists across the Web and also •Masters of PDF WARNOCK: through Quite Software. When and why •Security & accessibility “The effective use of PDF within a PDF MASTER: AANDI INSTON did you first get involved with Acrobat/ corporate, educational or government TALKS WITH PLANET PDF’S KARL •Design & creation PDF? environment can save huge amounts of DE ABREW •Acrobat best practice time and money. It can also provide a AANDI INSTON: Reflects on Acrobat/PDF and launch of wonderful cross platform communication “In 1992 I got my first PC. That may seem •Future of PDF Quite Software medium that is not wedded to a particular late, but I had spent years working around operating system or computer type. I am EDITOR’S NOTE: computers, and hadn’t previously seen a As part of our ongoing reflection on the most excited to see people find new and need for my own one. After playing with it June 1993 introduction of Adobe Acrobat creative uses and benefits from the use of a while and getting bored with games, I felt and PDF by Adobe Systems, Planet the technology. I still think we are in the I wanted a challenge. PDF CEO Karl De Abrew is conducting early days of adoption, and that most of the a series of brief “Masters of the PDF So I set out to write something that was economic benefit of using Acrobat/PDF are Universe” profiles with key members of large, interesting, and which hadn’t been ahead of us.” the Planet PDF community. Today Karl done - an interactive PostScript tool. DE ABREW: talks with Aandi Inston of Quite Software This took around 5 years, and well over Briefly describe a common misconception (www.quite.com). Aandi, a one-man oracle 100,000 lines of code. PostScript had a about or frequent problem you’ve seen on the technology, has most certainly double use, as I was working in newspaper with Acrobat/PDF that you’d like to try to answered more Acrobat/PDF-related publishing, and the tool turned out to be clarify for others and/or provide a tip to questions and offered more free online very useful dealing with the day to day address. assistance in the past decade than anyone problems facing a busy newspaper. we know. In addition, Quite Software’s WARNOCK: And PostScript led into PDF. Why? I “Acrobat is not a stand-alone application. products are used and publicly acclaimed had become involved in Compuserve’s It needs other authoring applications to by many, including former Adobe Systems discussion forums, answering questions make it whole. Because there is no other CEO and co-founder John Warnock. on PostScript (after I got over the initial disappointment that nobody would an- PAGE 22 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX swer mine). But there wasn’t very much Meanwhile, I found more forums where INSTON: discussion. When Acrobat appeared, the PostScript and PDF were discussed, “That’s a tough one. For the most part •Contents PostScript connection was very clear and stayed active. I estimated that I post what happens is that groups of people •Ten years of PDF and made it easy to master. PDF 1.0 and something over ten thousand messages a find new uses for Acrobat or PDF, and •Masters of PDF Acrobat 1.0 were a whole lot simpler! year, which may account for why so many this becomes significant enough that new replies are rather short.” features appear for that target group. No •Security & accessibility Later, I left my employer to start selling the one thing stands out as most significant. •Design & creation tool I’d written (no, I didn’t use any work DE ABREW: time!) I called this PSAlter. But looking Briefly describe the most significant change Perhaps rather than an Acrobat-based •Acrobat best practice for the next product, it was clear to me in the development or use of the technol- advance, what excites me is how many •Future of PDF in 1996 that a lot more people would be ogy, since you first began working with things are available on the Internet that buying PDF tools than PostScript tools. Acrobat/PDF, and why do you consider it would perhaps never have been made So I began writing Acrobat plug-ins. And significant? available in another form. Google lists over Quite Software - as we decided to call the 8 million PDF files.” company - took off.

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CHAPTER INDEX DE ABREW: The challenge for Adobe here is not only thing in itself. What matters is presentation. Acrobat and PDF are now used in so many technical, but to figure out if they can make Microsoft Word has a zillion features, and •Contents industries and in so many ways, do you revenue from putting efforts into this area. most people never use most of them, but •Ten years of PDF see new areas that haven’t perhaps been Adobe actually use HTML help in their I don’t think people are intimidated or •Masters of PDF tapped much yet? own products, and this strikes me as just confused by Word. Adobe have a major weird. challenge to make Acrobat more accesssi- •Security & accessibility INSTON: ble, because after all writing a document is “Acrobat and PDF are getting in all sorts of Revenue again. Sorry to return to it, •Design & creation a much simpler thing than all the different places, but there are many areas where it but like any business Adobe will only do •Acrobat best practice things Acrobat might do. isn’t. Some random thoughts: what makes them money. The key area •Future of PDF where PDF is missing is the home market, The key problem with Acrobat is its lack PDF reading appliances or palmtops. because the business-level price of Acrobat of a starting point, so new users, used to a Reading PDFs is always an afterthought keeps it out. If Adobe can find how to tap culture of never reading a word of docu- with these appliances, and the processing that market without hurting their corpo- mentation, get lost. Worse, they frequently power seems to limit what can be done rate and professional markets, that could arrive at a very limited understanding of with PDFs. An appliance designed to be huge. But it’s really difficult to make how to use Acrobat, which they then are work with PDF at its core could be really money with $29 software, it may never unable to apply to new situations. Perhaps interesting. A key problem with adopting happen.” the commonest example of this is the PDF in other technologies, though, is that ‘Create PDF’ button in Word. Intended as regular updates to the PDF format make it DE ABREW: a shortcut and to add useful features, many a moving target; and Adobe don’t have the Acrobat has grown into a large, multi-func- users only learn this way of making PDF, right mix of tools and technologies available tion tool for use in so many areas – includ- and are lost in any program that doesn’t to license and keep up to date. ing document management, presentations, have a ‘Create PDF’ button. collaboration, forms and prepress – and it Online help. Developers would love to can be intimidating for new users. Is there Making Acrobat smaller and taking features use PDF to provide their help, because a need for separating out this functionality out wouldn’t necessarily solve this - as long they are already using it for their manuals. to make it easier to use. as there is even one choice, and people There are some holes in what Adobe don’t read manuals, there will be people provide that mean that while they can get INSTON: going the wrong way. close, PDF help is not really very useful. “There is no doubt that the Acrobat Also, most useful applications require the product has a lot of features. But having Adobe made a bad move with Acrobat full Acrobat, so they can’t be distributed. a lot of features is not necessarily a bad 5.0, to remove the ‘Acrobat Tour’ that had PAGE 24 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX been on the help menu. While not promi- PDF MASTER: TED PADOVA Adobe Acrobat Forms & Adobe Acrobat 5 nent enough, it did give a good, short, help Complete Course. When and why did you •Contents TALKS WITH PLANET PDF’S KARL in the right direction. Acrobat vitally needs DE ABREW first get involved with Acrobat/PDF? •Ten years of PDF this kind of thing, but more prominent.” ‘Acrobat PDF Bible’ author practices and TED PADOVA: •Masters of PDF DE ABREW: preaches the PDF religion I started using Adobe Acrobat in it’s first •Security & accessibility Pondering the future of Acrobat and/or Editor’s Note: As part of our ongoing release, version 1.0 in 1992. I started a •Design & creation PDF, what most excites you about the next reflection on the June 1993 introduction service bureau in 1990. At that time we few years? of Adobe Acrobat and PDF by Adobe were using PostScript Level 1 RIPs. Files as •Acrobat best practice Systems, Planet PDF CEO Karl De Abrew simple as a 32K Illustrator or CorelDraw INSTON: •Future of PDF file could take hours to print or often “That things I haven’t thought of, that is conducting a series of brief “Masters they crashed our RIPs. We used Acrobat Adobe never thought of, will continue to of the PDF Universe” profiles with key Distiller and Acrobat Exchange (as it was happen and surprise us all.” members of the Planet PDF community. Today Karl talks with Ted Padova, someone called then) to be a problem solver for use DE ABREW: who both practices what he preaches and when we encountered stubborn files that Briefly describe a common misconception preaches what he practices when it comes ADVERTISEMENT about or frequent problem you’ve seen to Acrobat and PDF. Padova is the author with Acrobat/PDF that you’d like to try to of several relevant books, with the Acrobat clarify for others and/or provide a tip to PDF Bible probably his best-known. �� address. Padova also speaks at various industry �

INSTON: conferences and events, offers workshops �� “There are so many. Some people become and teaches courses. In addition, Padova enraged because Acrobat doesn’t do is the CEO and Managing Partner of The something, because they decided that was Image Source Digital Imaging and Photo what it did. Some people are desperate Finishing Centers in Ventura and Thousand because their job seems to depend on Oaks, CA. Acrobat doing something nobody ever KARL DE ABREW: �� designed it for. My tip is to find out what Today many Acrobat & PDF users will be �� Acrobat can do, before promising your familiar with you because of your work as boss to do something!” the author of many Acrobat/PDF books PAGE 25 of 71 including Acrobat 5.0 PDF Bible, Creating ��

CHAPTER INDEX couldn’t print. I remember my imaging to build a CD-ROM of all the ADDY award they have the tools to do such fantastic technicians running up to me telling me entries and we put all the artwork on CD things right now and today. I don’t see a •Contents they tried to print such and such file and it for that year with all the winners acknowl- new emerging market for Acrobat PDF •Ten years of PDF crashed the RIP. Then they would say “but edged. The file had bookmarks, links and because many people in every industry are •Masters of PDF Ted, after I ‘Acrobated it, it printed in min- sound and a CD-ROM was distributed at using it today. It’s everywhere. What I do utes.” I remember one file in particular that the end of the ADDY Award show to all see happening is tremendous expansion •Security & accessibility we tried to print for more than 8 hours the attendees. As I headed up the project of existing markets by the end of this year. •Design & creation until we finally stopped the RIPing. It was with several local designers, everyone kept I think some of the real growth we’ll see •Acrobat best practice a 150 MB PostScript file that reduced to saying, “WOW, I didn’t know you could will be in design and printing professionals less than 300 K after distillation and printed do that in Acrobat!” It was version 3 that expanding an already standardized market. •Future of PDF perfectly after 15 minutes of RIPing. I proposed writing the Acrobat PDF Bible We’ll see much interest with engineering with my publisher and I also proposed a professionals and growth in enterprises DE ABREW: new class on Acrobat at the University from industry, education and government. Briefly describe the most significant change of California where I was teaching part We’ll see some more growth in the eBook in the development or use of the technol- time. Both my publisher and the university marketplace that still needs a little more ogy, since you first began working with thought it was absurd that I would want to time to mature, and I think we’ll see some Acrobat/PDF, and why do you consider it spend any kind of time on that little thingy growth with multimedia professionals. I significant? you could download free from Adobe’s also think we’ll see more growth in the PADOVA: Web site. Since then, I believe I convinced legal profession. By the end of this calendar One milestone I remember is when them otherwise. year I believe Acrobat will grow substan- Acrobat Pro (version 2 that settled at tially in all markets across the board. DE ABREW: 2.1) was released. Acrobat Catalog was Acrobat and PDF are now used in so many DE ABREW: introduced then and Acrobat started to industries and in so many ways, do you Acrobat has grown into a large, multi-func- reach out to more users. It became more see new areas that haven’t perhaps been tion tool for use in so many areas – includ- than just a rescue utility for me and we tapped much yet? ing document management, presentations, began to see the real promise of PDF. I collaboration, forms and prepress – and it started to look at Acrobat much differently PADOVA: can be intimidating for new users. Is there then and I used it for more than printing It seems to me that many people are a need for separating out this functionality and prepress. Version 3 was the next big always looking over the mountain, so to to make it easier to use. step and when I really started evangelizing speak, about where we’re going and what’s PAGE 26 of 71 the product. I convinced our local Ad club going to happen next without realizing

CHAPTER INDEX PDF MASTER: PATTIE BELLE and why did you first get involved with Acrobat/PDF, and why do you consider it Acrobat/PDF? significant? •Contents HASTINGS TALKS WITH PLANET PDF’S KARL DE ABREW •Ten years of PDF PATTIE BELLE HASTINGS: HASTINGS: Reflects on her Adobe Acrobat use and the “I come from the creative end of the PDF “I guess it would have to be Apple using •Masters of PDF slow growth of truly interactive PDFs world - I make PDFs and teach others how PDF as the imaging model for the OSX •Security & accessibility Editor’s Note: As part of our ongoing to make them. I am in absolute awe of the operating system. They haven’t gotten all •Design & creation reflection on the June 1993 introduction developers and programmers that inhabit the kinks worked out, but it was a brilliant of Adobe Acrobat and PDF by Adobe Planet PDF. move. OS X has to be the easiest (but •Acrobat best practice Systems, Planet PDF CEO Karl De Abrew obviously not perfect) way to create a PDF. A few years ago, my design studio pur- •Future of PDF is conducting a series of brief “Masters There are problems such as file size, but chased a copy of Acrobat 4 to create PDF of the PDF Universe” profiles with key since Distiller is not yet available for OS X files of print collateral for our clients to members of the Planet PDF community. it gives the Mac user another option. distribute on their Web sites. I was also Today Karl talks with Pattie Belle Hastings, going to graduate school at the time and I think another development related to this co-author of the “Adobe Acrobat 5 Master creating multimedia documents as part is the increasing number of applications Class” book, published by Peachpit Press. of my research, when I stumbled across that are able to save or export a docu- A keen proponent for PDFs that are references to buttons, sounds, and movies ment as a PDF without the use of Distiller designed for on-screen viewing – taking in the Acrobat 4 manual. I quickly realized or Acrobat. InDesign 2 is my favorite full advantage of Acrobat’s interactive that interactive PDF files would be easily example, because in addition to exporting and multimedia capabilities – she is an distributable and that I wouldn’t have to PDF files, it has powerful features that Associate Professor of Interactive Design learn a programming language to create allow you to create all kinds of hyperlinks, at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, interesting interactive experiences. Ever bookmarks, and tagged PDFs to name a and an accomplished artist and graphic since, I have been trying to come up with few. My hunch is that the next version of designer. Pattie Belle is a scheduled speaker creative and unusual uses for Acrobat and InDesign will have even more Acrobat type at the PDF Conference in Bethesda, MD in PDF.” features.” June. DE ABREW: DE ABREW: KARL DE ABREW: Briefly describe the most significant change Acrobat and PDF are now used in so many Today many Acrobat & PDF users will be in the development or use of the technol- industries and in so many ways, do you familiar with you because of your book, ogy, since you first began working with see new areas that haven’t perhaps been Adobe Acrobat 5 Master Class. When tapped much yet? PAGE 27 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX HASTINGS: files. I still have that hope, but I think that sign, and comment. Acrobat Approval “I don’t think that the existing areas have it is going to take much longer than I had doesn’t quite fit the bill, though. •Contents even had the surface scratched. How imagined.” Me? I want the ability to do it all, even •Ten years of PDF many people are really using PDF beyond DE ABREW: if I may never get around to it. Almost •Masters of PDF document distribution? How many people Acrobat has grown into a large, multi-func- all software is intimidating to new users are using PDF for editorial workflow? Or •Security & accessibility tion tool for use in so many areas – includ- these days. Have you had a look at Flash, prepress? Or ebooks? Or ...? There is still a ing document management, presentations, Dreamweaver, GoLive, or Director, lately? •Design & creation whole lot of room to grow. collaboration, forms and prepress – and it Even Photoshop has become incredibly •Acrobat best practice I am still not seeing a large increase in PDF can be intimidating for new users. Is there complex. I teach all of these software •Future of PDF files designed for screen use or designed a need for separating out this functionality applications (including Acrobat) to people to take advantage of all the features of to make it easier to use. who have never used them before and Acrobat. I was hoping that after our book Acrobat is the easiest of the lot.” HASTINGS: came out, people would be inspired to “Acrobat has become this sort of Swiss DE ABREW: create beautiful, elaborate, interactive PDF Army knife application and at the same Pondering the future of Acrobat and/or

ADVERTISEMENT time it remains one of the most reasonably PDF, what most excites you about the next priced software packages for its capabili- few years? ARTS PDF Search ties. I have participated in some interesting HASTINGS: Acrobat forum conversations where this “I’d love to see more and more PDFs that Search document collections anywhere. very thing was discussed. There exists are designed for the format. I don’t think Web, intranets, networks, CD and DVD. so much confusion among the general we’ve even approached the edge of what public about Acrobat and Reader (and is possible. Acrobat hasn’t really been Adobe’s various naming schemes over the explored in terms of application’s capabili- years) that if they start splitting it up, the ties in the way that, say, Photoshop has confusion may increase. What I do ‘get’ is been. I think that in the future there will that there is a huge need in the Enterprise be conversations about good PDF design (Adobe’s term - not Star Trek) for a scaled- in the same way that there are lengthy and down version, so that Acme Inc. doesn’t detailed books and discussions about web have to buy 5,000 seats of the full version design and book design.” when they only need to be able to save, PAGE 28 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX DE ABREW: Office PDFMaker plug-in. I would love to Enough. I could obviously go on about all of According to Adobe’s development cycle have Rulers and Guides like in the other this and much more.” •Contents for Acrobat, a new version is expected Adobe applications. I’d love a JavaScript DE ABREW: •Ten years of PDF sometime in early- to mid-2003. What interface with plug n’ play behaviors for Briefly describe a common misconception •Masters of PDF additions or enhancements would you like us code dummies. I’d love to have the about or frequent problem you’ve seen to see in the next major upgrade, and why? ability/interface/instructions on controlling •Security & accessibility with Acrobat/PDF that you’d like to try to sound and movies through JavaScript. HASTINGS: clarify for others and/or provide a tip to •Design & creation Give us more and better page transitions “I have a wish list (some may say pipe address. with an interface for embedding them in a •Acrobat best practice dreams!) and I think I’ll get some of document. HASTINGS: •Future of PDF them, if not all of them. The first would “What I’m really afraid of is a future of be full functionality in OSX with all the How about this - the ability to use movie PDF files that all look like Microsoft Word features matched to those available in skins (Quicktime feature) – this would documents. Do I have a quick and easy Windows. This also includes full par- allow you better integration of movies solution for this? No. ity between platforms of the Microsoft into the design of a PDF? And what about embedding movies? It seems like this I do have a tip, though, and if you are read- ADVERTISEMENT should be possible since you can embed ing this interview you are already doing it. sound - but then what do I know? I’d also If you are interested in PDF for any reason like the movie tool to recognize native .swf and at any level, visit Planet PDF regularly (and MP3, etc.) and frequently. It is the best resource on PDF to be found anywhere and in any Innovative PDF Solutions I’d love the point & shoot linking that you form.” Quite Revealing find on GoLive and Dreamweaver. How Has been developed to "expose PDF secrets." about better integration with GoLive It assists pre-press professionals with preflighting. You view PDF documents and selected and ImageReady, so that you can make a elements side-by-side to figure out where problems might reside. Viewers are provided Navigation Bar in these apps and import with RGB and spot colors, halftones, transparency, transfer functions, ICC profiles, into Acrobat? How about more controls/ and overprinting -- key problem areas. The plug-in also incorporates one-button actions like actions for embedded sound besides renaming, recoloring, combining spot plates, spot to process conversion, halftone and ICC just “play sound?” And please give us the profile removal. ability to play Sound Comments in Reader. Download FREE DEMO Today! www.quite.com Or contact us and get a Free Demo CD [email protected] You can read comments in Reader - why Quite Imposing Plus www.quite.com Call INTERNATIONAL • Phone: +44 208 553 6574 PAGE 29 of 71 Mac OS & WIN 95/98/NT Call U.S.A. and Canada • Phone: 858 581 9143 can’t we hear the sound comments? OK.

CHAPTER INDEX The accessibility issue represents the most publishing, and have little reason to learn. SECURITY & serious strategic vulnerability for PDF at Not only are they unlikely to receive any •Contents ACCESSIBILITY this time. Right now, HTML, DAISY books, technical or functional training on the •Ten years of PDF RTF or (shudder) even Word files stand subject, but in the vast majority of cases, a better chance of becoming definitive as content authors won’t even get an expen- •Masters of PDF DUFF JOHNSON OFFERS “accessible” document formats! Adobe’s sive screen-reader with which to sample •Security & accessibility STRATEGIC REVIEW OF PDF current strategy is top-down, and imposes (dare we add, test) their creations. As a ACCESSIBILITY •Design & creation substantial financial and technical burdens result, their PDF files will be, as always, •Acrobat best practice Document Solutions’ CEO says functional- on content authors. It’s time to look at a built to print, with meaningful accessibility a ity needs to be built-in, not added on bottom-up approach. Accessibility should distant secondary or tertiary consideration. •Future of PDF Copyright © 2003 Duff Johnson, President, be built-in, not added on. In any event, the issue of tags is near- Document Solutions, Inc. THE PROBLEM moot because as PDF creation software Accessibility: Why is it important to Adobe Adobe’s current approach to accessibility proliferates, professional content authors Systems? is to make tags available within the latest- using Adobe products and educated on Editor’s Note: Duff Johnson says this generation PDF specification. Using these accessibility issues will generate only a article was inspired in part by the recent tags, design professionals may provide alt. modest fraction of PDF documents. If emergence of PDFAloud, a new click-to- text layouts and coding that can deliver a tags are required to facilitate accessibility, speak Acrobat plugin that “substantially viable experience for assistive technology then PDF has literally no chance of addresses the ‘accessibility for the masses’ users - theoretically. While text documents becoming known as accessible. Maybe concept referred to in the article.” may, at significant expense and trouble, Reader could auto-tag on the fly? Please. work well with tags, the reality is that only It would be a major miracle if 20 percent Government demands it. Schools need the very simplest forms are really usable of all documents could be meaningfully it. Users want it. But when it comes to with tags alone. While the fact that tags are auto-tagged on opening. Effective tags are making electronic documents friendly to technically capable of rendering document born of many conscious choices, they are assistive technology, the great strengths of text to a screen reader may formally qualify not a default event. The inevitable result of the PDF format are also its weakness. The PDFs for Section 508 compliance, that a tags-only strategy is simply that content very flexibility of PDF and the tremendous point should not be confused with the authors will ignore the issue entirely, power of Acrobat make real accessibility question of functional accessibility. choose a different format, or simply (also known as “usability”) so very, very “dumb-down” their documents. In all such Content authors are rarely familiar with hard to accomplish. cases, PDF loses. PAGE 30 of 71 the requirements of successful accessibility

CHAPTER INDEX GOVERNMENT & ACCESSIBILITY The Canadian government specification via expensive, dysfunctional non-Adobe National, state and local governments, as (WCAG priority 2) is much tougher! software typically maintained in school and •Contents well as non-US governments, increasingly college computer labs. Education & Accessibility •Ten years of PDF require their public document authors not As a practical matter, the legal vehicle •Masters of PDF only to work within accessibility standards To fulfill their mandate to serve the broad for educational distribution of accessible such as Section 508 - but be seen to do population, and to do so on ever tighter •Security & accessibility copyrighted documents is the Chaffee so. As they expand electronic document budgets, state educational systems need as- Amendment, (17 USC § 121). However, •Design & creation usage and web enablement for their sistive technology for electronic documents the current suite of native Acrobat •Acrobat best practice line-of- business processes, governments now. Actually, they needed it yesterday. security features makes PDF unattractive will increasingly favour solutions that Learning Disabled (LD) users represent •Future of PDF to publishers as a “specialized format” include accessibility as a core competency. at least 50 percent of the assistive tech- per the terms of this Amendment. Section 508, which has given Adobe the nology marketplace. There are tens of This misstep is easily corrected with sweats, is actually a pretty easy standard. thousands of LD students in the California the addition of a single security setting Community College system alone. For - another opportunity to highlight Adobe’s these users, PDF files are usable only

Chess strategies Insurance documents Railroad equipment registration �� Class schedules Investment analyst rankings Real estate reports �� College applications Investment management prospecti Reprints �� Commodity statistics Jet engine schematics Risk management analyses Copier manuals Legal briefs Robotic systems specifications �� Adventure travel guides Course packs Legal code Semiconductor schematics �� Agronomic information Deal rooms Library books Sewing patterns � � � �� Sheet music Animal husbandry research Department store catalogs Management consulting proposals �� Architectural plans Divestiture documents Maps Software manuals Auto repair manuals Drum playing instruction Market research Technical books �� Automobile specifications Embedded control systems Medical device instructions Technical standards �� Beer recipes E-zines Milk industry statistics Television listings Bibles FDA submissions Newspapers Tell-all autobiography Copyright 2003 FileOpen Systems, Inc. Adobe and the Adobe logo are either registered trademarks or Bills of lading Financial newsletters Petroleum exploration maps Tests trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the Biotechnology analysis Financial reports Photography collections Textbooks United States and/or other countries. Branding proposals Geographic Information Systems Physics journals Theological theses Business school case studies Grant proposals Physics monographs Tout sheets Business school rankings Health information Price lists Train schedules Career guides Highway transportation statistics Private jet repair manuals Wind turbine schematics Certification training guides Home building plans Pump schematics Wine industry reports PAGE 31 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX commitment to accessibility, and a boon • Integrate seamlessly with annotations, that should not mean that resolving the to all publishers that ever wanted to sell a scripts or tagged PDF, and at a low level needs of the blind is the only reasonable •Contents book into the education marketplace. with Acrobat controls to provide full- goal in promoting document accessibility. •Ten years of PDF spectrum accessibility and high-order California’s AB 422, passed in 1999, In attempting to address the needs of •Masters of PDF usability increased the pressure on textbook and the blind, whose tireless work produced •Security & accessibility other publishers by requiring them to • Deliver screen-reader integration and Section 508 in the first place, Adobe aimed available advanced functions (on-board •Design & creation provide electronic versions of their publica- their solution at a strictly legal interpretations for disabled users to California’s state dictionary and special security privileges tion of the code, which fundamentally •Acrobat best practice and community college systems. Three to support annotations, etc.) misses the point for blind and non-blind •Future of PDF years after this law was passed, public Since annotation functions are important alike. It is this: Ultimately, usability is the education institutions are still scanning to Learning Disabled users, the addition point at which accessibility claims are books and converting the images to KESI of viable assistive technology to Acrobat sorted from accessibility facts. format for use with the expensive Kurzweil enhances the likelihood that LD users will Reader when they could be simply distrib- access educational resources in order to uting PDF files provided by the publisher become licensees of “full version” Acrobat and saving everyone a lot of time, money to gain access to annotation capabilities. ADVERTISEMENT and trouble. Adobe can make a real difference to 70 percent of assistive technology users and Accessibility for the Masses simultaneously accomplish a lot more than By developing text-to-speech (TTS) as a just protect their government marketplace. core function within the Acrobat product PDF isn’t just some random format, you family, Adobe could actually begin to know! It’s got clout! meet the needs of the vast majority of the CONCLUSION assistive technology marketplace without Blind users represent the greatest techni- the structural inadequacies and enforced cal challenge for electronic document brain-damage of the tags-only approach. accessibility. This user population keeps Advanced TTS implementation in Acrobat the assistive technology vendors honest, could: because the blind understand usability in a • Revolutionize accessibility to any PDF way that one can only imagine by turning PAGE 32 of 71 file via a simple click-to-speak metaphor off the monitor and still trying to work. But

CHAPTER INDEX Only the narrowest of interpretations experienced staff use best-of-breed hardware, would conclude that Section 508 defines software and workflow techniques to convert, •Contents accessibility as making all the text on the enhance and manage electronic documents •Ten years of PDF page available to assistive technology. If for Fortune 500 companies, publishers, •Masters of PDF Adobe persists in the tags-only strategy, government agencies and international organizations needing to improve their organizations. •Security & accessibility accessibility profile will tend to opt for •Design & creation cost- effective usability (HTML) over ELCOMSOFT FOUND *NOT •Acrobat best practice expensive uncertainty (PDF). Adobe GUILTY* ON DMCA CHARGES cannot afford that. when word came early today that the •Future of PDF California jury finds no “willful intent” to jury had reached a verdict in the case. He Accessibility solely via the tags paradigm violate U.S. Copyright law told Planet PDF by telephone today that was a misstep in the right direction. That By Kurt Foss, Planet PDF Editor both Dmitry Sklyarov and Vladimir Katalov “progress” means little in the current or After a two-week court trial that many returned to Moscow at the end of their foreseeable accessibility marketplace. The considered a landmark copyright case and testimony last week. “I’m very excited,” perception will remain that PDF is not the first criminal indictment under the Katalov said shortly after hearing the ‘Not particularly accessible because into the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Guilty’ verdict, which brings to an end an foreseeable future, only a small percent- Act (DMCA), a jury in the U.S. District ordeal that with the arrest of Sklyarov by age of PDF files will include usable tags. Court of Northern California has found the FBI in Las Vegas a year and a half ago, a To achieve both short-term success and ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. (www.elcomsoft.com) story we were the first to report. Katalov protect long-term viability, Adobe should of Moscow, Russia not guilty on all charges admits – like Sklyarov almost a year ago seriously consider the Accessibility for the brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. – that he’s now eager to return home to Masses strategy for version 6.1. Moscow to tend to running his software Alexander Katalov, CEO of ElcomSoft, Duff Johnson is founder, president and CEO company after “spending more time in [photo below] was the only company of Document Solutions, Inc. (www.document- the U.S. than in Russia” last year while representative still in San Jose solutions.com), one of the first electronic the various stages of the legal process document service bureaus centered on PDF unfolded. He plans to fly home on Monday technology. DSI has provided state-of-the- now that there’s no need to consider an art paper to PDF conversions and other appeal, a decision the company would advanced PDF services since 1996. Focused have faced had the verdict gone against them. Presumably with the conclusion PAGE 33 of 71 on application requirements, DSI’s large,

CHAPTER INDEX of the trial, the original charges against Asked whether he plans to return to the in particular the Electronic Frontier Sklyarov will be officially dropped, part U.S. in the future – without the indictment Foundation (EFF) – regarding the “fair •Contents of an agreement reached in exchange compelling him to travel – Katalov says use” rights of owners of legally purchased •Ten years of PDF for his testimony in the case. While it he’d like to “but it’s up to the U.S. eBooks. •Masters of PDF had been widely reported that Sklyarov Department of State whether I can get a would be the government’s star witness, visa.” The start of the trial was delayed •Security & accessibility prosecutor’s chose not to call him to testify for a second time a few months ago when •Design & creation in person despite his presence. Instead, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow denied visa •Acrobat best practice they showed a videotaped deposition from applications for both Katalov and Sklyarov a year earlier; Sklyarov eventually took to attend the trial. •Future of PDF the stand when called by defense attorney According to an Associated Press Jospeh Burton of Duane Morris LLP in San report on today’s verdict, jurors were Francisco. sympathetic to an argument raised by “Jury foreman Dennis Strader said the ElcomSoft and its supporters – including argument made a big impact on the jurors,

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CHAPTER INDEX who asked U.S. District Judge Ronald M. development of the AEBPR program. the letter’s author. In the letter, the sniper Whyte to clarify the ‘fair use’ definition ElcomSoft did stop selling the product, but demands a $10 million dollar ransom •Contents shortly after deliberations began. ‘Under the government chose to continue with and explains how that money should be •Ten years of PDF the eBook formats, you have no rights the matter even after Adobe withdrew its delivered – deposited in a specific, stolen •Masters of PDF at all, and the jury had trouble with that support for Sklyarov’s prosecution. credit card account. Certain personally concept,’ said Strader.” identifying details are blacked out in the •Security & accessibility WASHINGTON POST’S PDF file. The criminal charges in the case resulted •Design & creation SCANNED-TO-PDF SNIPER from ElcomSoft’s development and sales LETTER MORE REVEALING THAN •Acrobat best practice of a software product called “Advanced INTENDED •Future of PDF eBook Processor” By Kurt Foss, Planet PDF Editor As reported earlier today, The Washington Post published a scanned-to-PDF version of a handwritten letter left at the scene of one of the recent sniper shootings, However, as a sharp-eyed Planet PDF allegedly written by the killers and intended reader has pointed out to us in an email for the police. message, the creators of the scanned PDF – it’s unclear whether it was produced at the newspaper or elsewhere – have them- that, according to the company’s original selves revealed more information than they press release issued on June 22, 2001, intended. “makes it easy to remove both password encryption and usage restrictions from Adobe Acrobat PDF files and eBooks.” Adobe Systems’ Anti-Piracy team issued a cease-and-desist order demanding that The Post published the downloadable ElcomSoft stop selling the product because version of the “Ashland Sniper letter” it allegedly violated the DMCA; Sklyarov to illustrate its article explaining how was arrested July 16, 2001 when he was police were able to decipher additional, in the U.S. presenting his research into significant information from both revealed Anyone using the full commercial version and unintended clues communicated by of Adobe Acrobat software (NOT the PAGE 35 of 71 PDF security, which in part led to the

CHAPTER INDEX free Acrobat Reader) to display the PDF In pointing out the Post’s blunder, our alert from Appligent – that works with Adobe can very easily remove the blacked-out tipster adds “How long will the media keep Acrobat for this exact situation. Many •Contents areas intended to hide certain details. shooting itself in the foot this way. The file government agencies commonly use •Ten years of PDF The PDF is simply an image file to which is not even protected in any way.” The it to redact, or extract, certain bits of •Masters of PDF an added layer of black has been added. comment is a reference to a similar incident information from private documents By choosing Acrobat’s TouchUp Object we reported a couple years ago in an article so they can be made publicly available. •Security & accessibility Tool, then selecting a particular section titled “PDF Secrets Revealed,” in which Redax actually removes the selected •Design & creation of the darkened area, one can easily drag we showed how The New York Times text (including text within a graphic) and •Acrobat best practice the overlay away from the text it is meant had inadvertently revealed the identities of replaces it with meaningless blocks; The to protect, clearly revealing details such several CIA agents who were named in a redacted information is “permanently •Future of PDF as the name and account number of the previously secret document the newspaper removed from the PDF stream,” according person whose credit card the snipers were had obtained and later published. to Appligent. attempting to use to stash their ransom As we noted at the time, there is cash. commercial software available – Redax

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CHAPTER INDEX technical manuals etc.) over electronic mail as the “barriers to entry” for the graphic distribution networks. These documents arts continued to fall - a process that began •Contents DESIGN & CREATION could be viewed on any machine and any with the emergence of desktop publishing •Ten years of PDF selected document could be printed locally. in the 1980s and continues to this day. •Masters of PDF This capability would truly change the way THE PDF/X SOLUTION PDF 1.2 was released in 1996 in the form information is managed.” And indeed it did. •Security & accessibility By Craig Kirkwood of Acrobat 3. It was the first prepress savvy Within a decade, PDF emerged trium- incarnation of the format and included •Design & creation The sad truth about PDF is that it has phant. It had conquered the enterprise, support for the CMYK color space, spot •Acrobat best practice emerged as a de facto standard for the embellished the Web and re-invented colors, halftone functions and overprint exchange of documents across platforms •Future of PDF the electronic form. It also seduced the instructions. This was a big step forward and devices. What a tremendous task that prepress market but not without claims and within a couple of years, third party is: a single format suitable for all occasions, that that particular bride, if you’ll excuse vendors such as Enfocus had begun to rally all applications and all computers, regard- the metaphor, was taken by force. The to the prepress cause with plug-ins and less of industry or market. The problem prepress industry felt compromised. How stand-alone products that helped bureaus is, it’s not always suitable. Like any tool could they accept a file format which which attempts to be universal, there are their well-informed staff were unable to ADVERTISEMENT shortcomings when it comes to the special- edit and “improve” prior to processing? ist requirements of particular groups. In the Anyone could build a PDF but how could case of PDF, that group is prepress. they be sure it was correctly distilled; with When the venerable John Warnock a four-plate color space; with the correct first conceived the idea of “Interchange image resolution; using Postscript fonts? Of Postscript” in his now famous 1991 course, they couldn’t... Camelot white paper, it was about As PDF gained momentum, the printing document distribution or what we now and graphic arts industries became increas- call “printing on demand”. It was not so ingly frustrated with the lack of standards much about either reading on-screen or in document integrity despite the quite about the specific commercial needs of stringent requirements of raster image publishers. As Warnock wrote: “Imagine processors used with Imagesetting equip- being able to send full text and graphics, ment and, later, computer-to-plate sys- documents (newspapers, magazine articles, PAGE 37 of 71 tems. Indeed, this frustration grew as fast

CHAPTER INDEX and publishers ensure PDF integrity before consortium requested the development The result was PDF/X-1, approved as an going through the lengthy process of creat- of a PDF-based standard for the printing American national standard in 1999. •Contents ing film. But this was only satisfactory to a industry designed to transcend some of the PDF/X-1 was based on PDF 1.2 but it •Ten years of PDF point. What was needed was a standard. problems the industry was facing due to file included additions such as support for ICC •Masters of PDF inconsistencies. In the late 1990s a US industry consortium color profiles, bleed and definitions, and a •Security & accessibility gathered to find a solution to this increas- Specifically, DDAP and the NAA were system for establishing whether a file has •Design & creation ing problem. The first step was a formal concerned with the problem of receiving already been trapped. While PDF/X-1 was approach by the Newspapers Association and processing display advertising for regarded as a success, CGATS believed •Acrobat best practice of America (NAA) and the Digital Delivery newspapers and magazines. After all, an industry-wide standard should be •Future of PDF of Advertising for Publication organisation ensuring both publishers and advertisers developed rather than one confined to (DDAP) to the US Committee for Graphic work to the same system would shave digital advertising as the same issues af- Arts Technical Standards (CGATS), which millions off the cost of receiving, process- fect all aspects of printing and publishing, manages standards for the US graphic ing and proofing advertising - particularly regardless of the content. The result was arts industry on behalf of ANSI. The in the face of falling advertising revenue. ISO 15930-1:200, an international stand-

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CHAPTER INDEX ard which included both an application PDF/X is a Big Step Forward for printing of the product design as well, with many standard and a file format specification: and prepress but it’s still not a simple menu items having been removed or •Contents PDF/X-1a. solution. Various trade groups and larger consolidated to result in a clean, intuitive •Ten years of PDF publishers such as Time Warner, for interface in the final product. PDF/X-1a is actually a subset of the PDF •Masters of PDF example, are building on the PDF/X specification which means any PDF reader In our humble opinion, this offering standard with specifications unique to •Security & accessibility can open and display a PDF/X-1a file and has made a quantum leap forward in their publication. There is also another any PDF production device can process a terms of usability. Significantly, the Help •Design & creation variation, PDF/X-3, which has been defined PDF/X-1a file. Of course, only PDF/X-1a- system is no longer PDF-based, and the •Acrobat best practice to include color management metadata. compliant devices can reliably render the change facilitates concurrent browsing or With an international standard in place, •Future of PDF result. manipulation of PDFs without the need to however, the industry has at last got a solid switch back and forth between documents. Suppliers are required to specify what framework in place and the days of flaky In addition, the new model incorporates the PDF/X file has been prepared for. PDF files with RGB color spaces are finally a ridiculously user-friendly “How To...” In the US, for example, printers would nearing an end. interface for the most frequently asked typically require the file to be prepared questions. for SWOP, a statement which would imply A FIRST LOOK AT ADOBE READER 6 that the file will be fully PDF/X compliant Enter: the vanguard of Acrobat’s new How does the update affect Accessibility in but optimized for that particular printing product line PDF? environment: a nominal 133 lpi screen, By Dan Shea, Planet PDF For the visually-impaired, there is now a with specified ink colors and dot gain, readily accessible, built-in screen reader which in turn implies that CT scans should Here we go again! It’s been a while, but that can be controlled by simple menu normally be saved at between 200 and 270 as of today, we now have an official first commands (View > Read Out Loud) pixels per inch. An additional parameter look at Adobe’s brand-new PDF viewer. and hotkey combinations. As an added provides for metadata unique to the When you open the newly renamed Adobe bonus, the Document menu now inclides publication the document is being printed Reader for the first time, likely one of an Accessibility Quick Check command, for. This would be specified by the designer the first things that you will notice is the which will summarize the active docu- or publisher and addresses specification revamped interface. For one thing, there ment’s compliance to the famous Section such as trim sizes and bleed, and the are noticeably fewer icons on the screen, 508. precise resolution to be used for LW scans and those that do appear are larger and etc. clearer than ever before. This philosophy Another significant advance is the Search PAGE 39 of 71 that “Less is more” permeates the rest pane, which allows for full text searching

CHAPTER INDEX of either individual documents or even What about Adobe eBook Reader? the Planet PDF community. It’s in part a PDF archives without the need for pre- response to feedback on an earlier item •Contents Another point to note – and perhaps defined index files such as those created by one reason for the name change – is that by another CP columnist that suggested •Ten years of PDF Catalog. Adobe Reader is more than just the new designers have mixed emotions among •Masters of PDF Adobe Acrobat and PDF. As Pfiffner puts it: In addition, the new offering has also version of Acrobat Reader: it is in fact the “They know they have to use it, but often •Security & accessibility streamlined options for the selection and synthesis of Acrobat Reader and the short- lived eBook Reader. As such, it includes they see it as a threat to their livelihoods.” •Design & creation extraction of PDF content. Along with allowing users to save out as plain text several useful eBook-specific features such The reason, she says, is that “the general •Acrobat best practice (Previously reserved for the full version), as the My Bookshelf function, which allows perception is that PDF cuts designers out •Future of PDF the updated Select Image Tool now users to readily access a list of commonly of the process.” automatically selects complete image used PDF documents or eBooks without Personally, I find this line of thinking quite objects with a single click. Those nostalgic the need to build a separate archive. astounding, on a number of levels. First, for the old method can still make manual Key Differences as they say, ‘consider the source.’ By that I selections using the new Snapshot Tool. Don’t be fooled by the simplified interface, mean the source of the technology: Adobe ADVERTISEMENT however, as Adobe Reader 6 is certainly Systems, widely recognized as *the* most more feature-rich than it’s predecessors. significant producer of software for the graphics and design community. It’s hard to PDF AS A NECESSARY EVIL? fathom a company whose customer base We recently featured a promotional for its various products has consisted of the contest for the book “Inside the Publishing exact type of creative professionals – many Revolution: The Adobe Story” by Pamela of them designers and graphic artists – de- Pfiffner, published by Peachpit Press. In liberately trying to alienate this audience. her day job, Pfiffner works as the editor- Logic and good business sense dictate that in-chief of the popular CreativePro Web Adobe would more likely seek to develop site where, among her other duties, complementary products. One can only she occasionally comments on graphics- presume, since PDF-generation capabilities oriented news and events. are now part of most of the company’s graphics products, that they view PDF as Her current editorial “Can Designers Learn meaningful and relevant to customers using to Love PDF?” is particularly relevant to PAGE 40 of 71 its other graphics tools.

CHAPTER INDEX The problem here, as Pfiffner points out, situations, then there’s no hard and fast rule of and complement to the principles of seems to be a misunderstanding of the that says one format is always the right one. design, seems to me. •Contents product. In that sense, add it to the list. Each has its merits and its shortcomings. Last, with the ever-increasing acceptance •Ten years of PDF What percentage of people, 10 years Weigh them, make a decision ... if you must. of PDF, within not the least of professional •Masters of PDF since the product family was launched, still On the debit side of the ledger for HTML, arenas the publishing world, any designer don’t grasp the difference between the •Security & accessibility at least as perceived by people skilled today who chooses to ignore the potential commercial Acrobat product and the freely in print-oriented design, is the ongoing applications of PDF only limits themselves •Design & creation downloadable Acrobat Reader? Or the challenge of preserving in HTML the and for some, also their future career •Acrobat best practice product name from the *company* name, exact look and feel intentionally created opportunities. for that matter? Far too many, judging •Future of PDF by a knowledgeable designer. Simply by the frequent, inaccurate references Pfiffner concludes that the fault here lies too many uncontrollable variables - still we still see and hear. That aside, Acrobat to a great extent with Adobe marketing, a true today, but even worse the time this (and most certainly not the free Reader) group that over the years has been flogged debate peaked. And as anyone who has should never be thought of as a design for any number of shortcomings, both worked much with PDF knows by now, tool – at least in terms of being useful in perceived and real. She says “Adobe needs that’s where PDF shines. It preserves the authoring process. But to leap from to tweak its marketing strategy so that the intelligent decisions made by skilled that to a conclusion that Acrobat – and designers better understand the role PDF designers so that readers will perceive the PDF, by affiliation – is in any way a threat plays.” information in the exact manner originally seems a jump worthy of ... dare I say, a intended. It may be an inexact science or At the same time, working in a field as trained acrobat. While not a design tool, it’s skill, but there’s a world of evidence and competitive as publishing, any designers definitely a tool. experience that supports the notion that (and companies employing designers) One discussion we’ve fortunately begun to presentation (design) plays a key role in looking to have a richer and more valuable hear less of in the days of Acrobat 5 is the comprehension of information. toolbox than others in the field would be debate about ‘HTML or PDF,’ a narrow- well advised not to sit back and wait for the If design didn’t matter, we wouldn’t need minded argument that once presumed one maligned Adobe Marketeers to get around PDF, or at least not for fidelity’s sake. But if had to choose between the two formats for to dispensing such enlightenment. you buy into the notion that communication Web publishing. As we’ve opined before, results in part from the conscious, Read Pfiffner’s column and, if you have an there’s not really much debate here – and deliberate intentions of a design-oriented opinion, join us in the PDF-Talkback section if there is, the answer is ‘both.’ But if you individual or staff, then viewing PDF as a of the Planet PDF Forum to have a pow- really need to make a choice for certain PAGE 41 of 71 threat seems unjustifiable. It’s an extension wow on this topic.

CHAPTER INDEX ADOBE PACIFIC’S NICK HODGE creating files intended to be read on- for Windows, but not for the mac version). screen such as the case when making a “It’s evil. Those working in graphic arts •Contents ON ‘THE MAKING OF GOOD PDFS’ presentation at a conference. Of course, should avoid it at all costs!” says Hodge, •Ten years of PDF Certain principles to keep in mind this is not necessarily a homogeneous not so much because it’s a bad product but •Masters of PDF group – indeed the needs of those creating because it was designed for applications By Craig Kirkwood, Planet PDF Graphic Arts Editor documents to be laser printed are not the that cannot generate PostScript - a species •Security & accessibility At the recent Open Publish conference same as those intended for the Web – but which is all but extinct. •Design & creation in Sydney, Adobe Asia-Pacific’s resident they do share a condition that the files will Hodge recommends avoiding PDFWriter •Acrobat best practice PDF Master, Nick Hodge, spoke at length not (necessarily) be sent to a commercial because it has a number of inherent of the need to create what he calls “good raster image processor (RIP) such as •Future of PDF problems. To begin with, key publishing PDFs” in both the enterprise and pre-press that used in a pre-press imagesetter or a applications such as PageMaker and environments. He identified a number of computer-to-plate printer. QuarkXPress function very poorly with it, dos and don’ts that can be applied to all Graphic arts or pre-press users are those creating less than optimum results. There Acrobat users – with some issues being intending to take the file to be offset or is also no CMYK support, as required for more critical than others, according to the digitally printed or those working in a offset printing, and images are compressed context. pre-press bureau or printing environment to a way too low 72 DPI. Finally, vector Hodge believes some simple principles themselves. Such users have much more images such as EPS files display and print should be adhered to regardless of the rigorous requirements of their files. While very poorly becoming “green and slimy,” working environment. “While enterprise there are a number of 3rd-party products says Hodge. users typically demand less of PDFs than available to ensure the “preflight” integrity those working in graphic arts and pre- of PDFs that doesn’t diminish the necessity The Distiller press, it’s still important to ensure the to ensure files are in good shape before Hodge believes that mastering the Distiller, integrity of the file,” says Hodge. “The preflighting. specifically the Job Options settings, is the principles of creating good PDFs remain key to creating good PDFs. “Once you’re the same regardless of the domain.” PDFWriter is Evil! comfortable inside the Acrobat Distiller Despite the one-step convenience, Job Options dialog box you’re 90 percent Enterprise vs. Pre-press even enterprise users should avoid of the way there,” he says. Planet PDF By “enterprise users” we mean those using the PDFWriter application which, until regularly publishes tips and tricks regarding Acrobat for predominantly document recently, shipped with Acrobat (it’s still Distiller options and other aspects of exchange or archival purposes or those available as a custom install with Acrobat 5 PAGE 42 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX PDF creation, but here are some of the quite so typical. Color management, for of the color gamut of your monitor. There’s important settings to become familiar with: example, when correctly used throughout a lot to say on this subject, but there are •Contents the production process, will generate some good resources online, notably First of all the default Job Options available •Ten years of PDF more predictable results than the effective Adobe’s Color and Color Management in Acrobat 4 and 5 are a great start and •Masters of PDF guess work that follows the use of an technical guides. satisfy the needs of most according to the uncalibrated monitor and incorrect color •Security & accessibility particular task at hand. That is, selecting the Font embedding is another issue that space translation. •Design & creation “Print” Job Option will compress images Hodge highlighted during his presentation. and embed fonts in order to create an Actually, Acrobat is intended to permit “soft Those new to the PDF creation process •Acrobat best practice optimum file for printing to a laser printer. proofing” on screen; that is, the ability to may assume that subsetting fonts would •Future of PDF Likewise, the “Press” Job Option setting confidently assess the results of a printed produce an inferior results. Not so says will apply a minimum of image compression file by viewing the PDF on your monitor. Hodge, subsetting forces the client machine and maximize the results for offset printing. But creating a reliable on-screen experience to use embedded fonts rather than use requires consistency of profiling across local systems fonts. Given the wide variance There are, however, a lot of variables that devices, including the correct assessment among fonts – even between fonts with can be employed when conditions are not

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CHAPTER INDEX the same name, from the same foundry selected Job Options. Ensuring “good technologies, the reality is, of course, that – it’s best to avoid local fonts in pre-press PostScript” then is the other factor in important U.S. government documents •Contents environments. determining good PDF and, according to like the Declaration of Independence •Ten years of PDF Hodge, this can be achieved by ensuring were created and existed only on paper •Masters of PDF Two Step you have the current version of the Adobe (or another analog storage method for Hodge also pointed out that creating PostScript Driver installed. preservation purposes) for most of the •Security & accessibility a PDF is actually a two-stage process country’s history. At the time of writing, Adobe is •Design & creation despite the fact that it typically occurs as recommending AdobePS 8.5.1 or later. The It wasn’t until the presidency of Bill Clinton •Acrobat best practice just one action. That is, when you print Acrobat 5.0 CD includes version 8.7.2 and – coincidentally rather than intentionally to the Acrobat Distiller, the first thing •Future of PDF the Acrobat 4 CD includes 8.5.1. If you’re – that the federal government began to get that happens is a PostScript file is created. running a Mac, particularly if you work serious about the advantages of digitized The Distiller is, in fact, a PostScript RIP; with QuarkXPress, it would pay to take a documents and records. Legislation such as and PostScript, just to be clear, is a page- look at Adobe’s support files regarding the the Paperwork Elimination Act have helped description language as opposed to PDF, installation of the PostScript Printer Driver to focus government agencies on the which is a file format. as you’ll need the Virtual Printer plug-in to importance of harnessing new technologies, The creation of the PDF file is actually obtain best results. including Adobe Acrobat and PDF, to the second phase of the process. Thus, become more efficient and effective. There’s much more to creating optimum while most users create the PostScript PDFs than we can cover here, but take a While we tend to think most often about and PDF at the same time, an alternative look at our Tips and Tricks section, Shlomo the conversion of ongoing services such as workflow is to create the PostScript Perets’ “PDF Best Practices” series and the IRS’ tax forms or the FDA’s streamlined file, then create PDFs according to the the Planet PDF Forum for sound advice. drug approval procedures, there are other output requirements. Thus a PDF can be Adobe’s support pages and expert center agencies charged with digitally preserving created for press, print or Web from a are also great resources. the country’s past. single PostScript file by merely dragging and dropping the PostScript file onto the A new Web site – part of a new initiative PORTABLE HISTORY Distiller with the appropriate Job Options called “Our Documents: A National By Kurt Foss, Planet PDF Editor set for the desired output. Initiative on American History, Civics, and Aside from yesterday’s Weblog entry that Service” announced by Pres. George W. The integrity of the final PDF is thus a speculated on the likes of Thomas Jefferson Bush on September 17 – is a great example product of both the PostScript data and having access to today’s portable document of these latter efforts. PAGE 44 of 71 the Distillation process according to the

CHAPTER INDEX • Learn More About this Document: unity, and our commitment as a nation to Background on the particular historical continue our work toward forming ‘a more •Contents topic perfect union.’” •Ten years of PDF • View Larger Images of this Document: The site emphasizes the educational use •Masters of PDF Zoom in and view larger images of these historic documents, and features •Security & accessibility • Read the Transcript of this Document: appropriate resources designed to help •Design & creation Easily read all of the text contained teachers integrate them into classroom within the document projects and offering relevant educational •Acrobat best practice • Download Printer-friendly PDFs: High- competitions for students. The site links to •Future of PDF resolution, image-only PDFs (created NARA’s “Digital Classroom” project and with Adobe Photoshop) formatted to to the National History Day site. Available Each week the OurDocuments.gov print on standard 8-1/2-inch x 11-inch for download is a large, suitable-for- site features three so-called “Milestone paper printing “Our Documents” poster, and an Documents,” important historical records information kit, both in PDF. intended to help users “relive defining The site features a list of 100 milestone ADVERTISEMENT moments in our history.” Featured this documents, compiled by the National week, for example, are the following: �� Archives and Records Administration � � � � � � � • President Andrew Jackson’s Message to (NARA), and which cover American history �� Congress ‘On Indian Removal’ (1830) from 1776 (Declaration of Independence) to 1965 (Voting Rights Act). According to �� • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) �� the site ... � �� • Compromise of 1850 � �� “The remaining milestone documents � �� A thumbnail preview image and a brief are among the thousands of public laws, � �� description of each document is provided, Supreme Court decisions, inaugural �� along with a detailed citation that refer- speeches, treaties, constitutional ences the source of the information. The amendments, and other documents that particular document and the historical have influenced the course of U.S. history. incident and/or issue it represents can be They have helped shape the national further explored by following the provided character, and they reflect our diversity, our PAGE 45 of 71 links, offering the following options:

CHAPTER INDEX • Topic- and Page-Level Orientation: When converting a book to a single PDF, improving pagination to create easier- the title will typically be the book title. •Contents ACROBAT BEST PRACTICE to-read page units; identifying the Converting a book to separate, cross- •Ten years of PDF current page, topic or location through linked PDFs (one for each chapter) enables running headers, page labels or topic- more precision, as each chapter can have a •Masters of PDF PDF BEST PRACTICES #6: specific bookmarks. specific title. •Security & accessibility HELPING READER ORIENTATION • Library-Level Orientation: showing •Design & creation Location pinpointers can keep users from Following are some guidelines for docu- the relation of the current PDF to being ‘lost in Hyperspace’ ment titles: •Acrobat best practice other PDFs in the sa me document set By Shlomo Perets of MicroType •Future of PDF through roadmaps or cross-file book- When viewing PDF files, readers often marks. move between different parts of the same Advanced interactive items and graphic PDF document or between different aids can provide additional help where documents, following links, bookmarks or applicable. All of these techniques help to • The title identifies the document, and Find/Search functions. prevent the “lost in hyperspace” problem, should be consistent with the document Providing information on the current improving the reading experience and content/purpose. document and on the location within the making it less demanding. • When converting a book to separate document helps to reduce reader disori- PDFs, titles may be identical to the Document-Level Orientation entation and facilitates efficient access to chapter titles, or they may also include information. TITLE the book/collection name in short form A descriptive document title is very helpful, (making it easier to identify items when This can be accomplished through a com- and can be displayed in the title bar at all the Search Results list includes multiple bination of items discussed in this article, times (enclosed in square brackets). Having hits). including the following: a unique, meaningful title is also important • Avoid standard opening phrases; a when using the Search function. Title and • Document-Level Orientation: unique beginning will make the titles other metadata fields are also used by web Document-Level Orientation: including easier to identify when titles are listed search engines; guidelines should be set for a document title, metadata, using an together in the Search Results list. appropriate opening state and cross-file these accordingly. The title may be spoken • Titles must be unambiguous and bookmarks. by text-to-speech engines (or screen readers). meaningful out of context. Note that PAGE 46 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX when a PDF is viewed through a web The shortcut for this in both versions is • If the PDF files are to be displayed in browser plug-in, its title is not displayed Control+D. Acrobat/Reader 5, activate the “Display •Contents in the browser’s title bar. A top-level Document Title” setting. If supported with your authoring applica- •Ten years of PDF bookmark can be used to fill this gap; tion, it is better to specify the title in the • IF the PDF files may also be displayed •Masters of PDF bookmarks for main chapters/sections source file (such as Word or FrameMaker), in earlier releases of Acrobat/Reader, should be nested under this bookmark, •Security & accessibility and have it carried over to the PDF auto- activate the “Resize Window to Initial initially expanded. Page” - this will have a resizing effect •Design & creation matically. To set the document title: as well as displaying the title in the title •Acrobat best practice To display the title in the title bar: bar. In Acrobat 5: File > Document •Future of PDF Properties, Summary. Acrobat 4: File > Document Info > Open Additional Fields: In addition to Title, Info, and specify “Resize Window To Initial Acrobat’s standard metadata fields include In Acrobat 4: File > Document Info > Page”. the Subject, Author and Keywords fields General. (blank unless populated). Acrobat 5: File > Document Properties > Open Options, Window Options.

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CHAPTER INDEX • Depending on page design and content, of font and size, and have additional space a default zoom level may be useful, such above and below. •Contents as Fit Page, Fit Width or 100%. •Ten years of PDF TOPIC-SPECIFIC BOOKMARKS • In some cases, especially when the •Masters of PDF same source is used for print and •Security & accessibility viewing, the first page of the document is not necessarily the best place for the •Design & creation PDF to open at. For instance, opening Even though these were primarily intended •Acrobat best practice directly at the table of contents may be to be used by Acrobat Search (and are more helpful than front-matter items •Future of PDF also used by some web search engines), (that are required when the document they may be useful for your readers. The is printed, but typically have to be Document Summary is easily accessible in skipped when opening the PDF). Acrobat/Reader 4 and 5 through a button above the vertical scrolling bar (also avail- • If magnification and page layout are able when PDFs are displayed in a web specified to be “Default,” settings browser). Establish guidelines relevant to specified in local preferences are used. your types of documents and apply consist- These are effective in the specific computer only and can be set through ently. Bookmarks are very important in enabling Edit > Preferences > General, Display the user to visualize document structure, OPENING STATE tab (in Acrobat 4: File > Preferences); and were discussed in depth in a previous • The default opening page and zoom Default Page Layout and Default Zoom. of your PDF should display enough PDF Best Practices column. Bookmarks information to indicate at a glance what Topic and Page Level Orientation also indicate the currently viewed section the document is about. HEADINGS in the document (in Acrobat 5 with an emphasized page-like icon for and in • Initial display of the PDF should gener- Headings, in styles corresponding to the Acrobat 4, a bold bookmark). For this ally include bookmarks. In some graph- hierarchy of topics, significantly help the feature to be effective, bookmarks for ics-intensive PDFs, thumbnails may be fast scanning of pages when looking for main sections should be initially expanded; preferable as the default opening mode. information. To be effective, they must be distinct from the body of the text in terms if all major sections are collapsed under a top-level bookmark (as is the case with PAGE 48 of 71 Acrobat 5 Help PDF, under “Contents”),

CHAPTER INDEX only that bookmark is initially emphasized, on-screen orientation than headers, so PAGE LABELS rendering this feature useless. topic-specific information should be placed Page labels are useful when trying to access •Contents in headers, while the document name can a specific page by its printed page number, PAGE HEADERS •Ten years of PDF be placed in the footer. and they are important when there are Page headers are very useful as a way to •Masters of PDF discrepancies between the printed page keep readers informed as to where they In documents optimized for on-screen number and the sequential page number •Security & accessibility are. Even if the document title is set to reading, unless the anticipated primary use used in Acrobat to access pages or display show the specific chapter, readers benefit is through a web browser, it is possible •Design & creation page number. Page labels are especially from a running header listing the specific to add printable information that is not •Acrobat best practice important in the case of chapter number- topic being discussed in the current page, displayed on-screen using form fields (for ing (e.g. 3-1,3-2,3-3), as no fixed offset •Future of PDF especially in reference-type PDFs, where instance, so that the document title is between the printed and sequential page links are frequently activated. This running printed in the header). number could be deduced here, and when header could list the text of lower-level SINGLE-SIDED PAGINATION having to access a specific page in the PDF headings, or be a dictionary-style, “from- On-screen, readers typically view one page by its print-related number, one has to to” header. Footers are less efficient for at a time. Critical information must there- resort to trial and error. fore appear on every page in a consistent ADVERTISEMENT Page labels, when specified, are displayed location. Single-sided pagination where (Acrobat 4 or higher) in the status bar (in there is no difference between the location front of the page number), when dragging of header information (including page num- the vertical scrolling bar, and when thumb- bers) on left and right pages is preferable. nails are displayed. Go To Page and Print Blank left pages at the end of a chapter, dialog boxes support page labels. forcing the next chapter to start on a right page, may be required in a print-optimized Page labels can be defined automatically by PDF, but cause a disturbance on-screen. the authoring application, through add-ons, or manually in Acrobat (Document > Double-sided pagination is important only Number Pages). when the primary anticipated use of the PDF is printing on a duplex printer, so that PAGE BREAKS the headers and page numbers appear on When content is displayed in HTML the outer edge of the page, and the first browsers, there are no pages and the page of a new chapter is on the right. screen is a continuous scroll, from start to PAGE 49 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX end. In PDFs, however, there are inevitably of Reflow, Find and Search functions (all of should be on view with at least one or page breaks (unless content is arranged in which do not work across page bounda- two of the items, even if the list is long •Contents a set of inter-linked single-page files, not ries). Likewise, when individual pages and splits between pages. •Ten years of PDF exceeding the maximum PDF page height are printed on demand or if structured • Short code fragments should never be •Masters of PDF of 200 inches). bookmarks are used to print a topic, the split between pages. results are more meaningful if pages do not •Security & accessibility Awkward page breaks make reading more • A series of short items that work as a start with “leftovers” from previous topics, difficult. The way content is split between group should not be split. •Design & creation that run out-of-context. pages may force readers to take extra •Acrobat best practice • If the document has very long para- steps to identify the topic being discussed. To minimize the negative impact of page graphs, consider splitting these into •Future of PDF Meaningful page breaks, on the other breaks, follow these guidelines: shorter paragraphs. hand, make the text easier to understand • Headings that start a new topic and Appropriate line breaks or word breaks and follow, and support fast and efficient fall towards the end of the page (even may also improve reading: browsing. when there are a few lines of text on Tightly-related words should be kept Guidelines for page breaks in PDFs are not that topic on the same page) should be • together on the same line - such as different in principle from those for printed moved to the following page. values and measurement units, or units publications. But with PDFs designed with • Headings of all levels should always be followed by a number (e.g. “Figure the screen as the primary destination you tied to the following paragraph. 14”). may even have more flexibility since trying • If you can fit an entire topic a single to condense content on fewer pages due • Hyphenation should be used minimally page, do it, even if this means editing to printing costs is not an issue. In fact, (except in narrow table columns), as it text or graphics to squeeze it in. And generous white space is beneficial in PDFs, disrupts reading. if this means that there is extra white especially as on-screen pages are usually The varying spaces between words space on the previous page, consider • perceived as being more crowded than when text is aligned on both sides of your user who is gaining both a bonus they actually are. the page may also disturb reading; use “breathing” of white space and more left-aligned paragraphs instead. Ideally, each page should be a separate, efficient organization of the topics at easy-to-understand entity; don’t be hand. TABLES Technical reference literature often in- concerned if you have pages that are only • When you have bulleted or numbered cludes tables, sometimes complex or multi- “half-full.” Having separate pages for dispa- lists (which are generally very helpful page. Following are a few guidelines which rate topics also improves the performance on-screen), the introductory paragraph PAGE 50 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX can significantly improve the on-screen use be helpful in identifying the relative location Additional Techniques of tables: on the page. A red rectangle on the thumb- •Contents Following are some additional techniques nail indicates the area currently displayed, • Tables should generally be titled. If a that can reduce the likelihood of “getting •Ten years of PDF and can be moved or resized to change the table is split between pages, the table lost” while browsing a PDF document •Masters of PDF viewed area. title should be repeated, followed by (stand-alone or part of a document set): •Security & accessibility “Continued”; column heads should Acrobat/Reader 5 will create and display • Different colors can be assigned to •Design & creation be duplicated on following pages. thumbnails dynamically, when the links and bookmarks, to differentiate Multi-page tables can only also include Thumbnails tab is clicked. With previous between local, cross-file and web •Acrobat best practice indications such as “sheet 3 of 5.” If a releases of Acrobat thumbnails have to be destinations. •Future of PDF link takes the reader to the middle of created and embedded in the PDF to be • Targets can be opened in separate a table, it will be easier to see that the useful to end-users with Acrobat Reader; windows, which can be closed easily table starts on previous pages. otherwise blank thumbnails are displayed. without affecting the current document (Acrobat Distiller 4 and higher can also • Horizontal tracking can be made easier or location. by increasing vertical spacing between create and embed thumbnails as part of its items. You can also group 3-5 rows job options, but these are of lower quality). ADVERTISEMENT together, adding extra space after each Progress Bar group. Alternate background tints, for example every fifth row, or every other In a full-screen presentation (where scroll- �� row, help to differentiate between lines ing bars are hidden), a progress bar can be � (however, make sure that text legibility included to show the relative position of �� is not affected in display and print). the current slide in the entire presentation.

• In complex tables, thin lines can used to Library-Level Orientation separate title, heads and notes (al- ADDITIONAL AIDS IN PDF LIBRARIES though line width can vary in Acrobat’s Main menus, graphic road maps or a screen display, which can be distract- “home” page will provide a useful entry/ ing). re-location point in PDF libraries or collec- �� THUMBNAILS tions. A bookmark pointing to these can be �� When viewing complex graphics at large included in all related PDFs for easy access. magnifications, the thumbnail display can PAGE 51 of 71 ��

CHAPTER INDEX • Pop-ups/rollovers associated with links • A continuous page mode may be specified in local user preference are can display additional information, employed when there are links jumping respected. •Contents helping the reader make sure that into the middle of a topic (e.g. index In the Acrobat 5.0 PDFs, document titles •Ten years of PDF this is indeed the item being looked entries). The targets of these links may are displayed in the title bars of all PDFs. •Masters of PDF for, without being forced to leave the not be easily identified in a single-page The related setting was not turned on current page. They also reduce clutter mode. In continuous page mode, •Security & accessibility in the Acrobat 5.0.5 JavaScript PDF and when there is a lot of information to however, Acrobat will scroll the display in the “Acrobat Distiller Parameters” •Design & creation display for various items that are in to show the target of the link at the top PDF included in the Help/ENU folder. •Acrobat best practice close proximity to each other. of the screen. Instead of a document title, the PDF file •Future of PDF • Tooltips can be used to display brief Review of Reader-Orientation Aspects in name is displayed in the title bar (e.g. information on graphics when there is PDFs included on the Acrobat 5 CD “Distparm.pdf”). no immediate information above/below Editor’s Note: Many of the PDF files cited the graphics, to display additional below are part of the Acrobat 5 Software information (e.g. effective dates), or to Development Kit (SDK). The versions used provide brief information on icons. are from the Acrobat 5 CD. There are also ADVERTISEMENT • In detailed indexes, when entries are versions of the SDK documents available linked to many pages, the major entries for download from the Adobe Solutions ARTS Split Pro (for example term definitions) can be Network site; they may not always be the marked with a different color. same version as was distributed on the CD, The industrial strength, stand-alone tool for intelligent splitting of PDF files. • Page transition effects can indicate new so some of the examples mentioned may chapters or sections (these can work in not appear as described here if the online a single-page display mode, and do not versions are newer (and if they’ve been require full-screen mode). improved). • A visible Back button (Go To Previous Document-Level Orientation View) on the page itself may be helpful to readers with less experience Open mode for all PDFs in the Acrobat 5 in Acrobat. (Back is also available in CD is with bookmarks. Acrobat’s right-click menu) Magnification and Page Layout are specified to be “Default,” which means that settings PAGE 52 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX chapter does have a variable lower-level API Overview,” which uses double-sided heading displayed in the running header. pagination. •Contents

•Ten years of PDF The Errors chapter (pages 2589-2644) Empty pages related to double-sided could have benefited from a dictionary or pagination are also disturbing on-screen. •Masters of PDF index style headers, showing the first/last “Acrobat Weblink API Reference” has 6 Metadata in all files is limited to Title, being •Security & accessibility entry on each page. empty pages out of 38. “Highlight File the title of the publication, and the Author Format” has 3 empty pages out of 10. •Design & creation (“Adobe Developer Support”, with a few The Acrobat JavaScript guide has no head- “Acrobat Interapplication Communication •Acrobat best practice exceptions). Subject and Keywords fields ers showing chapter/topic information Overview” has 6 empty pages out of 52 were left empty. Coupled with the concept (which could be expected in the yellow •Future of PDF (including the last two pages); out of the of one PDF per publication, regardless bar at the top of all pages, as was done in first 24 pages of “PDF Consultant,” 6 pages of its scope, any potential added value the ADM Reference Guide). The JavaScript are blank. of document metadata is reduced to the Guide only has a static running footer absolute minimum. displaying the book title. And interestingly, PAGE NUMBERING even this title is inconsistent, showing an Handling of page numbering in the different Topic- and Page-Level Orientation older title in the Contents and first sec- PDFs is inconsistent: PAGE HEADERS tion (“Acrobat Forms - JavaScript Object • Some PDFs start on regular page In several of the PDFs, running page Specification”). 1, continuing all the way to the end headers do not include topic-specific SINGLE- VS. DOUBLE-SIDED PAGINATION (such as the Acrobat Help, or ADM information, which changes dynamically The majority of PDFs in the collection use Reference). in the chapter. Headers in the Core API double-sided pagination, which imposes Reference are inconsistent. Several chap- • A few chapters have unnumbered front- two penalties when displayed on-screen: ters have a static header, with no additional matter pages, where the first page in running headers and related graphic information, while others have additional first chapter starts at the next available elements alternate between left and topic-specific details. For example, the number (such as Core API Reference, right pages, creating a disturbing “noise” 294-page Declarations chapter only has a where the first page in the first chapter when paging down. To test the effect of static “Declaration” header; many of the is 9). this, with “Fit Page in Window” selected, topics start on a new page where the func- • Most PDFs have a combination of try paging down in the “Acrobat Core tion name is visible at the top, but continu- unnumbered, roman-numbered and API Reference,” which uses single-sided ation pages lack any specific identification. regularly numbered pages, continuing pagination, and in the “Acrobat Core PAGE 53 of 71 On the other hand, the 30-page Lists the roman numbering. For example:

CHAPTER INDEX “Acrobat Development Overview,” With the exception of the PDF Reference • Page breaks in short code fragments: which has four unnumbered pages, Manual, none of the PDFs use page labels. pages 32 (curly brace moved to next •Contents Contents starting at V, Preface starting page), 48 and 62 (2 lines which should PAGE BREAKS •Ten years of PDF at IX, and first page of chapter 1 have been moved to next page), 81, It is evident that not much attention was •Masters of PDF starting at 13. 119, 123, 129 (a 2-line code fragment paid to proper page breaks in the different split between two pages), 140, 165 and •Security & accessibility • The “Acrobat JavaScript” PDF has an PDFs. unnumbered titled page, followed by many more instances. •Design & creation “Guide to SDK Samples” has 40 pages. page 2, followed by page 1 (Contents), • Page breaks in the middle of a brief •Acrobat best practice another page 2, and then sequentially Page breaks in about half of these could function description: pages 52, 53, be improved to the benefit of the reader. •Future of PDF to the end (page 295). Thus there is a 54, 55, 56, 59, 61, 62, 65, 72, 73, 75, constant discrepancy between the page Problems include: 76, 77, 80, 83, 84, 86 and many more number displayed in Acrobat status • Headings at bottom of page, with no instances. Following pages even leave bar/dialog box and the actual page additional text following the heading: the group heading or a portion of it at number. pages 4, 30 bottom of the page: 97, 102, 103, 105 and more. • Bulleted lists split awkwardly: pages 6, ADVERTISEMENT 8, 14, 15 • Page break in the middle of a short note: page 144 • Major topics that should have started on a new page: 9, 11, 12, 14, 23, 26, 28, • Short note moved to next page, out of 30-38 context: 107, 213 “Acrobat JavaScript Guide” (included with “Acrobat Interapplication Communication each copy of Acrobat and can be accessed Reference” demonstrates page-break through Help > Acrobat) also serves as problems in Table of Contents. Page VI an excellent example of how not to split starts with a single line, a left-over from information between pages. Page numbers the listing of items in chapter 1; in pages listed below are the printed numbers for VII and XI, major sections start at the the 5.0.5 version (subtract by 1 to see bottom of the page, followed by five items the same problems in the 5.0 version). or two items. In “Acrobat Interapplication Problems include: Communication Overview,” Chapter 4 is listed by itself at the bottom of page V, with PAGE 54 of 71 entries included in it listed on the following

CHAPTER INDEX page. Tables of Contents and Indexes are as a stand-alone document, providing enters a document but cannot easily find a usually generated automatically, but this direct links to all items. Many of the PDFs way to related documents. •Contents does not mean that page breaks should in the Acrobat SDK document set also Some PDFs which include the Roadmap •Ten years of PDF not be inspected and modified through include the same roadmap on page 3. don’t include a bookmark pointing to it •Masters of PDF automatic or manual settings. (“Acrobat Core API Overview,” “Acrobat •Security & accessibility TABLES Distiller API Reference”); in another PDF, •Design & creation Some PDFs have several tables that are the bookmark is included but at a different split between pages without indicat- level (“Acrobat Developer FAQ”). •Acrobat best practice ing “Continued” in the repeated table For search purposes, it is better if such •Future of PDF titles. For example, in “Acrobat Distiller a roadmap is a stand-alone PDF, present Parameters,” tables 2.6, 2.9, 3.1, 3.2, once but linked to all PDFs. When the 3.3, 3.4 and more; “pdfmark Reference roadmap is embedded in all PDFs, apart Manual,” tables 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 from the extra maintenance steps needed and more; interestingly, in one case when one of the existing documents is “Continued” is shown on the second table deleted or a new one added, searching for segment - table 3.5. a phrase included in one of document titles In the PDF Reference Manual (Third will find it in all the documents in the col- Edition), several tables are split without re- lection (this is the case unless the roadmap peating any information, not even table title is implemented as non-text graphics). or column headings: tables 3.9, 3.16, 3.18, The roadmap is missing from several PDFs Notwithstanding, implementing a “you are 3.32, 4.2, 4.3, 4.8, 4.9 and more (similar that are part of the document set and here” indication, highlighting the current problems present in Second Edition). are listed in the documentation roadmap document in the document set, is easier The usefulness of thin colored lines in ta- (examples include “Acrobat SDK Release to implement when each PDF includes its bles can be seen in the “Acrobat JavaScript” Notes,” “Guide to SDK Samples,” “Acrobat own local copy of the Roadmap - but this PDF. Development Overview,” “Using ADM in was not done in the case of the Acrobat Acrobat”). A roadmap must be accessible SDK document set. Library-Level Orientation from all documents that it points to, or else The page size of the Roadmap in both An “Acrobat SDK Documentation it contains “dead ends,” where the reader standalone and embedded versions is 8.5 Roadmap,” in the form of chart, is available PAGE 55 of 71 by 11 inches, which does not match page

CHAPTER INDEX sizes used in the different PDFs (mostly PDF USABILITY PREMISE PUT TO including among the four main flaws in or 8.25 by 11 inches). mistakes made by corporate IR Web sites: •Contents THE TEST By Kurt Foss, Planet PDF Editor •Ten years of PDF The Roadmap could have benefited from “Many corporate web pages offer quarterly the use of color, as well as linked areas that In mid-2001 renowned usability guru Jakob and annual reports only in PDF format, •Masters of PDF match the boxes (and not of separate lines Nielsen warned his disciples of the alleged making them hard to browse online.” •Security & accessibility within the boxes), and perhaps could have dangers of using PDF files online in a The “Designing Web sites to Maximize even used a different highlighting style. column titled “PDF - Avoid for On-Screen •Design & creation Investor Relations” study apparently Reading.” A number of more experienced Links in the Roadmap should have opened analyzed the Web sites of some 20 •Acrobat best practice users of the Portable Document Format the target PDFs in separate windows. companies. In his “UseIt.com” Alertbox •Future of PDF subsequently pointed out some of the That way, you could close a PDF that was column last month, Nielsen was more flaws in Nielsen’s reasoning and examples, opened through the roadmap, and still see descriptive with his criticism of PDF as a as well in his seemingly limited grasp of the roadmap underneath, without having Web-readable format: Acrobat and PDF (and the differences to take extra steps to locate it. between them). “IR areas are plagued by PDF files, probably because they’re a cheap way to put Adopters of PDF who also are believers in ADVERTISEMENT annual reports online. It is indeed helpful usability – contrary to Nielsen’s premise, to let users download full reports, and you they are not mutually exclusive – might �� can save a lot of money when people make �� have hoped that Nielsen had updated his �� their own printouts rather than request- �� thinking (and his copy of Acrobat, assuming �� ing printed material by mail. But to view �� he owns one) in the nearly two years �� information online in a way that lets them �� since that infamous Alertbox column was �� rapidly understand key information, users �� published. �� need simpler formats that don’t require �� Alas, judging from recently published them to slowly page through presentations �� reports on a study examining problems that are optimized for print rather than �� with information found on corporate Web interaction.” �� sites, Nielsen appears to be singing pretty So now PDFs are a plague? �� much the same tune in 2003. CNN/Money

� � � � � � � � � � �� quotes Nielsen in an article titled “Do Well, we didn’t buy his reasoning in 2001 �� investor-relations Web sites work?” as and certainly consider it even more suspect PAGE 56 of 71 ��

CHAPTER INDEX today. It’s a reaction not blindly based Presuming, as Nielsen suggests most on our obvious long-standing support of investors do, that you want to quickly •Contents PDF, but on recent experience browsing get to certain portions of the document •Ten years of PDF investor-related information. In fact, we and key pieces of information, here’s a •Masters of PDF touched on the experience recently in tip: Forget about the HTML and Text a previous Weblog post about the U.S. versions! Instead – and this assumes of •Security & accessibility Securities and Exchange Commission’s course you have at least the free Adobe •Design & creation acceptance of – but only in addition to its Acrobat Reader – proceed immediately •Acrobat best practice “official” formats – PDF-based financial to the optional PDF version. For starters, documents. Documents in HTML and plain it’s smaller in file size than *either* of the •Future of PDF text are the official SEC formats, as the other two formats. The HTML version government Web site notes. [shown below] loads a single 1 MB-plus file into your Web browser, hardly something However, had the financial document we But not nearly the challenge you’ll have if you’ll find easy-to-navigate. And unless were seeking not been available in PDF, you invite the displeasure of trying to view you narrow your Web browser window and which we first highlighted in a February the allegedly plain text version of the same considerably, scrolling and reading the 26 article titled “Adobe’s SEC filing reveals Form-10K file. A surprisingly coded, 3.7 unformatted text file on screen – one wide future Acrobat hints,” we might not MB file (Yes, more than FOUR times larger paragraph that wouldn’t fare well judging have had the perseverance to locate the than the same file in the PDF version also by any serious readability measure – will be sought-after details scattered throughout available from the SEC site) slowly loads a challenge. the Form-10K (annual financial report) for – again, all text in a single page – inside 2002 filed by Adobe Systems. your Web browser. If and when it finishes loading – and assuming your browser The SEC’s EDGAR site maintains a doesn’t choke on the textual glut – you’ll searchable archive of the required need all the help you can get in trying to documents submitted by companies; you find anything meaningful in short order, can view an index of documents available or at all. If you want to talk ‘plague,’ this by company. For example, the recently version is infested with usability problems! filed Form-10K currently tops the list of Adobe Systems documents available from the SEC site. PAGE 57 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX Adobe has now posted another version Usability, you could say, is somewhat in the on Adobe.com’s main IR page that could eye of the beholder. •Contents have been made into a better example •Ten years of PDF of a screen-viewable PDF, one that might ACROTIP NO.70 - EXPLORING •Masters of PDF help counterbalance at least one of the FULL SCREEN MODE conclusions Nielsen makes about investor- By Richard Crocker, Planet PDF •Security & accessibility related information on the Web. If you weren’t already aware, Acrobat •Design & creation By the way, if you want to read the nitty provide a featre that allows you to view •Acrobat best practice gritty of the research on Investor Relations PDFs in ‘Full Screen mode.’ Going into Full •Future of PDF Website Design from the Nielsen Norman Screen hides some of the general clutter of Acrobat such as toolbars, the titlebar In comparison, the PDF version [shown Group, it’ll cost you $248 for a single copy and the menubar. It is particularly useful if above] was practically effortless to load of the 121-page report, $468 for a version you would like to read a document online, inside a properly configured Web browser. you can share around the office. And you’ll if you are using Acrobat to do a presenta- You can browse pages by thumbnails, need one other thing, as noted on the tion, or if you are considering publishing a and the built-in PDF search tool made company’s Web site: visually rich document, you want to contain it easy to quickly locate references to “Download usability reports as PDF its navigation on the document pages Acrobat and ePaper within the 116-page files” rather than through the use of bookmarks – yes, that dreaded print paradigm, and the Navigation toolbar. So how does according to Nielsen – document. Adobe’s Yes, don’t forget to invest in a copy of Full Screen work, how do you turn it on or Form-10K is not even a particularly good the free Reader – but realize that if you off? It’s as simple as using the following two example of how much more useful a purchase the full commercial version of keystrokes: PDF version could be – for example, the Adobe Acrobat, there’s a lot more you’ll be able to do with this and many other PDF has no bookmarks, the document’s • Open Full Screen - Ctrl + L (Win), Mac PDFs, including the ability to make the text Table of Contents has no active links + L (Mac) “accessible” (so that it can be reflowed and to the key sections or to other related • Close Full Screen - Esc information, and the full-width paragraph easily viewed on smaller devices). Or to formatting is no more readability friendly set your own bookmarks, add annotations, (probably by requirement). That may be extract the text for repurposing and understandable for the PDF version that so on. Now *that* would be a prudent can be downloaded from the SEC site, but investment, we think. PAGE 58 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX it’s easy to add access to some commonly them, or others open them, you can make used features of Acrobat, such as: it open in Full Screen mode and hide •Contents different parts of Acrobat. This means you • Show/Hide Bookmarks - F5 •Ten years of PDF can choose to hide or display such features •Masters of PDF • Show/Hide Thumbnails - F4 as the toolbars and menus. Head to File > • Show/Hide Toolbar - F8 Document Properties > Open Options. •Security & accessibility • Show/Hide Menubar - F9 •Design & creation

•Acrobat best practice Preferences The Full Screen preferences are primarily •Future of PDF Full Screen mode in action. The clutter is removed, designed for use when Acrobat is being with only a few toolbars and bookmarks accessible. used to do a presentation and they are set Typically Full Screen mode opens with and applied to all PDFs when opened in nothing displaying but the document, but Full Screen. Head to Edit > Preferences > Full Screen to modify them. ADVERTISEMENT

�� ACROTIP NO.73 - TURNING �� PAPER INTO SEARCHABLE �� PDFS, USING ACROBAT’S PAPER �� CAPTURE PLUG-IN

� � �� By Richard Crocker, Planet PDF �� Luckily after the release of Acrobat 5 � � �� Adobe listened to users’ disappointment �� over the exclusion of the Paper Capture �� plug-in and today we can download the �� Open Options �� plug-in and (as we could with Acrobat 4) Acrobat Open Options give you the ability convert images into real, searchable text. � �� to make your PDFs open in Full Screen �� (Unfortunately for Mac users though, �� mode – which means when you open PAGE 59 of 71 Adobe are yet to release a plug-in.)

CHAPTER INDEX While Acrobat’s Paper Capture plug-in is to use it. Scanning your documents at at When you run the Paper Capture, not going to give you the power to turn an least 300 dots per inch (DPI) will help a lot. all bitmapped text it recognizes will •Contents office completely paperless, it’s particularly be replaced with the equivalent text •Ten years of PDF useful for making key data and info Using the Paper Capture plug-in character. This format creates a small •Masters of PDF available across a network. For example, Once you’ve downloaded and installed the file size than the other styles, however imagine having information like commonly plug-in, in Acrobat go to Tools > Paper it changes the original look of the docu- •Security & accessibility accessed contracts and documentation on Capture. ment. •Design & creation a computer network, instead of locked • PDF Searchable Image (Exact): Used to •Acrobat best practice away as paper in a filing cabinet. be known as ‘PDF Image + Text.’ This •Future of PDF Once it’s on your computer the Paper creates the largest file size, but is, as Capture plug-in will let you make it search- the name suggests, the most accurate. able through its optical character recogni- When the plug-in is run a layer of text tion (OCR) engine. The Paper Capture is placed behind the image, making the plug-in turns the text images on your scans page appear exactly as it did when you into actual text characters that can be scanned, but now it is searchable. editable and searchable – so rather than • PDF Searchable Image (Compact): scouring the pages to locate the informa- This is the compromise between the tion you’re after, you can find it almost two types above, producing smaller instantly using Acrobat’s built-in Find tool. files sizes than the Exact method. The general look and feel of the image is Getting started PDF Output Styles retained and it becomes searchable. The first step required is to scan the The quality is not quite as good as the Once you’ve scanned your pages and have paper to digital form. This is the key step Exact method. them in Acrobat, you can take the ‘PDF to making sure you get the most out of Image Only’ format and convert it in a your electronic copy. Because the Paper number of ways, each of which is depend- Capture is run over this, it means the clear- ent on how you want to use your PDFs. est and best aligned pages are most likely Here’s an overview of the different styles: to be well processed. We won’t go into too much detail as we’re presuming you have a • PDF Formatted Text and Graphics: You’ll notice that along with the different scanner and a basic understanding of how Used to be known as ‘PDF Normal.’ PAGE 60 of 71 styles you have the option to downsample

CHAPTER INDEX the pages. The lower DPI you go the ACROTIP NO.69 - OPENING smaller the file size. If you’re only going to •Contents ACROBAT FASTER II be using the PDF on your computer (and By Richard Crocker, Planet PDF •Ten years of PDF don’t plan to print it) then downsampling is The all or nothing approach of our recent •Masters of PDF a good way to reduce the file size. tip on opening Acrobat faster was, as we •Security & accessibility PDF Formatted Text and Graphics said, only really useful when you wanted to read or view a PDF file – the main problem •Design & creation The PDF Formatted Text and Graphics with it was that your manipulation of the style includes extra editing features which •Acrobat best practice PDF became impossible because it turned let you manually process words that the •Future of PDF Acrobat into little more than an Acrobat plug-in was uncertain about. If you look at Reader-like application. So what if you the example below you can see a couple want to open Acrobat faster but still have of words with a border around them. As access to your favorite tools? OCR technology is not 100% accurate, This will pop up the window below, which the uncertain words are kept as images, you use to accept the changes. It’s possible by getting into the Plug-ins at which time you can go through them folder and working out which ones you manually. don’t want to load. Because Acrobat is such a massive application, with so many uses, it’s more than likely that there are plug-ins sitting there that you will never use. A simple example of a feature I never use is the movie plug-in. Every time I open Acrobat, this plug-in is loaded, yet I never Final Thought use it. If you want to take it a step further, index- ing a bunch of files would make locating Examining Acrobat’s plug-ins content much simpler – once the index is To find out info about the plug-ins Acrobat We can begin the process of accepting setup, it’s just a matter of using the Search uses, go to Help > About Adobe Acrobat or declining whether we change the text tool in Acrobat. Plug-ins. This will open the dialog that image into real text by going to Tools > allows you to establish the functions of Touch Up Text > Find First Suspect PAGE 61 of 71 each plug-in. You need to be wary of

CHAPTER INDEX plug-ins that other plug-ins are dependent tures and emailing PDFs. If we can work The unchanged plug-ins folder, with a fully loaded on – an example is the Forms plug-in out which plug-ins provide these functions Acrobat in the background •Contents (AcroForm.api) – many plug-ins you may quickly. We have opened the About Adobe •Ten years of PDF not expect are dependent on it. The dialog Acrobat Plug-ins (above) window and •Masters of PDF below has a field that shows you what established that the following four plug-ins plug-ins are dependent on others. are the ones we need to remove: •Security & accessibility

•Design & creation Moving plug-ins • DigSig.api

•Acrobat best practice The standard location for the plug-ins is \ • SendMail.api Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 5.0\Acrobat\ • Movie.api (in the Movie folder) •Future of PDF Plug_ins. Once you pick the plug-ins you • Spelling.api (in the Spelling folder) would like to move aside, you’ll be copying Grab the files and simply drag them them to another folder setup just for the into the \Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat purpose at \Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 5.0\Acrobat\Optional folder. Looking at 5.0\Acrobat\Optional. this example visually (below), you can The streamlined plug-ins folder shows less plug-ins. notice how certain toolbar options become Looking closely at Acrobat reveals that several unavailable when the plug-in is moved. toolbar options have disappeare

ADVERTISEMENT �� For the sake of this example, let’s say �� that we never use certain functionality of Acrobat like movies, spelling, digital signa- PAGE 62 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX piece there are still a few loose ends left New toolbars, new menus, new navigation to take care of, for the most part we view tabs, new pane, new names, new versions, •Contents FUTURE OF PDF this release as being truly groundbreaking. new features. There’s a lot new and •Ten years of PDF Unlike the release of Acrobat 5.0, which there’s a lot to learn. Here’s Planet PDF’s in comparison with 6.0 was a fairly minor overview of some of the most interesting •Masters of PDF PLANET PDF TAKES A FIRST update, we are much more bullish about changes. •Security & accessibility LOOK AT ACROBAT 6 the benefits that Acrobat 6.0 is going to •Design & creation Major new release. New versions, Acrobat bring to its potential customers and users. Creating PDFs •Acrobat best practice Standard & Professional The latest release has definitely improved From the moment you open the applica- By Richard Crocker, Planet PDF the ease of PDF creation. Adobe’s market- •Future of PDF tion it becomes immediately obvious that ing calls this ‘one button’ or ‘one step’ PDF In our opinion, Adobe’s new flagship prod- there have been significant effort and creation and in most cases it really is that uct Acrobat 6 is the most significant release resources deployed to this release. If we easy. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is since version 1.0 came out almost 10 had to sum up the release in a single word, a trivial matter. When you’re dealing with years ago. Whilst at the time of writing this we’d be suggesting “maturity”. the world at large, simplifying the process

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CHAPTER INDEX of creating a PDF is absolutely the key to up a new world of exciting possibilities. expect from the search system provided increasing and encouraging distribution of Engineers and architects can start to use by Apple’s Sherlock, the built-in Microsoft •Contents PDFs. With the exception of Professional this feature with the release of Acrobat Windows XP search and of course, Google •Ten years of PDF printers, you’ll probably never meet the 6 Professional, for others it will come itself. •Masters of PDF Distiller again, except by chance in a dark over time as companies, including Adobe Headers & Footers, Watermarks & alley. Systems, add support so that their files can •Security & accessibility Backgrounds be converted to PDF with layers intact. •Design & creation Commenting & Reviewing Expect to see a rich variety of solutions Stamping text and images in PDF files •Acrobat best practice Central to the concept of PDF as a ubiqu- over the next few years as third-party has been one of most often requested itious electronic document is its continued developers see how they can utilize the feature additions to Acrobat over the past •Future of PDF development and support of collaboration support now available in the latest 1.5 PDF few years - it has arrived with Acrobat tools that keep users round tripping docu- specification. 6 (Standard and Professional). Acrobat ments in electronic form. Acrobat 6 has Professional users can now apply them in continued to develop new commenting Reducing File Size & PDF Optimizer batches by using the Batch Processing tool. features and continued to make existing Both Acrobat Standard and Professional

tools more usable. As with the improved include a menu item (File, Reduce File Size) ADVERTISEMENT features for easy PDF creation, the ad- for reducing the file size of the current ditions for review and commenting may document. The size of the resulting docu- well be the tweaks that were needed to ment will vary depending on the compat- take this technology from being something ibility of the Acrobat version compatibility which was interesting, to being something you select. Innovative PDF Solutions which is useful to a lot of people on a daily Quite Revealing basis. In fact, not only useful, but perhaps Search and Catalog Has been developed to "expose PDF secrets." It assists pre-press professionals with pre- a core part of day-to-day business activity. Acrobat 6 now allows you to search flighting. You view PDF documents and selected elements side-by-side to figure out where We think this latest round of changes for multiple PDF documents, albeit somewhat problems might reside. Viewers are provided with RGB and spot colors, halftones, review and commenting have what it takes more slowly, without first having to index transparency, transfer functions, ICC profiles, and overprinting -- key problem areas. The to make it in the business environment. them with Catalog. In addition, the search plug-in also incorporates one-button actions like renaming, recoloring, combining spot plates, user interface has been redesigned to be, spot to process conversion, halftone and ICC profile removal. Layers (Optional Content Groups) not surprisingly, more Web oriented in Download FREE DEMO Today! www.quite.com The new Layers functionality, technically its look and feel. This new system looks Or contact us and get a Free Demo CD [email protected] Quite Imposing Plus www.quite.com Call INTERNATIONAL • Phone: +44 208 553 6574 PAGE 64 of 71 known as Optional Content Groups, opens much more similar to what you would Mac OS & WIN 95/98/NT Call U.S.A. and Canada • Phone: 858 581 9143

CHAPTER INDEX Measuring & Zoom Flash, animation, transitions seat for a 1000-seat license), Acrobat Standard ($249/$99 upgrade) and Acrobat •Contents Other creative professional tools include Fully embedded multimedia has taken its new ways to view a PDF, including: time to move across to PDF – support Professional ($449/$149 upgrade). Acrobat •Ten years of PDF includes Flash files, MP3 files, PowerPoint Reader is still around, but it’s now known • Rulers & Measuring – allow you to •Masters of PDF animation conversions and better control by its new moniker, Adobe Reader. accurately measure distances and areas over Acrobat transitions. Now that it’s •Security & accessibility of the page. The most significant comment that Planet here, we’d suggest that we’re going to see •Design & creation PDF can make about Acrobat 6.0, is that some very interesting documents. The it’s now well and truly a mature product, in •Acrobat best practice concept of PDF being a rich container of fact, ‘mature’ is our Acrobat 6.0 one word •Future of PDF content is proven here with this release. summary as you’ll note in our official Planet PDF first look. eBooks & DRM Goodbye Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader, Many of the little additions and accompani- everything is now integrated directly into ments which make it so easy to use PDF Acrobat – as long time supporters of are what we feel will make this product eBooks, we’re interested to see the merg- successful. ing of the two separate applications finally • Zoom increased – zoom large, detailed The Acrobat Name Game happen. All DRM is built in to Acrobat documents to 6400%. and Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat • Adobe Reader - In a case of wag the • Split window – view different pages of eBook Readers ‘bookshelf’ tools have been dog, the product which was formerly the same PDF by splitting the screen. moved across. known as the Adobe Acrobat Reader, • Dynamic Zoom – lets you grab the page now has the official title of Adobe and zoom dynamically by moving the PLANET PDF’S TAKE ON Reader. Time will tell as to whether this cursor around. ACROBAT 6.0 is an effective name change, or another educational & training nightmare. This • Loupe Tool – ideal for working with By Karl De Abrew, Planet PDF newly named product also includes full large format documents like those Adobe is segmenting Acrobat into three support for Adobe eBooks without the generated by AutoCAD. This tool lets distinctly separate products, with succes- need for a separate viewer. you zoom into areas on the page. sively greater features, benefits and prices. • Introducing, from low to high-end: Acrobat Acrobat Elements - this minimalist Elements (volume licensing only, $28 per product available for volume purchase PAGE 65 of 71 only is used for PDF creation and has

CHAPTER INDEX no plug-in support. Buy and use this printing capabilities. This is the product tures. You’ll find PDF files popping out as-is, no free steak knives here. that most of you will be wanting to use, like rabbits. Take the ‘Attach As PDF’ •Contents • Acrobat Standard - Standard Acrobat in our opinion. button in MS Outlook, this is a real time •Ten years of PDF saver that should be the tipping point in viewer product. This supports plug-ins The Planet PDF Top Six Features •Masters of PDF but has limited functionality. dramatically increasing the number of Whilst there are many new additions, PDF files flying around. •Security & accessibility • Acrobat Pro - the big kahuna - this is we’ve selected a few of our favorites to • Sophisticated reviewing and comment- •Design & creation the standard version of Acrobat en- share with you below. (See also Planet PDF hanced with additions for the creative ing means that electronic markup is •Acrobat best practice takes a first look at Acrobat 6.) professional, forms designer, engineer much more likely to occur due to the •Future of PDF and architect. It boasts a JavaScript • Simple PDF creation means that PDF more precise nature of the new toolset. development environment complete can be used effortlessly throughout a We’ve been trying for years at Planet with a debugger. Along with this it also workflow by a variety of users. Do not PDF to make use of commenting, but contains watched folder support, PDF/ underestimate the significance of the we’ve always found it too clumsy for X compliance, advanced pre-press and work that has gone into this set of fea-

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CHAPTER INDEX prime time. With Acrobat 6.0, it looks after years of having the Acrobat Help happy to see their old friend, Acrobat like we’re now in luck. file open over the top of our work, the Search, back in action. But it gets worse •Contents • Printers and creative professionals will technical wizards at Adobe have found for Mac classic users, they don’t get any •Ten years of PDF be happy to see the additional print- a way of having it open in a separate support at all. •Masters of PDF related functionality built into the Pro window. This definitely gets the Planet • The price. Yep, reach a little deeper PDF thumbs up! •Security & accessibility version. As Acrobat 5.0 Bible Author into your pockets this time. Serious and Planet PDF friend Ted Padova says, • Rich multimedia support means that PDF users are going to need and want •Design & creation “...Acrobat was like a second cousin PDF can be used as a complete rich the Pro version which weighs in at •Acrobat best practice to other Adobe imaging applications media container with no need for about $449 street (approx. $150 more •Future of PDF where users needed to depend on third external services/files. This isn’t going than Acrobat 5), with an upgrade price party plug-ins (often at prices twice the to revolutionize the Planet, but as you’d of $149. More lightweight users will pay price of Acrobat) to perform the job of expect, we do think it’s pretty cool that $299 for Acrobat 6.0 Standard or just professional printing. Now in Acrobat you can embed an MP3 file within a $99 to upgrade. If you’re upgrading, you 6 Professional, users can preflight jobs, PDF. do want to seriously consider spending soft proof color, and print with features the extra $50 dollars, you get Batch Potential Issues For Some Users that rival most professional layout Processing, Catalog, Forms creation & applications.” • It’s bigger, badder and slower than JavaScript editing. previous versions. The old adage, you • Helpers, time savers and mature don’t get something for nothing applies feature sets mean that Acrobat 6.0 is here. The beta versions we evaluated much more likely to be able to take weighed in at close to 200MB for PC care of the job that you set for it, and double that for the Mac. Hopefully without the need for additional third there’s still some dieting to be done party plug-ins. Not to say that third- here before commercial release. party plug-ins won’t be useful, but they’ll be innovating in new areas rather • Good news, bad news for Mac users. than operating within what’s now Long-time Mac users may well be baseline functionality. disappointed with the lack of browser- integration for Acrobat 6.0 and Mac OS • An enhanced help system means that X which means that online commenting getting help is easier and less disruptive. is off-limits for Mac users. But they’ll be At Planet PDF, we’re very happy now PAGE 67 of 71

CHAPTER INDEX THE FIRST THOUGHTS ON WHAT’S THE VERDICT? DOES ACROBAT 6 THIS COMPELLING FEATURE AND WHY IT’S BREAK NEW GROUND. DO PEOPLE NEED IT EXCITING. •Contents ACROBAT 6: LEONARD ROSENTHOL TALKS WITH AND ITS NEW FEATURES? From an end user standpoint, I love •Ten years of PDF PLANET PDF I think Acrobat 6 is the best version of Optional Content Groups (aka Layers). Acrobat to date!! Not only does it offer They are well designed, flexible and usable •Masters of PDF Planet PDF’s Richard Crocker gets some a much improved (and logically organ- for many more things that the simple •Security & accessibility quick fire answers on the new release from ized) User Experience, and new features “layers” that the UI today offers users. expert users •Design & creation - but they are all fully functional for both For example, layers that aren’t visible on •Acrobat best practice Windows AND Mac OS X users! It’s a the screen, but appear on printouts or MUST HAVE for Mac OS X folks! layers that are only visible at certain zoom •Future of PDF settings! I expect that we’ll see some pretty WHAT NEW ACROBAT 6 FEATURE ARE YOU cool stuff come out of it. MOST EXCITED ABOUT? BRIEFLY EXPLAIN For the techo-geek in me, the new Content panel is the best thing since sliced

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CHAPTER INDEX bread! It’s a hierarchical display and editor ARE THERE ANY CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH It’s important to continually migrate old to all of the content on a PDF page. YOU WOULD RECOMMEND STAYING WITH documents to newer, improved formats so •Contents ACROBAT 5.0? that there will be applications that can read WHAT SINGLE FEATURE FROM PREVIOUS •Ten years of PDF Well, there is no version for Mac OS 9, or them. But that’s still not a fix, because as VERSIONS OF ACROBAT DO YOU THINK HAS •Masters of PDF Pro version for Win98 - so if you’re still on the article notes, “as you migrate, you lose BEEN MOST IMPROVED WITH THE ACROBAT 6 those older OS’s, you really don’t have a something: colouration here, formatting •Security & accessibility RELEASE? choice. there.” •Design & creation Without question, it’s Mac OS X support! The only features that are available on Otherwise, I think it’s a winner and I can’t It might seem that PDF would be viewed •Acrobat best practice Windows but not on Mac OS X, are those wait to start using it fulltime... as a reasonable solution, except for some •Future of PDF things that are Windows specific, such as inherent shortcomings for use as a long- CAPI and Office XP support. DIGITAL MEMORY LOSSES time archival format. Researchers at IBM, By Kurt Foss, Planet PDF Editor for example, are working on the “universal WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE virtual computer” concept that will involve PRODUCT SEGMENTATION INTO ELEMENTS, You’ve no doubt heard of the Dark Ages, the creation of a simple set of instructions STANDARD AND PROFESSIONAL, AND THE a period in history that some believe that all computers and applications could RENAMING OF ACROBAT READER TO ADOBE is on the verge of being repeated ... in read. According to the AP article says, READER? a sense. The steady advancement of that’s “something easier said than done I like the break up of Standard and Pro computer-based technologies and file when dealing with a format like .pdf,’ which - and even more so the marketing and formats, according to a recent Associated takes 978 pages to describe.” legal aspects that allow some amazing Press news item titled “Digital memory opportunities for 3rd party developers. comes up short,” foretells a future ‘digital As the article points out, as we’ve reported Elements, I’m still not 100% certain about. dark age’ where parts of our collective previously, there is an effort underway memories – those preserved in electronic to address PDF’s viability for long-term Acrobat Reader -> Adobe Reader is a format – are forever lost: archiving: GREAT idea and will really help Adobe move other standards (such as SVG) to the “At risk are your email and music. And “Recognising the growing reliance on the foreground by having a single integrated that’s just for starters. Institutions, proprietary ‘.pdf’ format from Adobe Reader. meanwhile, are grappling with ensuring Systems, an international group is working the longevity of digital art, electronic court with the company to develop an archival filings, online journals and much more.” version as a standard.”

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CHAPTER INDEX Add that to Adobe’s recently announced BETTING THE FARM ON PDF Bloomberg.com: “Could it [Acrobat] be 50 Photoshop Album software for image percent of earnings?” •Contents CASH COW archiving, which uses PDF as its core By Kurt Foss, Planet PDF Editor Chizen: Yes, yes. •Ten years of PDF exchange format, and one can imagine a As we’ve noted here before, Acrobat’s scenario where things may not be quite so Bloomberg.com: Or more? •Masters of PDF continuing future as a product at Adobe dark in the future as some skeptics suggest. •Security & accessibility Systems wasn’t really assured until at least Chizen: Or more, yes. A future generation programmer should version 3.0, when it seemed to finally begin •Design & creation still be able to develop a PDF viewer based During the same interview, Chizen also catching on. For one thing, many potential on Adobe’s public specification, something said that “I believe three to five years from •Acrobat best practice customers weren’t totally clear (and some often overlooked by those who lament that now, Adobe will be known as the company •Future of PDF still aren’t) whether it was fish or fowl, PDF is proprietary. that has bridged the paper-to-digital since Acrobat is truly a multi-faceted divide.” software program that can be part of a solution to a range of needs or problems. In other words, as goes Acrobat, so goes Adobe. If v.3.0 was the turning point for But to hear Adobe President and CEO Acrobat, then v. 6.0 – which by most Bruce Chizen in his dicussion today with ADVERTISEMENT analyst calculations is expected to arrive Bloomberg.com, the company/product in the first part of 2003 – could be the fortunes have in a sense been reversed. breaking point. Its success will help to With With Adobe as of late having “seen determine whether Adobe can once again better days,” as Bloomberg describes its re-invent itself, this time moving from a falling stock price and decreased sales company peddling shrinkwrapped software and revenue, the company told analysts to one deeply enmeshed in enabling and investors yesterday that the key to the vital communication and electronic its strategy of projected revenue growth commerce processes of corporate next year rests to a considerable extent on enterprise and government agency Acrobat’s broadening shoulders. customers. If it can successfully perform Currently Acrobat accounts for slightly that challenging feat, it’ll have lived up to its more than 25 percent of the company’s core product’s moniker: Acrobat. revenue. Chizen sees that figure soaring in the next three to five years. PAGE 70 of 71

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