The Mac Observer

Skip navigational links

Featured Article: Editorial - Does the Mac Really Have Enterprise Security Issues?

Adobe Moves to Make PDF a Formal Standard

by , 12:35 PM EST, January 29th, 2007

Adobe plans to turn over the Portable Document Format 1.7 specification for approval as a formal ISO standard. PDF is already the de facto standard for cross-platform document exchange, and after it receives final approval will become an official standard, as well.

The specifications will be submitted to the Enterprise Content Management Association so that any potential issues can be addressed before presentation to the International Organization for Standardization. Once approved, the standardized PDF specification will be available to companies that want to incorporate it into their own products.

Kevin Lynch, senior vice president and chief software architect at Adobe, commented "By releasing the full PDF specification for ISO standardization, we are reinforcing our commitment to openness. As governments and organizations increasingly request open formats, maintenance of the PDF specification by an external and participatory organization will help continue to drive innovation and expand the rich PDF ecosystem that has evolved over the past 15 years."

Adobe already allows developers to create PDF-compatible products, but in 2006 reached a stand-off with Microsoft over the use of the technology in the new version of Office for Windows. Microsoft later pulled its built-in PDF support from the Office suite.

By creating an official PDF standard, Adobe will likely be able to avoid run-ins like the one it had with Microsoft in the future. The change could also potentially allow Apple to add enhanced PDF features into upcoming versions of Mac OS X.

Digg!

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Tiger Posts: 945 Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Subject: still can't replace a word processor

PDF is useless when it comes to word processing and publication prepress. It's great for sharing images and forms, but don't try creating in it. Ick.

Close Name:Edison Carter Posts: 228 Joined: 10 Aug 2006
Subject: You can't

Quote
Tiger wrote:
PDF is useless when it comes to word processing and publication prepress. It's great for sharing images and forms, but don't try creating in it. Ick.


You can't really create in PDF. I love PDF, my printer loves to receive PDF because of the embedded fonts and all of that, but yes even fixing a typo or homophone is a bit of a chore. If I have the original document I usually make the edits there and then distill a new PDF.

Has anyone here upgraded to Acrobat 8? If so how do you like it? I have the Acrobat 8 Reader, but am still using Acrobat 7 Pro. I think that I will wait until CS3 and get the whole shebang.

View Name:Guest
Subject:
Close Name:Biff Posts: 1479 Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Subject:

This is great news for electrinc document archival! Thats really what PDF is for. It's essentially an output format. Complaining that its not well suited to editing is like complaining that print-outs are hard to edit. That's not what they are for.

View Name:Guest
Subject: I edit Printouts...
Close Name:Edison Carter Posts: 228 Joined: 10 Aug 2006
Subject: An edit

Quote
Guest wrote:
I Use Faber-Castell 2.0!


Shouldn't that be "I use a Faber-Castell 2H"

View Name:Guest
Subject:
Close Name:Rainy Day Posts: 607 Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Subject: Zoom!

Quote
Edison Carter wrote:
Quote
Guest wrote:
I Use Faber-Castell 2.0!

Shouldn't that be “I use a Faber-Castell 2H”


Ha ha! Too funny! I’ll bet that goes over the head of 80% of the folks here, though.

Close Name:Edison Carter Posts: 228 Joined: 10 Aug 2006
Subject: Homophones destroy the institution of page layout

Quote
Guest wrote:
Quote
Edison Carter wrote:
but yes even fixing a typo or homophone


Is that a pink phone that rings by playing "It's raining men"?


Words that that are pronounced the same, but have different meanings:

To, too, and two are homophones. A spell checker usually will not flag them, but they often find their way into a document.

Eye tolled the sexton and thee sexton told the belle.

Close Name:Edison Carter Posts: 228 Joined: 10 Aug 2006
Subject: Editing with a pencil

Quote
Rainy Day wrote:
Quote
Edison Carter wrote:
Quote
Guest wrote:
I Use Faber-Castell 2.0!

Shouldn't that be “I use a Faber-Castell 2H”


Ha ha! Too funny! I’ll bet that goes over the head of 80% of the folks here, though.


Actually for all I know Faber-Castell 2.0 is a software package:)

I started this career back in the early '60s setting movable type in a composing stick. It was a small shop that did mostly business cards, stationery (not "stationary" which would be a homophone), posters, brochures, forms, and such, not books, magazines, newspapers. We did use pencils to edit, nowadays I like to use the comment feature in Acrobat, easier than reading someone's scribble.

Comment on this Article


You cannot edit your comments.   You cannot delete your comments.
Log in | Register | Having Problems? Reset TMO Cookies & Try Again
Username:   Password:   Log me on automatically each visit   

You are not logged in, and this post will appear as "Guest." Log in with your username and password from the TMO forums. If you do not have a username, you can register here.
Please note that guests are limited to including a maximum of two URLs per post.


Post A Comment
  Subject


  Your Comments



Please enter the word exactly as you see it in the image above. Registered users aren't prompted for this. Having trouble reading the image get a new one.


Recent Headlines - Updated Friday, July 18th, 2008

Fri., 4:30 PM
iPO Apple Store Spotlight - Bloomberg LP - Financial Information on Your iPhone
2:50 PM
iPO Just a Thought - Seven Days (and Counting) Trying to Get an iPhone
2:15 PM
AAPL Drops 3% in Afternoon Trading, Deferred Revenue Accounting Earning Attention
12:05 PM
iPO Review - Jensen JiMS-525i
11:05 AM
Apple in Art
10:40 AM
iPO Free on iTunes - AtomTV, Black In America, Strange Days on Planet Earth, & More
9:15 AM
TMO's DealsOnTheWeb.com - JBL On Stage II Speaker System w/RF Remote Control: $67.99 Delivered
8:20 AM
StrangeCharm - Particle Debris and a New iPhone (2G)
7:30 AM
TMO Quick Tip - Build Your Own Twitter Client
 

The Mac Observer Reader Specials

  • Special Report: WWDC 2008
  • Special Report: iPhone
  • __________
  • Help TMO Grow
  • Podcast: Mac Geek Gab
  • Podcast: Apple Weekly Report
  • TMO on Twitter!
  • New Media Expo 2008

Apple Stock Quote

  • AAPL: $165.15. Change Today: -6.66.
  • (Prices delayed up to 20 minutes.)
  • Discuss in our Apple Finance Board

Hot Topics

Apple iTunes

Top Deals From DealsOnTheWeb