Adobe Systems turned over the full Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.7 specification to AIIM, the Enterprise Content Management Association, for publication by the International Standards Organization (ISO). Yep, that’s a mouthful. Why would Adobe bother? The company claims that this is simply the “next logical step” for the PDF format. However, it is more likely that the main reason for the move is Microsoft’s competing XPS format. Both technologies allow customers to print documents without needing the actual application that created it. Adobe is just taking precautionary steps to make sure XPS doesn't make PDF disappear.
"We're handing it over to a group that will eventually drive it to become a recognized ISO standard. We're doing it because we feel it's the next logical extension of where PDF has been in the past and where it needs to go in the future. This move, making the entire PDF specification an ISO standard, will go to allay concerns that some people have voiced that at some point in the future it could go away," said Sarah Rosenbaum, director of product management at Adobe.
"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," said Kevin Lynch, chief software architect and SVP of the platform business unit at Adobe.
News source: InformationWeek
"We're handing it over to a group that will eventually drive it to become a recognized ISO standard. We're doing it because we feel it's the next logical extension of where PDF has been in the past and where it needs to go in the future. This move, making the entire PDF specification an ISO standard, will go to allay concerns that some people have voiced that at some point in the future it could go away," said Sarah Rosenbaum, director of product management at Adobe.
"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," said Kevin Lynch, chief software architect and SVP of the platform business unit at Adobe.
News source: InformationWeek
That is NOT what makes them unique, though. You can do that with Word files (Word viewer is free).
PDF and XPS are special because the appearance of the document is the same on any platform or reader, regardless of things like which fonts you have installed on your system. I believe they also tend to be more printer-friendly.
You know, if they'd gotten their heads out of their asses and just let Microsoft include PDF creation in Office 2007 by default, or at least agreed to their appeasment conditions (like including the adobe acrobat reader in every vista install, etc which would have given them more market exposure than they give Yahoo with all that bloatware they include in Acrobat installs), they'd get ISO certification no sweat.
Idiots.
Duane Nickull - Sr. Technology Evangelist, Adobe Systems (http://technoracle.blogspot.com)
And that matters how exactly?
Fact: PDF has always been an open standard that anyone is free to implement. Given their status as a monopoly, antitrust regulations determine whether or not Microsoft is allowed to bundle products and technology, not Adobe.
Regardless of what you believe or whether or not you like or hate Adobe, as an ISO (or AIIM) standard, Adobe would not have any say on who can implement PDF. Simply stated, the IP is no longer under Adobe's control. The move to bring PDF to ISO shows that we have no intent on constraining anyone from implementing it.
And that matters how exactly?
Someone earlier on this thread claimed that we did this as a response to XPS.
And that matters how exactly?
Someone earlier on this thread claimed that we did this as a response to XPS.
yes, but if what you say is true there is one problem. Because that would mean Adobe was complaining about office when they already knew it wouldn't matter any way. I don't even find the words how disgusted I aim by that kind of anti-competitive behavior.
You were actually correct in your blog - we already submitted PDF/A, PDF/X along with others to ISO. We had just not submitted the parent spec. That has now been done. As noted above, we submitted these long before any XPS speculation.
BTW, for everyone who hates how bloated and slow Adobe Reader is, try out FoxIt reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com). It's smaller and loads documents twice as fast (no joke, I've tested this myself). It's also free and ad-free. I don't plan on installing Adobe Reader ever again.
Last edited by digitalsoft on 29 Jan 2007 - 11:33
PDF is the way to go!
Regardless, I would like to propose that PDF being in a neutral third party standards body also removes any future speculation about this and hope we can all agree it is a good thing for all PDF users. Regardless of what you believe in the past, this should be embraced as a win-win right?
Cheers!
Duane (my last word)
http://www.betanews.com/article/Adobe_to_S...ture/1149263800
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/06/02/...ntitrust_1.html
I also found it rather pathetic that instead of suing in the US, they talk of suing in the EU. What a good company
Furthermore, do you see anything anti-competitive by Microsoft providing save as PDF functionality as part of the default installation? If so, why? Is it because of the addition of XPS along-side it?
There are many questions that Adobe must answer the public to regain some respect from the IT community. Your company may not think it is necessary to respond because it probably will not impact the use of PDF anyway, but I would strongly urge you to reconsider. As it stands right now, there is not much trust in Adobe because of the reports of what happened with Office 2007.
If Adobe truly wants PDF to be standard they would approach Microsoft and the EU and allow Microsoft to position the save as PDF option as an integral part of Office 2007. This could be depoyed in a Service Pack to existing customers. What other reason would you have for not wanting it in Office? It makes more business sense to include it in Office for millions of customers then it does for it to be only given to thousands that take the time to search for add-ons.
A real standard will win this one, go PDF.
Explain why PDF is better, and why XPS shoudl die, and do it without usign stuff like "because it's MS", "becuase it's not MS" and "MS sucks, MS is teh evil"
and after you've done that, you can go into details on what technical details makes a "real" standard
Explain why PDF is better, and why XPS shoudl die, and do it without usign stuff like "because it's MS", "becuase it's not MS" and "MS sucks, MS is teh evil"
and after you've done that, you can go into details on what technical details makes a "real" standard
.... ms IS teh evil, but!
Explain why PDF is better, and why XPS shoudl die, and do it without usign stuff like "because it's MS", "becuase it's not MS" and "MS sucks, MS is teh evil"
and after you've done that, you can go into details on what technical details makes a "real" standard
And from your statements I'd assume you think that XPS is better. Why do you think that? What technical details make it a "real" standard?
Explain why PDF is better, and why XPS shoudl die, and do it without usign stuff like "because it's MS", "becuase it's not MS" and "MS sucks, MS is teh evil"
and after you've done that, you can go into details on what technical details makes a "real" standard
And from your statements I'd assume you think that XPS is better. Why do you think that? What technical details make it a "real" standard?
And from your reply I'd assume you think he thinks XPS is better, Why do you think that?
personally I think there's room for both, and only time will tell if one is better or not.
it's funny how everyone is for competition when it's against an MS format, but when MS brings up a competing format, in a monopolized arena, then it's bad... go figure...
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