Adobe adds bar codes to PDF forms

Thanks xStainDx. Adobe Systems is set to expand its electronic forms with new capabilities for adding bar codes to forms based on the company's portable document format.

The technology, to be announced Monday, will allow faster processing of forms ultimately intended for printing. Early backers include the Internal Revenue Service, which will experiment with adding bar code capacity to several PDF-based tax forms this year.

Adobe also announced the release of a test version of Adobe Designer, a new product announced last year for creating forms that combine PDF and XML (Extensible Markup Language), the fast-growing standard for exchanging data between disparate computing systems.

Electronic forms have become a key strategic focus for Adobe as the company tries to expand PDF, now commonly used to electronically exchange documents, into a flexible container for exchanging business data.

One of Adobe's key differentiators from purely electronic forms competitors, such as Microsoft's InfoPath, is PDF's ability to accommodate both digital and printed matter.

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