PDFalerts

PDF Download 2.0 is now in beta. You can sign up for the beta program here. New features will include:

Web to PDF (new)
One-click web-to-PDF conversion, all while retaining the page layout and active hyperlinks. The full support for HTML and CSS creates great looking PDF files ideal for archiving, sharing and emailing.

Better PDF to HTML
Convert PDF files on the Web to HTML faster and more reliably.

Cleaner interface
Customize PDF Download faster with easier to use options.

Wider support
Use PDF Download 2.0 with all the major Mozilla-powered browsers, including Firefox 2/3 and Flock 1.x.

Nitro PDF Software have released version 5.4 of Nitro PDF Professional and it includes enhanced PDF forms and content editing, amongst other improvements. Read more:

• Nitro PDF Professional available for immediate Free Download
• An introduction to forms in Nitro Pro 5.4
• Nitro PDF Professional 5.4 Release Enhances PDF Forms and Content Editing
• Nitro PDF Software updates Nitro PDF Professional

June 23, 08 - Adobe have released a critical patch for Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat.

Read Adobe’s security bulletin here: Update available for Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.1.2

Summary:

A critical vulnerability has been identified in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.1.2. This vulnerability would cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.

Adobe recommends users of Acrobat 8 and Adobe Reader install the 8.1.2 Security Update 1 patch.

I agree with the sentiments expressed in this PC World article Has Adobe Taken a Wrong Turn with Acrobat 9?.

Since the release of Acrobat 7 it seems like Adobe have run out of new PDF related ideas for Acrobat. Has it reached it’s peak point? Some of the non PDF related features they’ve introduced in Acrobat 8 and 9 would suggest that it has. There’s only really two paths let open to Adobe — 1) finish cannibalizing the feature ideas developed by the third party plug-in community and 2) use Acrobat’s good name to introduce other non purely PDF related products and services, such as Acrobat Connect Pro and Acrobat.com.

Mean while back-at-the-pdf-ranch Adobe have to contend with a growing number of applications that support PDF conversion natively (Office 2007, Google Docs, OpenOffice, etc) and cost-effective Acrobat alternatives like Nitro PDF Professional and PDF Converter Professional, which are slowly eating away at Acrobats revenue.

Here’s a bunch of the best links from various blogs covering the recent release of Acrobat 9:

• Acrobat 9 Announced! New Features for the Legal Market.
• Acrobat 9: A revolutionary release.
• Acrobat 9 Knows Standards.
• Reference XObjects, PDF/X-5 and Acrobat 9.
• Preflight Audit Trails.
• Acrobat 9 JavaScript Revealed.
• See the New Adobe Acrobat 9 (FastCompany.TV).

Google Docs now includes support for PDFs. You can upload and share PDFs just like you can Word or Excel files. It also allows you to copy and search text in PDFs.

As you would expect, searching text in PDFs using Google Docs is lightening fast compared to Acrobat.

IT security professional Didier Stevens has highlighted a potential exploit in PDF Stream Objects which could be used to cause a PDF file to balloon in size, prompting Computerworld to label it the ‘PDF equivalent of the Zip bomb, or a PDF Bomb’.

Using filter parameters and filter cascading Stevens was able to create document that was only 2642 bytes in size, but when opened, decompressed to 1GB of data. This, as you can probably imagine, would cause some PDF readers to freeze up.

I recommend reading some of Didier Stevens other posts on security issues in PDFs as well.

• Foxit Software have released a minor update to Foxit PDF Reader. It is not clear yet whether or this update fixes the security issue discovered by Secunia earlier this week.
• Essential Keystrokes covers PDF Basics and Essential Tools in this post. Includes tips for finding an online PDF conversion service, or a PDF conversion application for the desktop.
• A comprehensive list of PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat.

Microsoft have announced that Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) will include native support for PDF.

With the release of SP2 users will be able to save documents directly to PDF from within Office applications, without having to install any additional add-ons. This marks a return to Microsoft’s original plan for PDF support.

When planning for Office 2007 Microsoft initially planned to include ‘Save as PDF’ support natively, but after a dispute with Adobe, they relented and instead offered ‘Save as PDF’ support through an optional add-on, which is available for free download.

Since PDF came under the control of a standards body in 2007, Adobe are unable to prevent Microsoft from including native support for PDF in Office 2007.

Microsoft also plan to include native support for ‘Save as XPS’ and support for ODF documents.

When I first heard that Adobe were releasing a web conferencing and eLearning product, and that they were calling it Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, I thought that surely, in some way, it would just be an enhancement to the current collaboration tools available in Adobe Acrobat 8. Boy, was I wrong.

So far I have failed to find any real correlation between Adobe Acrobat (you know the one that creates PDFs and stuff) and Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro (the one that does web conferencing). The only reference to PDF that I was able to find on the home page was a link to download a solution brief for Acrobat Connect Pro in PDF format.

Who knows — maybe Adobe has a master plan where all of this makes sense, or maybe they’re just abusing Adobe Acrobat’s good name to promote an unrelated product. I hope it’s the former.

Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro is now available.