Acrobat 9 an “emergence into adulthood”
Back in November 2006, Thad McIlroy, publishing consultant and analyst from The Future of Publishing sent a scathing letter to the Planet PDF Editor, Dan Shea:
I think that Acrobat 8 is one of the weakest upgrades I’ve seen in years. Adobe is apparently angry with me for saying so, but that’s just Adobe getting all imperial, as it does (as do so may so may other U.S. organizations, like the old Republican administration).
However, with version 9 — Thad thinks that Adobe has provided a elegant upgrade:
Adobe Acrobat has evolved in so many ways like a growing child. Version 1 was released by Adobe on June 15, 1993, initially for Macintosh only. Software versions offer us no real clue as to a product’s age. Acrobat is now just over 15 years old, but I believe that Version 9 marks its emergence into true adulthood.
Read his article in full here at Planet PDF.
Demo of the Plastic Logic electronic reading device
Check out this short demo of the Plastic Logic reader — it looks pretty slick. It’s going to be a very impressive device within a few years time.
I predict that within 5 years the majority of working professionals will be doing all of their reading on electronic devices — fiction books, newspapers, work memos, training manuals — you name it, it will be done on a device like the Kindle or the Plastic Logic reader. The reasons are clear: it’s easier, less wasteful and more efficient.
Organize your PDF library with iTunes
Do you think iTunes is the best thing since sliced bread for organizing your music? If so, you might be interested in an article on lifehacker that advocates the use of iTunes for organizing your PDFs too.
iTunes supports PDFs so you can add them to the library and then add them to playlists or filter them using smart playlists, just like you can music. It’s even possible to create multiple libraries with iTunes, so you don’t need to mix up your tax records with your Rage Against the Machine music collection.
For full details read the full lifehacker article: Organize your PDF library with iTunes.
P.S. I recommend reading through the comments — there’s a pretty good discussion going on about the merits of this idea. I’m personally a bit of a purist: I want to organize my music with an application that was designed specifically for music, and ditto with PDFs and documents.
Disclosure: the company I work for, Debenu, creates a document management system.
Nuance adds XPS support to OmniPage Capture SDK 16
September 17, 2008 — Nuance Communications today announced that it has “…added robust support for the XML Paper Specification, XPS, which enables document sharing and archiving with Windows Vista.” to OmniPage Capture SDK 16.
Indexing Digital (Electronic) Documents — It’s Not an Option; Pay Now or Pay (More) Later
I recently came across a very interesting article from the School of Information at the University of Texas. The article, Indexing Digital (Electronic) Documents — It’s Not an Option; Pay Now or Pay (More) Later, explores the differences between field-based and full-text-based indexing and explains why they recommend using both. They also cover:
Tangible and intangible organizational benefits of indexing digital documents are outlined. The various costs associated with indexing are detailed, and specific price information from service bureaus is presented. Recommendations for choosing an EDMS are included, as well as a model for assessing the organization’s indexing needs.
Well worth reading if you’re interested in document management.
Digitizing Paper is a New Cottage Industry
Josh Catone over at Sitepoint takes a look at how digitizing paper is becoming a new cottage industry:
If you’re like me, you have a filing cabinet full of paper. Health insurance forms, utility bills, car service records, tax receipts, etc. It piles up fast and keeping track of it all is something of a pain in the butt. For virtual teams, with employees scattered around the globe, the pain caused by piles of paper can be more pronounced. Over the past year or two, a handful of startups have emerged that help digitize your paper documents and sort and store them online.
Some of the products he has unearthed are fairly niche. For example, Earth Class Mail helps you to handle your mail by giving you an online PO box that you can have your mail sent to — and from there is is scanned, stored online, and email to you. Pretty smooth.
Sony Reader Guide to create PDF files for the Reader
Sony have released a 43 page guide on how to best create PDF files for the Sony Reader. Topics include:
- Creating PDFs from Word Processing Documents
- Creating PDFs from Presentations
- Creating PDFs from Professional Layout Applications
The Sony Reader guide for creating optimized PDF content can be downloaded from here.
XPS, variable data and templates
A new blog post from NiXPS, XPS Variable Data example with the NiXPS SDK, details how NiXPS SDK can be used to combine an XPS template and data pulled from a database.
This process is called variable data processing and saves you time and money when you need to fill out the same template (e.g. an Invoice form) multiple times — with every occurrence using changing data.
From XPS Variable Data example with the NiXPS SDK:
The reason I say that XPS really shines here, is for a few reasons:
It is very easy (and free) to generate XPS templates. And with the fact that XPS generation software is default available by default in Vista, all sorts of exciting applications become easier than before. The inherent quality of XPS being ’self contained’ make it a very good container as a template. And not ‘a specific type of XPS’, all XPS. The XPS format is XML based, and current XPS generators take full advantage of this. In combination with a powerful library like our NiXPS SDK, this becomes a very efficient way of generating a large amount of print ready documents, very quickly. With XPS viewing capabilities becoming more widespread (also default Vista), it starts to become feasible to distribute the generated XPS copies directly to users, providing them with a personalized electronic copy they can print themselves. Our SDK only modifies the bare minimum (only the text constructs and the font in the example), most of the file stays literally the same. This means a lot less overhead processing (we do not parse the XPS to an object model, to then write it out again, potentially completely changed). This way we can guarantee that the quality of the output matches the input. Also, this allows you to combine this work flow with other XPS processing, as our SDK doesn’t touch (nor rewrites) XPS constructs it doesn’t need to touch.
Side note: the same functionality is also available for PDFs via products like ARTS PDF Variform Plus.
Disclosure: Karl De Abrew owns shares in Nitro PDF Inc, which is the company that makes ARTS PDF Variform Plus.
Search PDF content online
Previously we’ve covered online PDF search engine PDFoo.com, but now it appears that there are a number of other online PDF search engines appearing on the scene. A recent blog post, PDF Search Engines Begin to Emerge, from Investintech, talks about three other options:
All of these search engines allow you to search PDF content online and provide a more targeted and smaller results page than Google.
Do they provide better results than Google? I will let you be the judge of that.
The Amazon Kindle - a real firestarter? Top five comments…
Now about 10 months from its release in mid-to-late November in 2007 — enough time has passed to see what people really think of Amazon’s Kindle.
For those who haven’t owned one, used one, or otherwise seen one - you can find a floating copy of the original introduction video here on YouTube - The Amazon Kindle.
I’ve read through a slew of reviews ranging from the unimpressed, well-thought out response of “meh”, to the equal expression of literary genius, “it’s amazing” … and consequently compiled a (relatively) even-handed list below of more detailed comments (with titles added by me):
1. Digital ink is easy to digest
What is really innovative, and different from reading a book displayed on a PDA screen is the use of digital ink! It is a proven fact that our brains have a much easier time reading from a printed document than from a back-lit surface. I’m one of those who need to get a hardcopy of a document that I really want to digest so this looks quite exciting…
Cheers!
2. NOOOO, NOOOO, NOOO!
NOOOOOO!!!!!!!
I like PAPER
I like the SMELL of books
I like the WEIGHT of books
I like seeing a STACK of books
I like having a book that comes from a used bookstore that has stains, dog-eared pages, writing, traces of HUMANITY!!!
I’m a WRITER and I dont think this is good for literature AT ALL!!! NO! NO! NO!
A book wont break if you drop it AND you dont need to charge its battery.
3. Bookstores will be a thing of the past, in a version or two…
<snipped> This saves travelling to a book store, using paper for books and shipping books here and there (to either the customer or from the publisher to the book store). Yes, the local book shop will be a thing of the past.
<joined> I will get one when they are improved. A color screen will get me interested. I would imagine my subscription to Hustler won’t look so good in B&W…
Early adopters will pay the R&D and deal with bugs. I think in 1-2 years this will be pretty cool.
4. Nothing like the real-thing
Devices like Kindle will never reproduce or replace the genuine authenticity, nostalgia, and usefulness of real paper and ink.
5. Another one bites the dust
funny, they said the same when first cars went out (my horse is faster). or digital camera. the mp3 players. i hope i’ll never waste time going to a bookstore…
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If you’ve got one — feel free to jump in and comment on your experience…
Upcoming seminar - PDF & Flash
Drum roll please!
On Wednesday, September 17, 2008, The Acrobat User Community Team will be hosting an eSeminar on how to drop a flash file inside a PDF without the need for any additional media players.
It’s an interactive 75-min eSeminar, sign up here, get some popcorn, an ice-cream and come along!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
10:00 am US Pacific / 1:00 pm US EasternLearn how easy it is to convert and share video in PDF files with Acrobat 9. Flash video, animations and widgets now play natively inside PDF — no additional media players are needed.
And just in case you’re wondering …
Adobe’s Flash Player sits on 99% of internet enabled desktops and over 500 copies of Adobe Reader have been distributed worldwide since 1993.
