Wondered why my computer was feeling a bit slow...

[GNEP]

here it's more about people (non-techies) not being able to mess about with a document.

[Tomasz]

It is inconceivable to me how certain people can criticize pdf files. It is the industry standard and it is a pretty good and flexible standard. I've used Adobe Acrobat for quite a few years now and rarely had problems with it -- in fact, the only one I can remember is a bug that caused Acrobat to handle gif files with transparency incorrectly, leading to very slooooowwww rendering times.

Would you prefer that scientific journals and product datasheets be distributed in html or some proprietary standard such as MS Word Documents? Imagine the printing difficulties and mangled layouts. How would you deal with many different fonts and embedded pictures? Furthermore, as a benefit, Acrobat adds extensive compression options resulting in very managable file sizes.

As far as Acrobat Reader is concerned, what is there to complain about? It only runs when you open a pdf file, contains no spyware, and does its job adequately.

[GNEP]

See my first post for at least one reason not to like Acrobat Reader

[Wulfman]

from my experience with long word-docs (multi-page, embedded images,..) we are not talking about "pixel-perfect" rather than "let's hope the image is still on the page it is supposed to be".

mind you, I wouldn't support converting everything (short memos,..) to pdf (although it is easy - e.g. openoffice), but for handing out longer reports, filing letters and stuff like that I would prefer pdf.

mfg
wulfman

[az]

I agree pdf is a good format to give out of the company, for printing, and for stuff that must not be altered.

Still, I'd welcome some kind of write protected and encrypted xhtml for documents that don't need ABSOLUTELY perfect layout (and few documents REALLY need that, even taking corporate design into account).

What is there not to like about acrobat reader? Let's see.. it's unstable, doesn't follow windows GUI guidelines, has horrible font antialiasing (making reading on a screen painful, at least to me - it's either too small to read, or so big I have to scroll constantly, which is non-standard also. I can't concentrate on the document, because I have to constantly work around acrobat reader's shortcomings.)... I'm sure there's more.

So basically, my gripe is not really the pdf format, but rather the horrible, HORRIBLE acrobat reader and the absolute over- and misuse of pdf. If I am browsing a web site and wish to see information on something (specs of something I'd like to buy, for instance), why is it important to enclose that in PDF, forcing me out of my browser, not allowing me to export the data anywhere (and I'm not talking about anything secret here, just specs on HiFi systems, etc. - there's nothing secret about that, or it would not belong on the website anyway), or even print it (while it is available in a printed brochure that they'd send me for free)?

AZ

[DentyCracker]

Acrobat reader 6 is fuxX0r3d. It is a festering pile of !@#$. % works fine on my machine. 6 has a tendency to lock up the browser. I have nothing against the format. I simply abhor the latest adobe software for reading it.

[az]

Yes, the only thing I have against the format is some mildly irrational disliking of proprietary formats, but reader is crap, and has always been IMHO.

AZ

[Jon P. Inghram]

Originally posted by DentyCracker
% works fine on my machine.

Try as you might, you'll never manage to capitalize a number.

[Liquid Snake]

Yeah, PDF is a useful format but Acrobat Reader really sucks. I came across a PDF file the other day that only read properly with Acrobat Reader 6.0. So I install that and the file reads fine, but it took 10x longer to do it My other PDF files had no problem with the previous version, so I went back to 5.0.