Scanning old manuals

From: Stephen Dauphin <ai705_at_osfn.org>
Date: Tue Mar 9 17:07:31 1999

On 9 Mar 1999, Eric Smith wrote:

> > If you "optimize" the PDF using Acrobat Exchange 3.0 or newer,
>
> I forgot to mention that the technical term for this process (according
> to the PDF spec version 1.2) is "linearizing" the file. Although the
> spec documents exactly what needs to be done, I'm not aware of any Free
> Software that does it. On the other hand, it doesn't look *too* difficult,
> so maybe I'll get around to writing some. In my copious free time. Yeah,
> right.
>
> I do my scanning under Linux, create a PDF file, transfer it to my Windows
> machine, and run it through Acrobat Exchange. That's one of the few things
> I'm still dependent on Windows for. Sigh. I wish Adobe would release
> Acrobat Exchange for Linux.
>
> Eric
>

Well this brings up the idea whether PDF is the be all and end all format.

Isn't PDF format determined by Adobe and don't they keep changing the
file spec? Or is a more public and open group determining the direction?

My only experience is with PDF on a Mac.

Acrobat 1.0 for Mac, which works on 68000 machines, could still read 2.0
format files and display them, albeit while complaining about errors.

Acrobat 2.0, which needs a 68020 minimum, shows a variety of errors and
all it displays is a blank page, on what I presume are PDF files recently
converted with 3.0.

So what PDFs are we actually making?

What changes has Adobe been making? Are they important? Is there a bottom
line and lowest common denominator PDF? What PDF does Ghostscript output?

While these questions press towards off-topic territory, I am hoping
someone, probably Eric, can give us a short summary, so we are all
literally on the same page.

I'll apologize in advance if everybody already knows the subject and I am
the only one out of the loop.


                                       --- Stephen Dauphin
Received on Tue Mar 09 1999 - 17:07:31 GMT