Well, Adobe still does not get it. They still want it both ways. The PDF format is an open standard and many (upwards of 40 companies offer PDF creation solutions) companies already provide “print or save to PDF” in their solution. Or is it?
The article on yesterday’s Wall Street Journal Online “Adobe Seeks To Regain High Ground In Microsoft Dispute” highlights that Adobe is struggling to maintain the public relations upper hand and still wants Microsoft to either not offer the PDF capability or charge their customers more money for the capability. This is ridiculous!
Why would I pay Microsoft to download an PDF add-in when I can download a free PDF capability from someone like PDF995.
Back to my original question:
Is the PDF standard an open standard or not?
Would someone from Adobe please answer this?
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Russ, though I’m not from Adobe and this comment doesn’t quite follow the excitement of your post, I’ll state my understanding of the situation (which you probably know already)
The version of PDF that is considered a standard, and the versions that have been developed from it, was donated by Adobe and really is an open standard.
Adobe’s proprietary version of Adobe PDF v7 has forked from the open standard. Although Adobe can choose to license third-parties to use their version (and the make the format fully available), or distribute the Adobe Reader, they are not mandated to do so.
So it seems that Adobe has chosen to prevent MS from packaging a Save As PDF in Vista. There should be nothing to stop MS from packaging an open standard version instead – and PDF/A (for archiving) would make absolute sense given their intention to start to embed recordkeeping capabilities into the OS.
Anyway, that’s my take. I have a little more information at: http://improving-nao.blogspot.com/2006/06/adobe-to-sue-microsoft-who-cares.html
Good luck getting someone from Adobe to speak up!
Cheers
Phil
Phil,
Thanks for the clarification and additional information. I guess my excitement is based on the fact that Adobe has not specifically addressed the issues you mention and uses double-speak about the potential of Micrsoft modifying the format. That makes no senses at all.
Anyway, there is another way to look at this. Microsoft having Save As PDF in Office 2007 could actually drive up demand for Acrobat for those users who then want to take advantage of some of the rich advanced features in Acrobat v7 for digital signature, review and comment, etc.
I will read up on the information in your post.
Thanks for taking the time to comment,
russ