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Archiver > BRETHREN > 2007-07 > 1185678429


From: "Wayne Webb" <>
Subject: [BRE] Adobe Acrobat
Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:07:09 -0400


Evening List,
I thought since I use Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF) several times every day that I would pass along my two cents worth.

As many of you may or may not know I am the Editor (and chief bottle washer) of Brethren Roots. As such I use Adobe's various software packages and have done so for some fifteen years now. I have used both their publishing and graphics programs and in the main have been satisfied with the results though I must admit, as have others on this list, that they, and other software companies, are remiss in the manner in which they handle their customers.

That being said. Adobe's Portable Document Format (or file) was designed as a way in which publication creators, or anyone who creates articles and the like, could reliably pass along these documents to the people who created the plates for printing. It was seen a long time ago that what one individual saw on their monitor and printer at their office was not translating exactly the same when delivered to the printing company. A means was needed whereby a program, an interpreter if you like, would accurately translate what I saw on my computer and would create a file that, when printed on either an image setter or a press firm's printer, would look the same. Thus was created the Portable Document Format (PDF).

After having used this program for many years, the version as implemented by Adobe and not the "light" versions offered by various other firms, I must admit to it being a mixed blessing. I could not do anything without it but at times rail against the stupidity, and injustice, of the corporate mindset. As someone had mentioned on this topic Corporate America is under the impression that if you want the program then you must purchase the "full" package for an exorbitant sum of money. The non-Professional version, as offered by Adobe, does not offer nearly the set of options as the full version and in my opinion should only be used by those who need the printer drivers.

With the Professional version I can create catalogued PDF files. This means I can enter meta-data within a PDF file and then create a searchable and indexed set of PDF files. I can take a set of images, like 800 images of the 1886 Gospel Messenger, and combine them into one massive PDF file for use in any enterprise I so desire.

When I create each issue of Brethren Roots I can then pass it along to any printing service I so desire. I can feel assured that what comes out of the printer, and this means "any" printer, will be a true and accurate copy. This saves me, as a newsletter editor and author, many hours of frustration knowing that it will be a true "What You See Is What You Get" copy.

My two cents worth.

Wayne Webb
Editor: Brethren Roots


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