I'd be happy to consider any reasonable request from Adobe regarding standards compliance. I think the idea of keeping PDF standardized is a good one. I really haven't had any major complaints with regard to Adobe's stewardship of the PDF spec. And frankly, their spec document is *FAR* better written than any of the ISO specs I've had to deal with (JBIG2, JPEG 2000, etc.).
In my view, the biggest problem is buggy PDF generators. It seems that most PDF generator authors test their code with one version of Acrobat (whatever they happen to have installed) on Windows, and if it looks ok there, they assume their software is correct.
There was a short-lived project several years ago, intended to put together a tool which would scan a generated PDF file for problems. As I recall, Adobe was running the project, and several commercial PDF software vendors (including myself) were involved. Unfortunately, the project died before it really went anywhere. I still think that something of this sort would be very helpful. To be really useful -- and the goal would be to get lots of PDF generator authors to use it -- it would probably have to be released by Adobe, or at the very least, "blessed" by Adobe.
(I have some specific suggestions for such a tool. For example, TrueType fonts are notoriously problematic, so I'd really like to see something that scanned embedded TrueType fonts for flaws. But that's all secondary to having a general framework for testing PDF files.)
- Derek
On 21 Feb, Hannes Hauswedell wrote:
Hi Free-PDF-Hackers,
we have been contacted by Adobe, because of pdfreaders.org . All-in-all they seem to welcome the campaign, as they see it as a confirmation of PDF's status as an open standard. However they are "worried" about certain things, like standard-compliance of the named readers.
Anyway, they want to talk with us, so we will have a conference call sometime next week. We don't expect them to announce a free software version of acroread, but we think it is good opportunity to start talking with them. They are taking pdfreaders.org and the free software readers seriously and seem to be very interested in PDF's public perception as *the* standard for printable documents (maybe because XPS is around the corner).
Now our question to you is:
- What do you see as a major obstacle to better PDF-Support and/or standard-
compliance in the free readers?
- Does Adobe in any way hinder the development?
- In what ways could Adobe help to improve the free readers?
- Is there anything else you think should be mentioned?
You may of course fwd this to other involved developers, but please do *not* discuss this topic on public mailing lists, at least not before our conference call.
Thanks for your help! Of course we will let you know how the call went.
Regards, Hannes