Comments on: What is a PDF?

By: chrisbord

chrisbord — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:25:40 +0000

Ok that was a terrible definition of PDF. PDFs are NOT similar to Word documents. People write stuff in other programs, then CONVERT the final result to PDF because PDF is a format designed to precisely lay out text and visual elements in a precise way so that it can always reproduce the original document exactly.

And dude, PDFs are not small files, in fact it’s a fairly large, ‘coded’ in human readable text with historically weak image compression algorithms.

By: chrisbord

chrisbord — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:25:40 +0000

And dude, PDFs are not small files, in fact it’s a fairly large, ‘coded’ in human readable text with historically weak image compression algorithms.

By: 6Michael6

6Michael6 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:59:34 +0000

remember when i discovered that PDF reader was built into OS X

so awesome, even my iPod Touch reads them :D

By: 6Michael6

6Michael6 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:59:34 +0000

remember when i discovered that PDF reader was built into OS X

so awesome, even my iPod Touch reads them :D

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:42:13 +0000

By far this is the best news letter I have subscribed to! I find myself sitting at the computer for along time just to get all the information in one newsletter! I save all of them so I can backtrack at a later date. This letter is better than reading all the computer books I have because you can get to what you want right away. Just wanted to let you know what a great job you are doing.

By: Jr4594

Jr4594 — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 08:42:47 +0000

use foxit reader its better and its free and i cant stress that it’s FASTER and less bloated

By: Jr4594

Jr4594 — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 08:42:47 +0000

use foxit reader its better and its free and i cant stress that it’s FASTER and less bloated

By: JD Lasica

JD Lasica — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 08:18:14 +0000

Good piece. BTW, you don’t need “full paid versions” (which cost hundreds of dollars) to create a PDF.

Macintosh users can create PDFs with the Pages program, part of Apple’s iWork suite ($79). PC users may use ABBYY PDF Transformer ($100) as well as other PDF-creation tools.

See more about PDFs on the Ourmedia Learning Center:

http://ourmedia.org/node/328718

By: Hugo

Hugo — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 08:02:52 +0000

I thought at one time Open Office had it’s own PDF producer.

By: qwertymac93

qwertymac93 — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 07:02:27 +0000

i use preview…

By: DLSS

DLSS — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 19:56:41 +0000

and its only about 1MB
just google it :P

By: DLSS

DLSS — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 19:54:26 +0000

i use foxit on one of my desktops but i prefere the portable andtiny pdf reader called sumatrapdf (also free)

By: DLSS

DLSS — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 19:54:26 +0000

i use foxit on one of my desktops but i prefere the portable andtiny pdf reader called sumatrapdf (also free)

By: Bassem B.

Bassem B. — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:19:02 +0000

For casual PDF writing, there are a number of free PDF virtual printers available on the internet.

Virtual printers are great – no standalone program to handle. Just print *anything* – select the PDF virtual printer in the printer list, and hey presto – a PDF.

This freeware is easily found via a web seach :)

By: Splashman

Splashman — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:44:44 +0000

A few corrections about PDFs, Chris:

1) “Portable” doesn’t refer to file size, but to the fact that the file can be viewed by anyone without needing the app that created it (i.e., view a file created by MS Word without actually owning Word). It’s “portable” because you can send it to anyone.

2) PDF file size is dependent on a number of factors; there are many instances in which PDF file size will be larger than the original format. For instance, if you take a low-quality JPG and save it as a high-quality PDF, the file size will increase. Or if you take a Word file (which doesn’t include fonts) and convert it to a PDF-with-fonts, the file size will be larger.

3) PDFs don’t necessarily include fonts. High-end apps give you the option to include or exclude fonts in PDFs. Especially with large archives of smallish files, excluding fonts can save a lot of disk space.

4) PDFs have the capability to contain vector (resolution-independent) graphics, but because (as you noted) they also have the capability to contain raster (pixel) images, it is not accurate to say that PDFs are by nature resolution-independent.

5) Mac users can create PDFs from any document in any application, including browsers. Choose “Print” from the “File” menu, then click on the “PDF” button in the lower-left, and choose “Save as PDF…”. Slick, eh?