Comments on: A user’s reaction to Adobe’s decision to give PDF to ISO http://www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/pdftrainer/2007/01/29/a-users-reaction-to-adobes-decision-to-give-pdf-to-iso/ Tips, Resources and Useful Information Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:33:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.3 by: pdftrainer http://www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/pdftrainer/2007/01/29/a-users-reaction-to-adobes-decision-to-give-pdf-to-iso/#comment-205 Fri, 02 Feb 2007 05:06:50 +0000 http://www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/pdftrainer/2007/01/29/a-users-reaction-to-adobes-decision-to-give-pdf-to-iso/#comment-205 I've edited my original post to clarify. I’ve edited my original post to clarify.

]]> by: pdftrainer http://www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/pdftrainer/2007/01/29/a-users-reaction-to-adobes-decision-to-give-pdf-to-iso/#comment-204 Fri, 02 Feb 2007 05:05:12 +0000 http://www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/pdftrainer/2007/01/29/a-users-reaction-to-adobes-decision-to-give-pdf-to-iso/#comment-204 Let me clarify. I agree--Adobe will push Acrobat development no matter what ISO does with the spec. What I meant to say is that ISO likely will move slowly, and Adobe quickly. Users may well be in a position of creating non-ISO compliant PDFs with future versions of Acrobat. This is an issue that will take a lot of education for users. What's cool and great in future versions of Acrobat may never make it into the ISO spec. Having Acrobat and the PDF spec be out of sync may be confusing for many, similar to the AcroForms/XFA forms situation we have now. Let me clarify. I agree–Adobe will push Acrobat development no matter what ISO does with the spec. What I meant to say is that ISO likely will move slowly, and Adobe quickly. Users may well be in a position of creating non-ISO compliant PDFs with future versions of Acrobat.

This is an issue that will take a lot of education for users. What’s cool and great in future versions of Acrobat may never make it into the ISO spec.

Having Acrobat and the PDF spec be out of sync may be confusing for many, similar to the AcroForms/XFA forms situation we have now.

]]> by: rmcdouga http://www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/pdftrainer/2007/01/29/a-users-reaction-to-adobes-decision-to-give-pdf-to-iso/#comment-200 Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:02:35 +0000 http://www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/pdftrainer/2007/01/29/a-users-reaction-to-adobes-decision-to-give-pdf-to-iso/#comment-200 > The bad news is ISO moves more slowly than Adobe, so we are likely to see changes much more slowly than in the past. I doubt that this is true. Do you really think that Adobe Acrobat developers are going to sit on their hands while they wait for ISO to dream up changes to the PDF spec? That seems unlikely to me. They're going to keep on coding PDF 1.8 or PDF 2.0 or whatever. They're going to keep releasing product revisions and they're going to keep doing what they've been doing for the last 17-odd years. Don't get too caught up in the hype. Yes, submitting PDF to ISO is a good thing. Yes, it will allow PDF to now be selected by those buyers who are more interested in de-jure standards than in de-facto standards. No, it won't make a bit of difference to the vast majority of Acrobat users. The main people who will benefit from this are people selling Adobe products. The word "proprietary" always raises an immediate negative emotional response in potential customers. A little explanation and some calm rational thought about the practical implications of PDF's proprietary nature usually overcomes that rush from the adrenal gland, however that’s not always the case. The submission to ISO is essentially a “feel-good” announcement that means that the Adobe sales force can avoid that emotional reaction to PDF’s proprietary nature. Don’t get me wrong, submitting to ISO is a good thing but PDF is already a de-facto standard. Making it a de-jure standard won’t mean that much to existing users. > The bad news is ISO moves more slowly than Adobe, so we are likely to see changes much more slowly than in the past.

I doubt that this is true. Do you really think that Adobe Acrobat developers are going to sit on their hands while they wait for ISO to dream up changes to the PDF spec? That seems unlikely to me. They’re going to keep on coding PDF 1.8 or PDF 2.0 or whatever. They’re going to keep releasing product revisions and they’re going to keep doing what they’ve been doing for the last 17-odd years.

Don’t get too caught up in the hype. Yes, submitting PDF to ISO is a good thing. Yes, it will allow PDF to now be selected by those buyers who are more interested in de-jure standards than in de-facto standards. No, it won’t make a bit of difference to the vast majority of Acrobat users.

The main people who will benefit from this are people selling Adobe products. The word “proprietary” always raises an immediate negative emotional response in potential customers. A little explanation and some calm rational thought about the practical implications of PDF’s proprietary nature usually overcomes that rush from the adrenal gland, however that’s not always the case.

The submission to ISO is essentially a “feel-good” announcement that means that the Adobe sales force can avoid that emotional reaction to PDF’s proprietary nature. Don’t get me wrong, submitting to ISO is a good thing but PDF is already a de-facto standard. Making it a de-jure standard won’t mean that much to existing users.

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