Open source option to PDF!

[din155]

Just saw this article on Endgadget

Wolfram Group's got an open format contender to Adobe's throne and it's hoping you'll adopt it. Introduced today, the Computable Document Format "puts easy-to-author interactivity at its core," breathing animated life into otherwise static infographics. Not a programmer? No need to worry, the company promises the two-way diagrams are "easy enough for teachers, journalists, managers, [and] researchers to... create.

See the link http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/22/w...azz-to-charts/

The catch here is that you will need to download 106 MB player. We can use an alternative to PDF and its nice to see companies trying!

din

[HarryT]

PDF is an open standard. It is standard ISO 32000-1, to be specific. It was handed over by Adobe to the International Standards Organisation in July 2008.

[din155]

Apologies, it shows my ignorance. If any of the mods could fix the title as "alternative to pdf" please.
din

[mldavis2]

Of course the problem with PDF is that you need the expensive Adobe Acrobat Professional program in order to access and utilize all the features.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by din155

Just saw this article on Endgadget

See the link http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/22/w...azz-to-charts/

The catch here is that you will need to download 106 MB player. We can use an alternative to PDF and its nice to see companies trying!

din

Wolfram is not an open organisation producing freebies for the greater good. CDF doesn't look like a doc format either, it looks like an interactive app creator for each doc/book. About as viable an alternative to PDF as all the others that have replaced it... and it's a closed format as opposed to open/gnu whatever... Still, good to see another format appearing, not enough of them around...

[din155]

I realized that after I posted... silly me...

din

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by mldavis2

Of course the problem with PDF is that you need the expensive Adobe Acrobat Professional program in order to access and utilize all the features.

For the things that Adobe does that is not in the ISO standard. There are other apps that take advantage of the full ISO spec.

[Penforhire]

As Hellmark noted, there are a bunch of alternatives to Acrobat Pro for manipulating PDF files. I used Nuance's application suite for years. Even more choices if we're just talking creation. Even Microsoft gave up the fight, Word has export to PDF now without being a hidden add-on. Oddly, MS Project (at least 2007 edition) doesn't have that export option so I fall back on free PDF995 to turn those Gantt charts into PDF's.

PDF still is the best standard if you want to share something formatted with Joe Public(not knowing their software ahead of time). I'm sort of hoping that changes to an XML "office" format down the road but I know today if I send someone a PDF they can view it. If I create it correctly they'll even see it as intended, lol.

Our business documents, technical drawings, and catalog pages from our website are all PDF's (not originals, just formally released distributions).

[OldGunbunny]

Originally Posted by mldavis2

Of course the problem with PDF is that you need the expensive Adobe Acrobat Professional program in order to access and utilize all the features.

Try Foxit.

Foxit

[Freeshadow]

and Scribus supports even creation of PDF-forms, so npe, you can do w/o adobes tools