Adobe is an Arrow in the Internet's Foot

Free Republic ^ | 7/16/2003 | Reagan Renaissance

[Reagan Renaissance]

I despise Adobe software and the company. First the company and some of its officers were among the largest campaign contributors to Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party. The pdf format is among, if not the least efficient means of sharing and communicating information. Files are huge, slowing the internet and hogging servers. Once transmitted the files are in the least useful format for handling and analyzing data. And if storage is desired these files take up unnecessarily immense disc space. Governments always do the wrong things for the wrong reasons; it is not surprising that adobe has become a mainstay of government. I despise financial centers and conveyors of financial information who use adobe files.

In the future if it is at all possible, I will avoid sharing any information in this file format and I will avoid, where reasonable or possible, doing business with companies that provide data only in pdf format. If you want my money, you better provide data in some other more efficient file format. Do not expect my to pay for inconvenience and inefficiency. I hope other internet users will spread the word about the inefficiencies of pdf and stop using this format. There is no reason to reward your enemies and paying for the privilege of inefficiency.

[js1138]

oops! Double post. I would like to say the best thing about Adobe is Photoshop. But that's about it.

Adobe just bought CoolEdit Pro.

[capt. norm]

The one thing I can do with Photopaint that I can't with Photoshop is turn out work in a timely manner.

Photoshop can probably do everything that Photopaint can do, it's just that it's convoluted way of getting things done gets to be a pain in the a$$ after a while.

Our entire news graphics dept. uses Corel and yet we all have Photoshop 7 on our machines. Our through-put has increasedby quite a margin.

If Photoshop can handle your needs, more power to you. It didn't work out for us in a professional environment where time is very important.

[jackbill]

I just went to an Adobe website and looked a .pdf document which highlights the benefits of using pdf files. One advantage is that it is searchable. So, since it was a pdf file, I tried to search it for a word on the page.... and it didn't work! Piss poor on their part.

You apparently tried your browser search function. Doesn't work.

Try the little bonoculars on the Adobe taskbar.

[LexBaird]

I hate it that Steve Jobs and Adobe are Clinton supporters.

I think it's a symptom of the "got-rich-too-quick" syndrome that permeates the Hollywood left. They can't really understand why they made it big, when all around them they see people as talented and smart as themselves who didn't.

So they, in turn, see themselves as annointed by fate, and look upon the peons and little people as "there, but for Grace, go I." They begin to see success and wealth as something unearned, mere luck. Their guilt then prods them into supporting the leftist agenda.

Of course, their guilt doesn't stop them from being ruthless capitalists when it comes to THEIR share of the pie. If putting Gore on the Board of Directors gets Jobs a foot in the door in Washington, he'll do it. Gore is a Power Rainmaker, nothing more.

"Money, share it fairly

But don't take a slice of MY pie!"

Pink Floyd

[rintense]

No, I gave props to Photoshop later in the thread. Macromedia is solely focused on the web and will not attempt to rival Photoshop. Now if only Adobe had done the same thing with print and design instead of trying to go against Macromedia, they'd be in better shape.

But beside Photoshop, Adobe sucks. Their flash imitation product is a joke.

[x]

PDF is meant to be the common format of the paperless office and it does a great job (nothing else even comes close).

I don't see that. How does PDF make offices "paperless" if it's largely used to generate more forms?

[LexBaird]

For professional printers it is a big issue but I would guess that is less than 33% of photoshop users..

But not 33% of professional graphics creators. There PS probably holds 98%+ of the market, for good reason.

Think about magazines, billboards, signage, tradeshows, packaging, corp identity, architectural directionals, etc. The net is only a small segment of the graphics industry, and most pro design on the net has at least some print associated with it.

You want your designs to be usable in all media. Web-only design is not conducive to advertising or mass-publication, and graphics applications that only support electronic formats are fatally limited in function for pros.

If anything, you want to design with print in mind, then adapt the design for your web needs. You can always downsample your images and convert to RGB for your website. You can't upsample and get printable quality. If the only place your design will work is on the web, you have shorted your client.

[Flyer]

I despise Adobe software and the company.

A better complaint thread would be on the cost of ink jet refills.

[avenir]

"A better complaint thread would be on the cost of ink jet refills."

No kidding. I am so pro-Adobe I almost thought this post was parody. It boggles my mind that anyone could not grasp the meaning of Acrobat—what it is and what it is not—but apparently ther are people who don't.

I have never had anything but success using Adobe products (Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, PageMaker, Illustrator, etc.) so I just don't get the complaints.

They're liberal? So? I don't give a rip; I'm not buying a philosophy from them, just software.

[BradyLS]

I suppose I'd better get my asbestos suit on...

Anyway, I love Adobe products and Acrobat is a god -send.

PDF files are supposed to be end-product files that can be universally read by anyone with a reader. It's not meant as a file format that you use for creating documents for later editing. The idea is: you finish a file and turn it into a PDF file so that others can view and print it regardless of platform. All you need to view the file is the reader and its FREE.

As a designer, it always gets me when folks say, "I need to change this-n-that in _this PDF."_ That's not the idea. You make the changes in the source doucment and make a PDF to send to others that don't have the source program so they can see what you see and make notes.

Nevertheless, you CAN do many things with a PDF file hat make it handy for other uses: you can create merge fields for forms so that they are easy for the use to fill out online. You can create hyperlinks in a PDF file. You can have interactive forms and insert movie clips. You can write notes and leave instructions for changes to the _source_ document. ...All in a document that displays in color so you don;t need to crank out expensive color proofs for your client.

Adobe products are great.

[BradyLS]

.pdf documents are unsearchable and take up enormous disc space.

A well-made PDF file takes up remarkably less disc space than the source file and saves reams of paper making books. Many companies use PDF files for smart things, like creating instructions manuals. You click hot-spots in your TOC and hyperlinks to pertinent websites. You print only the pages you need to do the task from the book you want. All in color. Saves on printing huge manuals that people cram in their overhead bins and insist they can't find.

Give 'em a chance.

[BradyLS]

I must be dreaming when I've done searches on PDF documents. ... What if I just want to read it, is there a freely available reader on all platforms?... I would like to see the industry move towards XML, HTML, and CSS but I don't see that happening within the next 5 years. Until then PDF works fine for me. Plus if you want to make something for people to print out, PDF is about the only way to go.

You get it!

[BradyLS]

Scanned-in documents aren't, to my knowledge, searchable and the bulk of my work involves scanned docs.

Correct. And making PDFs straight from scanned documents defeats the whole purpose of why you are making a PDF in the first place.

[autoresponder]

.pdf files are unopenable on MSN-TV (Prev. name WebTV, owned by Microsoft)

I rarely use my computer as my MSN-TV is so much better on email and surfing the net, esp. FR

I also have a humungous screen and can use my wireless keyboard to post on FR from well across the room or just my remote to view FR without posting

The last thing in the world I need to do is use up my capacity; in fact I clear my cache regularly to speed up connection times.

Adobe and their .pdf files

Who needs them; they just complicate getting info that is readily available elsewhere

[BradyLS]

Scanned-in documents aren't, to my knowledge, searchable and the bulk of my work involves scanned docs.

Poorly created graphics are the file-size multipliers in many PDF documents. And besieds that, PDF files aren't made for the purpose cutting and pasting huge chunks of text. They're end documents with some limited editing capabilities (like a book you can corrrect for spelling error). Not source documents.

[BradyLS]

Masterful description of what the PDF is for! Bravo!

[BradyLS]

Excellent summary.

[meadsjn]

I agree that PDF documents are archaic and cumbersome. My guess is that they were designed to protect copyrighted material from unauthorized copying, but many businesses and government agencies use PDF to provide forms that must be printed, filled out by hand, then faxed or snail-mailed back.

Apparently, Adobe has made it simple enough that even liberal bureaucrats can save a Word document or pre-printed form to a PDF and upload it to a server.

I would rather see those uses converted to html/xml web forms, but that might require hiring programmers, and that is not allowed in this country anymore. Maybe Bangalore has a solution for them.

[BradyLS]

Of course, web designers should also develop to the LCD- lowest common denominator, and assume everyone has a slower connection. As such, any swiff over 80k should have a pre-loader.

I agree with you. However, as a note of interest, I know one guy who's worming his way through academia who insists/insisted that putting the Flash-y bells and whistles in your page is the only way to make the Philistines upgrade to the "cool stuff."