Adobe Reader - WARNING

[Rob]

I tried them. They choke on many pdf files, so I had no choice but to
install Acrobat Reader.

I have not had problems with the latest version of GSview and Ghostscript.
It has never failed reading a PDF file. But it is a little slower at
reading PDF's than Acrobat.

I also occasionally use the free PDFReader. It appears to read PDF's just
fine. But I find it hard to navigate between pages of a PDF. IMHO, It is
very clumsy. I suspect that PDFReader was NOT designed as a program to read
PDF's but a demo program to create PDF files. (The program can create PDF
but has NO save capability).

For Linux users there are lots of FREE alternatives -- KGhostview, XPDF etc.

You don't have to use Acrobat if you don't want to... If you want to use
Acrobat Reader, I would stick with v 4.05. It has a lot less bloat!
Rob

 

[Rob]

Richard wrote:
----snip----

----------------
I went back to Version 4.0, have no problems at all.
If you can't find it on the net, look on old software installation
CDs, which came with your peripherals, like printers, scanners,
driver CDs, CD burner software, ISP discs, Soundcard, camera
software, old operating discs (W98SE) and so on.

Good luck
H.N.

Does version 4.05 run correctly on Wndows XP or Windows 2000?

The adobe website only mentions 95, 98 and NT as the OS's supported for v
4.05.

Rob

 

[William F. Adams]

pilche said:

I downloaded a manual the other day and I wanted to copy a paragraph to put
in an email asking the writer to clarify its contents and I could find no
way to copy it normally or even with a program (I got from here) that will
copy segments of the screen. Finally printed it and scanned it.

Normally one would be able to just select the select text tool, then one can
copy the text (w/ a minimal amount of formatting) and paste wherever one
wishes.

This might not be possible in certain instances:

- the author has used Adobe Acrobat's security feature to turn off selecting
text / graphics
- the text is actually a bitmap graphic
- the text was converted to paths (say because of font licensing issues)

There seems to be a glaring absence of programs to convert PDF to text.

Well there's pdf2txt which is part of Ghostscript and there's a similar tool
(CLI) as part of the (partial) Win32 port of XPDF.

One can also install the generic line-printer printer driver if it's still
available and print to a plain text file if there's any text to get at.

William

 

[William F. Adams]

``das'' said:

Yes. All images are included in the one file.
Correct.

PDF is created by
printing to a printer driver which encodes the file.

That's one way to do it. One can also export from a graphics program which
groks .pdf, or make an EPS or PostScript file and ``distill'' that. There are a
couple of tools such as pdftex which directly create a .pdf.

Hence the title
of Printer Definition File.

Actually, the ``PDF'' in Adobe Acrobat PDF stands for ``Portable Document
Format'' (See the book _Portable Document Format Reference Manual_ by Tim Bienz
and Richard Cohn done for Adobe Systems Incorporated published by
Addison-Wesley in 1993).

Before there was Adobe Acrobat there were .pdf ``printer description files'',
but this term was deprecated in favour of .ppd ``PostScript Printer
Description''. See the PostScript Language Reference Manual for details on
those.

William

 

[William F. Adams]

``smokerdude'' said:

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg138.pdf

Still get the same error message, "File does not begin with -%.pdf" .

Hmm, FWIW, it loads fine into Adobe Acrobat 4.05a.

If one opens it in a text editor, I get:
%PDF-1.4

as the first line, and the web site properly lists its MIME type as
``application/PDF''

Have you tried contacting the webmaster?

William

 

[David Simpson]

| PDF files are good for documents where layout
| and/or nice printing is important.
|
| For viewing information on the web,
| it's obvious that a HTML file is much better & easier...

Cousin JanC ....

I've seen the statements before that mention
that PDF is good for layout and printing ....

Layout using CSS in HTML is fairly simple,
although something that has to be learned,
but unless Acrobat provides some sort of
super-easy WYSIWYG mode for layout,
it seems to me that anything I've seen
layout-wise in PDF could also be done
in CSS/HTML ....

I don't understand the supposed printing advantages
of PDF at all ....

Does the PDF format include extra special embedded
print directives that say make this rendering more beautiful
or do something print-wise that you wouldn't normally do
when printing a lowly HTML file ????

It includes all images and text with formatting and layout
instructions HTML and/or CSS does not include the images. Online
references are therefore not necessary which also improves security.

 

[Bill Jones]

: Ah. So maybe it is just hit or miss as to them having corrupt files on
: their page? That would make sense...the error message seems to indicate
: a coding problem on their end. Thanks!
:
:
: : > On Sun, 7 Mar 2004 08:30:24 -0800, Mister Charlie wrote:
: >
: > >>
: > > http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg138.pdf
: > >
: > > Still get the same error message, "File does not begin with -%.pdf"
: .
: > >
: > > And yes, I am on version 6.0.1 (11/2003). Thanks!
: >
: > I had another file give me the same error as your's, also saying it
: may be
: > a corrupt download. (ver. 5.0) I can't open it from the site or a
: download
: > I just opened reg138.pdf on ver 5.0. Worked Ok.
: >
:
I just tried your link. No problems for me. Opened fine. I did get a popup
that said the document had special status:

This document has been encrypted and may use security features that prevent you
from modifying certain aspects of it.
Use the Security panel in the Document Properties dialog to view these settings.

You might try uninstalling AR and reinstalling it.

 

[Bill Jones]

: John Corliss <[email protected]#>:
: >
: > Bill Jones wrote:
: >
: [Bill Jones did not write:]
: > > Cousin JanC ....
: > >
: > > I've seen the statements before that mention
: [...]
: >
: > Bill, as you can see in the example above, when you compose your reply
: > below a signature line delineator (--) it won't be automatically
: > quoted in most composers when somebody replies to you as I have done.
:
: That part's good with me. Let him not be quoted.
:
: But his habit of not quoting who he is following up is the nastiest of
: habits. It makes it look like someone else's contribution is his own.
: And then when there are further followups in the thread, his damage
: continues. It makes some poor inncocent look responsible for his words.
:
: I don't normally engage in the posting-howto threads. But here we have
: a manner of what I consider serious violation. And, it is by a poster
: who has now had a great deal of time to learn. Yet has continued to
: refuse all requests that he offer the minimal respect in his treatments
: of the texts of others.
:
: --
: Karen S.
:

Hey - where you been? As you can see I added the quoting you so desperately
wanted some time ago. Why aren;t you happy now? Sheese.

Bill

 

[Bill Jones]

: In article <[email protected]>,
: >| PDF files are good for documents where layout=20
: >| and/or nice printing is important. =20
: >|=20
: >| For viewing information on the web,=20
: >| it's obvious that a HTML file is much better & easier...
: >
: >Cousin JanC ....=20
: >
: > I've seen the statements before that mention
: > that PDF is good for layout and printing ....=20
: >
: > Layout using CSS in HTML is fairly simple,
: > although something that has to be learned,
: > but unless Acrobat provides some sort of
: > super-easy WYSIWYG mode for layout,
: > it seems to me that anything I've seen
: > layout-wise in PDF could also be done
: > in CSS/HTML ....=20
: >
: > I don't understand the supposed printing advantages
: > of PDF at all ....=20
: >
: > Does the PDF format include extra special embedded=20
: > print directives that say make this rendering more beautiful=20
: > or do something print-wise that you wouldn't normally do
: > when printing a lowly HTML file ????
:
: I had the impression when PDF was first promoted as a file format that
: the intention was to produce a hardware-independent "graphic" that
: would be formatted and reproduced in essentially the same way
: irrespective of the output device. [HTML fails dismally in this
: respect in my experience with printing out web pages. YMMV.]
:
: Curiously, I now have the impression there may have been some
: departures from this generic intent. As evidence of this, I visited a
: site the other day where I was explicitly warned that the PDF file I
: wanted was intended for *printing* and had been optimised for this, so
: it would look a little shabby when viewed on a VDU.
:
: I've never used Adobe Acrobat, so I have no idea what options may be
: available to an author to achieve these subtle differences when
: preparing a PDF document.
:
:
: Cheers, Phred.
:
: --
: (e-mail address removed)
:

What this usually means is that they are trying to reduce the size of the PDF
file, so they use images that will look good when printed at 300 or 600 DPI.
But these images don't look very good on a monitor.

If there is one major disadvantage to PDF's, it is their size when you start
including grpahics and screenshots in them. The marketing group of a company I
used to work for didn't understand this and kept giving us PDF files to email
that were 1-3MB's in size. Whew...

Bill

 

[David Simpson]

A follow up. In Priceless 2004 Categories under "text" is a program to
convert text to PDF. I and seemingly others, want to get *rid* of PDF, not
create more of it.

I downloaded a manual the other day and I wanted to copy a paragraph to put
in an email asking the writer to clarify its contents and I could find no
way to copy it normally or even with a program (I got from here) that will
copy segments of the screen. Finally printed it and scanned it.

There seems to be a glaring absence of programs to convert PDF to text.

Glenn

I have the full version of Acrobat 5.0 so this may not be applicable
to the Reader only or version 6. I attempted to install the version 6
reader but it wants Internet Exploder V 5 which I do not want and will
not get. I _will_ not use IE. The installer left some 25 megs of
rubbish behind it when it exited without installing. I hate programs
that do that.

On the tool bar is an icon for "Text Select Tool" (Shortcut Key "V").
Either click the icon which looks like a "T" or press "v". Use the
mouse to select the start point and drag to the end point. Press
CTRL-C or CTRL-INS to copy to the clipboard. What you do with it after
that is up to you.

There is also an icon for "Graphics Select Tool" (Shortcut Key "G")
the use of which is obvious given the above.

 

[David Simpson]

``das'' said:

That's one way to do it. One can also export from a graphics program which
groks .pdf, or make an EPS or PostScript file and ``distill'' that. There are a
couple of tools such as pdftex which directly create a .pdf.

I should have said that Acrobat uses that method.

Actually, the ``PDF'' in Adobe Acrobat PDF stands for ``Portable Document
Format'' (See the book _Portable Document Format Reference Manual_ by Tim Bienz
and Richard Cohn done for Adobe Systems Incorporated published by
Addison-Wesley in 1993).

Mia culpa. Thanks for the correction. I did hesitate but could not, at
the time, think of any title other than the one I used.

 

[charles]

It actually does close completely for you sometimes, huh? For me, if
the .pdf file actually opens in Mozilla using the Acrobat plugin, then
that process keeps running. If the .pdf file opens in a free standing
instance of Acrobat Reader (and I never know when it's going to do
this) then the process isn't present.

Take a look at this page, it should help.
http://edmullen.net/Mozilla/moz_pdf.html

 

[* ProteanThread *]

Great. Now I have to use that bloated, slow piece of shit, 6.0. I
wonder if that version still has that bug that keeps a module running
when you view a .pdf file online, leading inevitably to a lockup of
Mozilla.

Then use 3 or 4. The only reason you would even need 5 or 6 is if you
purchase ebooks online (then even the acrobat ereader would suffice).
i use 4 on my win2k machine cost most pdf's that i have are written
under the 3 standard anyways.

 

[* ProteanThread *]

: John Corliss <[email protected]#>:
: >
: > Bill Jones wrote:
: >
[Bill Jones did not write:]
: > > Cousin JanC ....
: > >
: > > I've seen the statements before that mention
[...]
: >
: > Bill, as you can see in the example above, when you compose your reply
: > below a signature line delineator (--) it won't be automatically
: > quoted in most composers when somebody replies to you as I have done.
:
: That part's good with me. Let him not be quoted.
:
: But his habit of not quoting who he is following up is the nastiest of
: habits. It makes it look like someone else's contribution is his own.
: And then when there are further followups in the thread, his damage
: continues. It makes some poor inncocent look responsible for his words.
:
: I don't normally engage in the posting-howto threads. But here we have
: a manner of what I consider serious violation. And, it is by a poster
: who has now had a great deal of time to learn. Yet has continued to
: refuse all requests that he offer the minimal respect in his treatments
: of the texts of others.
:
: --
: Karen S.
:

Hey - where you been? As you can see I added the quoting you so desperately
wanted some time ago. Why aren;t you happy now? Sheese.

Bill

When you let him get to you like that, he's the one with the power.
When you ignore him like that, you're the one with the power. Its
your choice.

 

[John Corliss]

Take a look at this page, it should help.
http://edmullen.net/Mozilla/moz_pdf.html

Charles,
I'm using 5.0, but it still should work. Thanks! I just made the
change.

 

[John Corliss]

Charles,
I'm using 5.0, but it still should work. Thanks! I just made the change.

Very nice! It worked perfectly! Many thanks, Charles. That one's
bothered me for a long time. No more will it do so!

 

[charles]

Very nice! It worked perfectly! Many thanks, Charles. That one's
bothered me for a long time. No more will it do so!

Glad to hear it worked for you.

 

[Peter D.]

i have reader ver 4 as well
i heard ver 5 is needed for using fillable forms. fine

but i have happened to download some pdfs that were fillable forms and
my ver 4 of ar handled them as fillable forms

now this blows the purpose of installing ver 5 (unless there's another good
reason)

i also just found out (while reading this post) that there's a ver 6 of
ar(!?)
would any1 explain the reason for its existance? please

peter

 

[William F. Adams]

piotrekd said:

i heard ver 5 is needed for using fillable forms. fine

but i have happened to download some pdfs that were fillable forms and
my ver 4 of ar handled them as fillable forms

Certain forms are ``enabled'' so as to allow saving of the form _with_ the
entered form data --- these only work on v5 (probably 5.1) or later.

now this blows the purpose of installing ver 5 (unless there's another good
reason)

Adobe Acrobat Reader v5 will handle pdf v1.4 which may not load in Adobe
Acrobat Reader 4 if certain features are used. It also has better support for
copying formatted text, esp. ligatures in custom-encoded fonts.

i also just found out (while reading this post) that there's a ver 6 of
ar(!?)
would any1 explain the reason for its existance? please

Adobe Reader 6 is a merging of Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe eBook Reader (the
latter based on the GlassBook Reader). It supports pdf v1.5, and a couple of
other formats (most notably some kind of PhotoShop Elements photo album if
memory serves). It gains a neat ``library '' / ebook management system, but
also an advertising tile in the button bar.

William

 

[JanC]

(e-mail address removed) (William F. Adams) schreef:

Acrobat affords one the ability to convert from any PostScript
representation into .pdf

A PDF file is a special PostScript file.