PDF – Portable Document Format, my butt!
I was trying to print out the Silverlight riaservicesoverviewpreview.pdf and, like so many other PDF files, it came out with missing letters that were blank and basically, thanks to Adobe’s bullshit marketing, I invested 116 pages worth of dead trees and printer ink to get a totally useless document. If you’re like me (and I suspect there are a lot of us) you will often print out this kind of stuff so you can sit in bed before you go to sleep and take out your hellacious yellow highlighter and mark up a document that you are studying.
Well! So much for that. Not only that, but Adobe’s latest version of Reader is bloated software that takes up a lot of resources, and they’re now using it to “Package” Adobe Air and whatever other gobbledegook they think I should have, that bears NO FYOOKIN’ RELATION to viewing and printing documents. I don’t have a choice anymore. If I refuse to accept the Air Installation, I CANNOT HAVE THE FREE ADOBE READER, unless i want to go find an older version without the mandatory “baggage”. And if I download some “reader alternative”, then when I go to some site that wants me to download a PDF, it doesn’t detect that I have Adobe Reader installed, and I’m sunk.
Microsoft offers some “Free” versions of their developer software (for example, Visual Studio Express, and SQLEXPRESS) that are very full featured. But they DON’T DELIVER BAGGAGE as a condition of using the software!
I am really getting sick of this shit! If you want to promote a portable document format and a free reader for it, then DO SO! But Do it right, and nothing more. Don’t use it as a vehicle for promotion of irrelevant “features”. Don’t hand me some bullshit software that I didn’t ask for, and force me to install it just so I can be able to read and print your high-falutin’ format. PDF was originally designed for something quite different than what it’s being used for now. It was originally for preserving format for printing documents. Now, it’s become totally bastardized.
There are plenty of other formats you can use. RTF is readable and printable by virtually every word processing program available, not just Microsoft Word. It preserves the formatting and embedded images very nicely, and when I print it, I don’t get missing letters in my words that fail to print. XPS, which Microsoft “invented” is another good format, and there are others. What I don’t want is products that create new processes “Adobe Updater” for example, that hog resources on my machine and slow up the works.
Adobe Updater, Apple Mobile Device Service, Google Update, ITunes, Zune, and half a dozen other offenders are now appearing in my Task Manager processes list. Did I ask for this CRAP? Did anybody tell me they were going to install it? NOT!
But the bottom line, to me, revolves around the concept of using what is promoted as an “open format” to cram extra “stuff” down the consumer’s throat (Adobe Air, for example), and to have third party “PDF gadgets” that may either create invalid or corrupt PDF files that turn out to be useless for printing. For example, my Microsoft Word 2007 program offers a “Save as PDF” option. What guarantee do I have that the result will print without errors? What validation is available to make sure it “works correctly”? Do I even know if it came from Microsoft, or some other vendor? We DO NOT have open standards for document rendering, display and printing, to the contrary of what you may be hearing. When a true open standard for portable documents emerges – without all the BS baggage - I’ll be the first to support it. PDF doesn’t make it, in my opinion. The problem is --everybody wants open standards – as long as it is “theirs”! I say, BULLSHIT! Open standards means everybody uses it willingly – whether they invented it, or not. The standard is published, everybody signs on, and that’s the end of it! Period! And there should be reference applications that embody ONLY the standard, with NO BAGGAGE!
Why do you Silverlight RIA guys feel compelled to save this stuff in PDF format? You certainly aren’t doing me any favors. BIG FAIL. Sorry, pals! Do no evil.
I've "hated" the PDF format for a looonng time. It's intent was to be able to transfer/preview printer specific documents -- things that had to look exactly as laid out in design as on a printer.
ReplyDeleteUsing them as a 'anyone can read them' document sucks. The file format itself is bloated, let alone (at least) Adobe's reader.
I've also found that out of the myriad of people who create PDFs, a huge portion of them do it wrong: in your case not properly embedding (subsetting) a font so that the file you got goes against the whole point of PDF in the first place.
I agree that for stuff like that, including an RTF document is a better choice -- I don't know if XPS documents are readable on Mac/Linux ... but really people ... if you aren't releasing something printer critical, stop using PDF.
It's even worse when you have people who assume that PDFs are 'easily editable' or parseable, too ... but that's a whole other problem. :-P
Dude just download Foxit and uninstall adobe
ReplyDelete@Mike I have used Foxit Reader and it is great. The problem is that some sites require Adobe Reader and with Foxit they do not detect it.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded and examined the PDF file you mention in you blog post - "riaservicesoverviewpreview.pdf" - This PDF file was created from Microsoft Word 2007. I found several structural problems with this PDF that - to me - might explain why it does not 'behave' - I am bothering to comment here so that you might consider that PDF as a file format specification is fine, but some applications do make poorly formed PDF files. Adobe has created a viewing application that gracefully repairs or bypasses many problem objects routinely - so, before I would be bashing Adobe and Reader here, you might consider bashing Microsoft for - perhaps - not making a well behaved PDF file.
ReplyDelete@Michael, Your comments are well - taken. However, the very fact that it is so easy to create a "bad" PDF file indicates that there are still problems at the source. My post was less concentrated on whether PDF is a "bad" format, rather how it has become bloated and misused, including the Reader application and what is bundled with it. RTF works fine. What Microsoft is guilty of is not knowing better.
ReplyDeleteThe "source" of this bad PDF was Microsoft PDF making gadget. In your blog post, you spend a great deal of time complaining about Adobe, where Adobe at least provided a method for you to open and print this faulty PDF file. All I was suggesting is that perhaps the post should have been spent cursing Microsoft. This has nothing to do with the file format - I can send you a poorly formed JPEG file or TIFF file as well. Just because PDF is an ISO standard does not make it immune to making bad ones. Sorry to hear you had so many troubles - http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/l6vRFnaRH48qg1mE7Y5XdQ?feat=directlink
ReplyDeleteYes. You are right.
ReplyDelete1. Adobe consumes blocks all the resources available on the computer.
2. If the document needs special fonts installed, Adobe Reader opens a popunder window (modal) and you would not be able to minimize. This happens majority of the times.
3. Adobe Reader takes a whole lot of time to load a bunch of crap before you are able to read the document. They improvised it recently, but not that much.
4. If you have adobe photo downloader, I suggest you to uninstall it, because you would not be able to cancel it until it reads all of the device that is connected to. This wont leave printers also and if you have a Windows Mobile phone or iPhone, good luck with this Adobe Photo Downloader, because a lot of times it would clash with ActiveSync/Device center and iTunes.
4. You could use alternative readers, which are lightweight and faster, but majority of documents need the Signature "Adobe" and you would not be able to read that document properly without having Adobe.
--Ram--
@Michael, How do you "know" the source was "Microsoft's PDF making gadget"? They could have been using any "PDF making gadget". I do not like the PDF format, I believe it has been abused, and that there is little control available to ensure file integrity anymore. Their reader has become huge and bloated, and is delivered with software that has nothing to do with reading, displaying and printing PDF files.
ReplyDeleteHi Peter,
ReplyDeleteThe reason I know that the PDF files was made by Microsoft is by opening the PDF file in Acrobat, then, under the file menu, I selected Properties.
I guess I have failed to convince you that since Adobe really had no control over the integrity of how this PDF file is written, that they remain blameless here. To make statements like "I don't like the PDF Format" indicates to me that perhaps we are done here. Sorry to have tried to help. Have a great week, and I hope you future is PDF free somehow.
@Michael, most people do not own Adobe Acrobat, they only have the free Adobe Reader application.
ReplyDeleteIt may very well be true that Adobe has no real control over what people do in creating PDF files. If I were a vendor of some open format, I'd provide people who write these "gadgets", as you call them, with a built-in validation API that would enable them to confirm that the product they are producing actually meets accepted standards. The W3C does this with HTML and XML. I'm not sure if Adobe is doing this. If they are, then the people at Microsoft have an obligation to ensure that the "gadget" they are using complies.
Peter,
ReplyDeleteOh Please ! - You write "The W3C does this with HTML and XML." - So, following that logic, any and all HTML web pages will display flawlessly in any and all browsers ? I have been working with PDF since it was just P - PostScript. I guess you will just have to trust me when I say "Sometimes, developers of wildly popular applications fail to build drivers and PDF Libraries that create perfect output 100% of the time." Which is exactly what happened here. I was simply trying to point out that while you are ranting at Adobe, perhaps you were not familiar with the idea that a file format could be written so poorly that even Adobe Reader could not display or print it properly. This is like blaming your stove for burning your eggs. Sometimes it is a poorly set up system or a poorly set up operating system - sometimes it is the authoring application and often it is either elements that were placed in that document, or the drivers, or the PDF Library - but WHAT YOU RANTED ABOUT is CERTAINLY not the fault of something lacking in the PDF file format specifcation and most likely not a problem with Adobe Acrobat Reader. This is a bad PDF. I have worked with PDF software developers since 1996, and have made a few thousand bad PDF files myself, so I think I might be qualified to suggest that maybe - just this one time - you should not be blaming Adobe here. Google "PDF Evangelist" - now you know why I am bothering to help you mend your sinning blasphomy, my son ! LOL - have a great day, this was fun.
@Michael, I am glad you're having fun, but as a PDF Evangelist, you appear to be so consumed with your "mission" and expertise that you've been selectively responding to points I've made. It's not just about the PDF format or the "Free" Reader application, its about deceptively packaged software, an issue you have completely ignored.
ReplyDeleteIn point of fact, I downloaded Foxit Reader and used it to print out the same document, and there were no missing letters at all. Missing letters only occurred using the free Adobe Reader.
Hmm,
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft isn't allways so friendly. Try installing the MVP hosts file, which blocks all the Microsoft ad servers, Whoops! I can't log into my MSDN subscription cause a javascript file from an ad server is not accessable.
I also tried to print the Riaservicesoverview.pdf file using Adobe Reader 9 and had missing letters. I then downloaded and tried Foxit and it worked perfectly.
ReplyDelete@ Rex
ReplyDeleteWhile I am sure you did, i will re-state that this PDF is poorly formed, and I will also state that I can provide you with plenty or well formed PDF files that can't be opened in Foxit - like most XFA Forms PDF files.