This is a screenshot from Adobe.com. I don't think it is a way to promote PDF. It is a promotion for Flash surely.

See previous post.

I tried the explanation of the Adobe Engagement Platform. Apparently I have a 2meg connection but not enough to stop the Engagement Platform from grinding to a halt. Maybe it is just here in the UK that there is a problem but I think the Adobe vision could be moving away from some people.

Acrobat Services sites updated

I have updated the websites for Acrobat Services. In recent months, well maybe a year or two, they have not been updated as I have found blogs to be easier. Also I have not got my head round Acrobat 8 or the changes since Adobe merged with Macromedia. It has been quite confusing now that acrobat connect has almost nothing to do with PDF. Now that Mars has been announced at least there is a direction I can recognise as to do with PDF as I remember it.

So there is a story about Mars for Acrobat Services .co.uk and the .com site. Previously I had thought about the UK as dial-up. now broadband is fairly well available so the difference is maybe that the UK is still on flat documents and the .com one at least covers Flash video etc. to some extent. Actually things are not so clear but people will find what suits them.

It is very hard to make out what the Adobe income is for PDF based products compare to the Flash lines. My guess is that PDF is still most of the income although the future presented is mostly about Flash. My emphasis is a bit retro but there is still some base for it.

Mars has been there all the time

Apparently Mars is not a quick Adobe response to the Microsoft XML offers.

Andrew Shebanow reports in his blog that a more XML based version of PDF has been in the works for a long time. Somehow it just did not get finished in time for the release of Acrobat 8.

In my opinion this XML stuff should be a priority. Maybe I am stuck on flat static documents but video conferencing seems to me to be a different issue to PDF.

Anyway, the Mars downloads are available and should be no more trouble to add to Acrobat 8 than some extra features to Vista. More later on how this works.

This discussion is still part of print and drupa. Global Graphics have made a major contribution to the XML print aspects of Vista. My guess is that the approach will work ok, even though I don't think there will be a rush to upgrade in general.

Getting JDF to be accepted could be easier once it is realised that JDF is just another case of XML. Once the XML people get interested in print things could work out quite quickly.

Draft stories for 2007

I have done a Google doc as a draft for next year. Thinking about online in reverse order makes more sense as it puts the digital print and then the bookfair after the online information.

This will make more sense later.

Looking forward with comments

This blog continues from IPEX 2002 with much the same aim. For some reason I cannot turn on comments in the IPEX 2002 blog. Maybe I have deleted something when adding the Google ads code in. Anyway, maybe just time for a new start. There will be posts over the new year with some clear aims.

I am definitely into time travel. In 2002 Adobe were a lot more clear about aims for Postscript and PDF than they are recently, what with Flash for phones etc. being such a prospect. drupa 2008 may be the next occasion that the PDF Print Engine gets full attention.

In last week's Printweek Lawrence Wallis claimed, "in an endeavor to lift spirits amid the current industrial gloom", that "technological development is comparatively becalmed at the moment." Apparently this should give some confidence to people in print and encourage a sense of stability. However it seems to me that technology outside the printing industry is still moving quickly. I wrote a report for OhmyNews about the 2006 Online Information event. This is the first time that Information World Review has promoted their blog as much as the print version. It might be expected that the web is part of such an occasion but until recently print has been the priority for most of the content providers at the show.