Thursday, 1 February 2007

Adobe PDF Attempts Standardisation

Abobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) is used for distributing and printing electronic documents. After years of it being launched it plans on getting formal approval of its PDF through a formal ISO standardisation process. The move is strategically placed alongside Microsoft’s...

Abobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) is used for distributing and printing electronic documents. After years of it being launched it plans on getting formal approval of its PDF through a formal ISO standardisation process.

The move is strategically placed alongside Microsoft’s Relevant Products/Services's emerging XPS format. Adobe has released its Portable Document Format 1.7 specification to a standards group for official recognition.

What is Adobe’s intention of formalising the format is a question playing on many minds. The company wants more authority over its PDF format, thus it has released the specification to the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) for publication by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

Kevin Lynch, senior vice president and chief software architect at Adobe said, "By releasing the full PDF specification for ISO standardisation, we are reinforcing our commitment to openness".

"Consumers will find the functions of PDF and XPS similar; you open an electronic file and it looks just like it would on paper. But from a business perspective, you can do much more with PDF on several levels," said Directions on Microsoft analyst Greg DeMichillie.

Mid September 2006 Microsoft had announced that users can save Microsoft Office documents in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). The company is shipping the capability as a free downloadable add-in for Office 2007. In fact, the add-in enables users to save in either PDF or in Microsoft's proprietary Office XML Paper Specification (XPS).

The free download is available here.