PDF-Basics is a service provided by PDFzone.com | http://www.pdfzone.com/ __________________________________________________________________
Many thanks to everyone who replied. The reason for the question is that I work for the Ontario (Canada) gov't (Ministry of Northern Development and Mines) and we regularly release geological studies in PDF format and sometimes in other formats too. For example, "This data release contains a readme file in Microsoft Word 97 (.doc) format and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format". A question arose by one of the editors as to whether the PDF format should be expressly identified as an Adobe Acrobat format or should it just be identified as a PDF format. To the best of my knowledge, the only reader available is Acrobat Reader (although other applications such as Ghostscript, CorelDRAW and others can open PDFs) which is why the format was identified as Adobe Acrobat format. Suggestions are welcome, Jules > -----Original Message----- > From: Max Wyss [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 2:11 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [PDF-Basics] How would the openness of the PDF format be > described > > > > PDF-Basics is a service provided by PDFzone.com | > http://www.pdfzone.com/ > __________________________________________________________________ > > The rights to the Portable Document Format belong to Adobe. However > Adobe has decided to publish the speicifications for this format, and > to more or less grant the rights to use these specifications as base > for your work. There are some patents involved, but they are, as far > as I know, related to the implementation of some features. There > should be an "official" statement on the developer section on the > Adobe website (http://partners.adobe.com), and, particularly, in the > introduction to the Portable Document Format Specification, > downloadable from there. > > A subset of the Portable Document Format specification, particularly > aimed at document interchange for the magazine industry, is part of > an ISO standard (that's what we know as PDF-X). > > Hope, this can help. > > > Max Wyss > PRODOK Engineering > Low Paper workflows, Smart documents, PDF forms > CH-8906 Bonstetten, Switzerland > > Fax: +41 1 700 20 37 > or +1 815 425 6566 > e-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.prodok.com > > > > [ Building Bridges for Information ] > > > ______________________ > > > > Shameless Plug: > > My next conference appearances and workshops: > * Workshop by Essociates Group in Chicago, IL, September 29 to > October 1, 2003 (http://www.essociatesgroup.com) > * PDFConference 2003 in Anaheim, CA, November 9 to 13, 2003 > (http://www.pdfconference.com) > * And, as always, available for on-site > workshops/tutorials/consulting. > > > _________________________ > > > > >I am curious about the PDF format. I realize that Adobe is > at least a major > >player but I believe that it must be open to a certain > extent so that other > >companies may be able to create applications to create PDF > documents. How > >would one describe the PDF format? Is it open source? Is it patented? > > > > To change your subscription: > http://www.pdfzone.com/discussions/lists-pdfbasics.html > To change your subscription: http://www.pdfzone.com/discussions/lists-pdfbasics.html
