What do you use for PDF Generation?

[Syed Zaeem Hosain]

Hi, Dov.

Dov Isaacs wrote:
> A word of advice. Before you go loading up on el'cheapo
> $9.95 PDF creation software, make sure that what it generates
> is really kosher. We quite often see problems when these
> PDF files "escape" the environment in which they were created
> and attempts are made to either combine them with other PDF
> files in Acrobat or to place them in FrameMaker, InDesign,
> or elsewhere. Problems often manifest themselves as funky font
> definitions with improper names and encodings that cause
> chaos when attempts are made to repurpose those PDF files.
> Just because those other employees are not publishing vast
> tomes doesn't mean that they should have shoddy tools.

Good points, yes!

We have some people who create "print-quality" documents for which
we need to be sure that the PDF's are very high quality. For these
folks, we have Acrobat Pro installed on their systems - the "right"
way to go for sure!

It is the rest of the folks, who send out docs and files outside
our company for reading or review and other purposes, that we want
to have in PDF format. The purpose is to avoid having "original"
documents out there. The policy was created because we got burned
by "properties" information in a Word doc recently - an older doc
was used to create a new one and ... oops!

None of the PDF's from these other employees is likely to be used
in situations where they might cause problems like you mention.
So, I am fairly confident (but keeping my fingers crossed till I
test some more) that we should be okay with something like PDF995.

But, I will definitely try things out in detail before proceeding ...

Of course, if Adobe Elements were a LOT lower in price for multiple
copies, or the server version of Acrobat was not so crazily over-
priced for our simple needs (less than 50 employees total!), we
would not be looking at cheaper alternatives. Hint, hint! :)

Thanks for the input regardless! It is appreciated.

Z

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: framers-bounces+isaacs=adobe.com at lists.frameusers.com 
>> [mailto:framers-bounces+isaacs=adobe.com at lists.frameusers.com]
>>  On Behalf Of Syed Zaeem Hosain
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 10:09 AM
>> To: Ron Teplitz
>> Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
>> Subject: Re: What do you use for PDF Generation?
>>
>> Ron Teplitz wrote:
>>> Every copy of Frame I've seen for a long time included Acrobat 
>>> Distiller, going back to at least FM 6.0. Distiller does 
>> all of what 
>>> many folks need in the way of PDF generation. What version 
>> of Frame do 
>>> you have? Have you checked to see if your distribution 
>> included Distiller?
>>> Cheers,
>>> Ron
>> Oh, I should have been clearer. I definitely use Acrobat Pro 
>> 7 for my PDF creation! With output from FrameMaker and all 
>> other programs too. :)
>>
>> My questions related to the fact that we need to get PDF 
>> creation ability for *all* the employees in our company, and 
>> the price of Acrobat Pro (or Standard, too) would be very 
>> prohibitive. These folks mostly do not use FrameMaker ... 
>> most are simply using Word and Excel for their daily stuff.
>>
>> Right now, I am leaning towards either Acrobat Elements or 
>> PDF995 as the "preferred" solution for this new policy ... 
>> those seem to have garnered the most "votes" too, but I do 
>> plan on quickly looking at some of the open-source freebie 
>> stuff as well.
>>
>> What I have tried and did NOT like: PDF-Xchange. This came as 
>> a freebie demo with some app that I got, and it simply 
>> crashes too often on my system. Not good enough.
>>
>> Another one that was still a tad bit too expensive (as an 
>> Enterprise total cost) was PDF Convertor 3 from Nuance. I 
>> liked it (I use my copy of the PDF to Word convertor on 
>> occasion), but the total cost is a bit high.
>>
>> This is why PDF995 is leading the pack right now ...
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Z