Six degrees of graphic PDF

Print Action, Feb 2003

What rival technologies does PDF have?

Kelly: Depends on the market. In high-end advertising DCS2 and TIFF/IT-P1 are still strong. PDF will not replace HTML/XHTML in the Web market. XML plus some formatting language like XSL will grow stronger in the dynamic online document market. Dynamically generated PDF is also increasing. PDF can be very complex because of its broad feature set. By creating subsets and making them approved international standards, it is possible to create and verify reliable PDF files. Archival PDF is gaining ground with initiatives such as the PDF/A group.

Bailey: For content file transmission in the graphic arts? None that I see, and I hope it stays that way. Competition is healthy in many cases, but too many options simply bog everyone down and reduce the chance of two tools (or companies) being able to work efficiently together.

Scaffer: Microsoft would have liked Word.doc to be a contender, but it really isn't. Perhaps something like its proposed XDocs will be one. In the graphic arts industry, as a container format, PDF (or the subset PDF/X) are rivalled only by some long-time stand-bys: EPS, PostScript, DCS2, TIFF/IT or perhaps CT/LW (continuous tone and line work) formats.

Hepditch: There are workflows that continue to rely on their own variety of CT/LW for job assembly. The theory behind using this file format is for purposes of security and remaining device independent. Today's production and turnaround time is so fast, and PDF, through the use of standards such as PDF/X and certified workflows, have replaced the legacy file formats without compromising security or device independence. Final file security is overcome by utilizing the 1-bit TIFF for proofing and in many cases distribute-and-print models. To many workflows today, CT/LW adds the requirement for translators, additional production steps and since it is not screened many do not see it as a completely secure file format.

Brown: PDF does not truly have a direct competitor, but PDF does face competitive challenges. The biggest competitor to PDF is native file exchange. But as any computer user will tell you, sending someone an application file is usually a bad idea because it's very difficult to get another person's application file to view and print reliably.

Will PDF be the predominant format for multimedia publishing?

Bailey: To a large extent that depends on what you mean by multimedia. For anything that is largely still image or text, where the presentation is at least as important as the content itself, and where the form factor of the delivery channels is more or less constant (like reading on a computer monitor) then PDF is currently the best format. So conference or sales presentations, catalogues, brochures etc. fit PDF extremely well, whether delivered via the Web or on CD.

PDF suffers when it's moved between very different form factors. Even with the reflow support added in PDF 1.4 it really isn't very flexible. But this is a common issue with any format where a primary design objective was to retain anything close to an exact rendition of the original design - it's more a clash of design requirements than a failure of the PDF format. PDF also suffers when you get to moving images because it relies on external file formats for those, and many are not as portable cross-platform as might be desired.