Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Frank — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:47:30 -0000

PDF files do not slow down your computer. Adobe Acrobat does that.

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Cowicide — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:51:11 -0000

Ah, I see. Thanks for the info. I stand corrected. Maybe you can answer this... if Google and Apple have full access to the proper code from Adobe, then why the rendering problems between them and Adobe Acrobat? Please explain.

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

michael jahn — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:13:06 -0000

You do not need Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat Reader or anything from Adobe to generate, display, parse, edit or output PDF files.

You are correct in saying that one can license technology from Adobe, and you are correct in that you can license a PDFLib from Adobe - but many third party developers do not, and some of these solutions are Open Source projects - I have worked with - and currently work with - many developers who develop, market and sell PDF tools that do not license anything from Adobe, nor do they pay any fees to Adobe.

So, I guess I disagree with your last statement. There are many PDFLibs that can be purchase or licensed for reasonable fees - and free ones too.

It has been shared with me that the PDF creation facilities that Google offers in Google Docs (and GCal, etc.) is based on an old version of iText;

http://www.lowagie.com/iText/

Google has not acknowledged nor offered any support to the authors of that library - so, as you can see, you can get PDFLibs for free too - and again - without paying Adobe anything.

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Cowicide — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:56:33 -0000

Adobe Reader is not an open source application and Adobe does not distribute the source code to it.

You can download, for free, the Acrobat SDK which will allow you to create both plugins for Acrobat and develop applications that will leverage Acrobat's features as long as the system has Acrobat installed on it.

If you want a develop a PDF-based application for systems that will NOT have Acrobat installed, you would need the PDF Library. This product is NOT free and requires a (rather significant) licensing fee paid to Adobe.

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

michael jahn — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:54:15 -0000

How Cowicide,

you wrote - "...I have a feeling the underlying problem is Adobeâ€™s proprietary source code."

Not sure I know where to start...

1. PDF/X-4 is an ISO (International Standards Organization) file format. This is a publicly published specification. You can look this up by searching Google for "ISO 32000" - so, nothing "proprietary" about PDF files that contain these "effects" - and no licensing requirements to create one or process on (view or print) - the 'effects' that i used in the example PDF I sent you are simply operators, as common and renderable as "30% Cyan" color or "Times Roman 36 point" type.

2. File formats (like TIFF, JPEG, XPS or PDF) do not contain "source code". Like an HTML file, there are lines of code i guess, and like a browser can interpret them and display "source" - I guess you could call that source code, but - like HTML, PDF is a published specification.

3. Any third party (Apple, Google, Microsoft etc) can choose to interpret/parce/display a PDF properly - or not. I will describe 'properly' as following the ISO approved standard (version 1.7 of the PDF specification) - clearly - the Apple Preview application, and the technology Google is using to display PDF files in a window - well, they do not.

4. "Open Source" has little to do with any of this - any developer can choose to build an application on any platform to render a PDF file properly - many have using licensed Adoble technology - or using their own (Like Enfocus PitStop Extreme and many others) - any developer can use tools in the Mac or windows OS, or they can choose to ignore them and build their own.

I am not expert - nor claim to be, but I know that many claim to be able to display, import or print a PDF properly, but very few get it right - and this often causes frustration.

I do not work for Adobe - but hope Apple - where most of these high end PDF files are create - does step up and do a better job with Preview - Google, well, I really do not think anyone will be using an email application viewer (or expecting to) to approve a $120,000.00 ad for Time Warners Sport Illustrated.

Thanks for the exchange and keep using the Macintosh.

Hope this helps.

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Cowicide — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:39:21 -0000

I got your email and I got the same results. But, once again, I think we can agree those type of effects are not something your average person finds in an email and, in cases that they do, they are sure to have Adobe pro apps to deal with PDFs of this nature. But, I am glad that you are showing this to Apple, since it would be better for it to render it better! I was surprised to see your Gmail example was looking quite a bit more off than the Apple version, hopefully Google will get on that as well. I have a feeling the underlying problem is Adobe's proprietary source code.

I am very much looking forward to the day when open source apps completely take over everything.

Thank you for sending that email!

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

imodotcom — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:35:44 -0000

ADOBE has wasted a great opportunity.

Adobe Reader had too big of a foot-print, and I am not a fan of too many Upgrades. Kudos to Google! - - - imoDotcom - - -

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Travis McCrea — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:11:40 -0000

This is a great tool, I will now use this for those pesky pdf emails, luckly I still have http://www.pdfmenot.com for all other files. :)

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

John.BB — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:35:24 -0000

What kind of crap computer are you running that a mere PDF slows it â€œdown to a crawlâ€ ?

In this day and age? Seriously??

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Cowicide — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:19:15 -0000

> this is a big problem, but honestly, for a very small group of people

This sentence is the key to what I'm saying. This affects very few people and any serious designer is already going to have Adobe Acrobat Professional or at least Adobe Acrobat Reader in those cases. Anyway, my point was that for most purposes Mac OS X with the Mail app has been doing this (showing inline PDFs) for many years. Out of curiosity, I sent you an email for the PDFs to see what you're talking about and I'll report back my results here.

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

ghismo — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:42:23 -0000

Downloaded and installed Sumatra, not bad, but I'm back to Foxit reader, Foxit rocks ! Foxit can read document but also annotate, edit or create links inside of them.

Some comparison I made on my own PC :
* Adobe Reader 8.1.2 : 128 MB
* Adobe Reader Japanese Fonts : 20,96 MB

And for the very same purpose (and a little more) :
* Foxit Reader : 5,45 MB
* Sumatra PDF reader : 1.19 MB

Anyway, it's a good addition to gmail, for sure !

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

addictist — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:06:18 -0000

Foxit sucks. I dont know if you guys have ever tried Sumatra but I have been using it for about 2 weeks and its the lightest most beautifully rendering PDF reader I have found. This sure is a welcome sight though.

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Michael jahn — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 11:31:03 -0000

I would be happy to send you a PDF file that uses transparency and effects that Apple Preview and GMails viewer will not render properly - These effects are routinely used in Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop and Adone Illustrator by artist, photographers and designers to build the many Print ads you see in Magazines - as I work with software developers - who sell XTentions, Plug-ins applications, RIPs, image processing systems and workflow production solutions - for Mac and Wintel - this is a big problem, but honestly, for a very small group of people - MOST of which are on Macintosh.

So - send me a private email if you wish to mjahn@iqcolour.com, and I will send you a small PDF that contains a screen capture of how it "should" appear on the right and the PDF with transparency and effects on the left so you can test this for yourself. This is a known issue with Apples Quartz and Apple Preview - it is not a proper PDF viewer, nor is the technology used to view PDF files by Google - for people who need to see exactly how an ad will print with no surprises - people who work in Advertising adgencies, Design firms and for Magazine publishers, this is a critical flaw that would create a "what you see is NOT what you get" senario.

hope this helps, and yes, Mac are great, and if they made an 800 dollar laptop, everyone in my family would have one.

Michael Jahn
IQColour
PDF Color Conversion Specialist
1824 North Garvin Avenue
Simi Valley
California 93065
Office: (805) 527 8130
Cell: (805) 217 6741
Email: mjahn@iqcolour.com
Skype: michaelejahn
Twitter: http://twitter.com/michaele...

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Gadget Sleuth — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 11:06:13 -0000

Someone mentioned Foxit...yes! MUCH faster and better than Adobe Reader (especially 9, which is near unusable on one Vista laptop I have). Good news about GMail too, about time.

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Cowicide — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 09:20:46 -0000

> there are several things I use with PDF files daily that Apples
> preview tool fails to display/render properly - if at all.

Like what? It never gives me any issues... at all. PDFs show right up for me and everyone else except you. Actually, Apple is the fastest PDF renderer on the planet as well. But.. once again, no matter what... Mac's suck. Hahaha...

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Guillaume — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 07:42:17 -0000

Gamil rocks! They have added so many features recently, I am wondering why people are still using hotmail or yahoo. Do you any comparison table or anything with the other webmail providers??

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Jack Clarke — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:20:05 -0000

I use Evince PDF viewer in Xubuntu and it's very fast but I can see why Adobe users might want an alternative. And having the option to view it in Gmail is nice.

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Johan — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:18:39 -0000

Worked fine for me in FF 2.0.0.18 & Ubuntu 7.10, and was almost as fast as using Evince.

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Jasper — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:08:33 -0000

I first tried it with a file of 14MB.. I only could view it as a HTML. Later, I tried it with a 1,5MB file and that worked very well.. Seems like there is a limit of filesize you can open with Google's PDF viewer.

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Michael jahn — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:22:06 -0000

Well, while I happen to agree that Quartz - the technology that is "display PDF" - is nice and convenient - there are several things I use with PDF files daily that Apples preview tool fails to display/render properly - if at all.

It is great that Google has enabled any gMail user on any platform to display a PDF - so, if I visit anyone, i do not need to bring my own laptop, i can just use anyones computer and log-in - and now, preview "most" of the PDF - and for that I am thankful !

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

halo — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:14:51 -0000

nemeses

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Bob — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:05:53 -0000

What kind of crap computer are you running that a mere PDF slows it "down to a crawl" ?

In this day and age? Seriously?

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

adyblain — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:45:42 -0000

Agree with Ethan TT.

As soon as I started to read your article, I knew you were using Windows. You should get your hands on Preview for a little while to see how quickly PDFs should open and perform. When I use Acrobat Reader at work sometimes, I want to smash the PC in front of me. It bites serious bag. Thank goodness for Firefox.

But either way, if gmail adapts PDF viewing and that makes life easier, great! They can add all the functions they want and I will still use Mail to get my gmails. Although, SMS sounds interesting... when it is available in Canada, that is.

Until then, God Speed to you Windows users. You're going to need it. ;)

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Ethan Tira-Thompson — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:34:21 -0000

I'll second cowicide, sometimes I forget how the "other half" lives ;)
With Safari, click on a PDF, and *bam* there it is. Or even Firefox, it'll download and open in Preview, *bam*.
The problem isn't so much PDFs directly â€” for a lot of stuff, it's just as quick to load as a web page with the same amount of content â€”Â but Acrobat is a bloated POS, so if that's what you're using to view the documents, of course it's going to suck.

Re: Gmail Gets Its Own PDF Viewer; My Computer Applauds

Annet — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:32:28 -0000

TNX
**
Stereogrammes, Cross Eye 3D, Illusions, 3D Illusions, Optical Illusions, Magic Eye
http://stereogrammes.org/