What the heck is this guy talking about?

Hey there, friends!
I sent an email out on my network to spread the word about the novaPDF 2.0 Build 139 that I saw on the front page here at MG. This is what I sent.

Now I don't hardly use this myself, but I know many on my network that do, and thought they'd like to check it out, and if they liked it, then great, if not, so be it.

I got this response from someone, and wondered if this made sense at all.

My uninformed opinion is that this guy knows enough to be dangerous, and also doesn't have any sense to back up his limited knowledge. I'm not going to dog the guy or anything, I just wondered if he is as out to lunch as I think he is. I'm actually hoping that I'm wrong, and that he indeed knows what he's talking about.

Thoughts?

Eric

 

My knowledge is pretty limited too, but I just thought I'd post my opinion. That guy went out for lunch and never came back.

 

I've used a few different PDF Writers and have never had problems with Acrobat Reader opening and viewing the files.

 

Well, that's good to know. I don't use the program very often so I had no clue what he was talking about, but it sounded to me like he didn't either!

 

I read what that guy said as,

"Because it is free and doesn't use the same method to create PDFs as Adobe Acrobat, it makes mistakes".

Bet he can't give you a real example. Have him send you a file that doesn't work right.

 

Was his term usage even correct? I googled and looked up the terms in the Dictionary, and it seemed he was mixing apples and oranges, as well as grapes. Usually I can learn something when I google, but I learned nada in this case.

 

I'm no expert, however...

I'd say his useage was so far off base, it isn't funny.

http://webopedia.com/TERM/P/PostScript.html

 

When I first read this yesterday, my understanding of his statement was that because Adobe own the patent and haven't released the source code, then no other program can do the same job properly, albeit said with poor English and grammar.

While it's true that some very complex postscript and encapsulated postscript files don't reproduce as accurately on some other programs, that is very rare.

I've only ever come across one in all the years I've been using them, and even then it wasn't "garbled" as stated.

Maybe if Adobe Acrobat was $20 or $30 rather than $1 000, then his "theory" would be more acceptable.

 

I've used an older version of FreePDF, have been for a few years, and have PDFCreator on another system. Granted both use Ghostscript during document production, but a PDF is nothing more than a complex Post Script or Encapsulated Post Script File. If someone is having problems with garbled documents then they have configured the Postscript Printer incorrectly and/or the output settings are incorrect, which is usually the case.

I'm not sure what he is talking about since none of these programs 'emulate' Adobe Acrobat; instead they produce a Postscript document that is compatible with Acrobat & Acrobat Reader. Compatibility is even better when one is using the Adobe Postscript Printer Drivers.

 

Well, thanks guys, as usual I learned something after having hung out here for a while. Thanks for the Webopedia link, too, Adrynalyne, I'd forgotten about Webopedia, it always has good definitions.

Take care, all.

Eric