Scanning docs

[KA4HJH]

><SARCASM>
>Well, if people are so fed up with PDF, why not using something like
>TeX/LaTeX/Metafont? It's free, it's open, and it was *designed* for this
>sort of thing - go to web media, go to press? What is difference? :-)
></SARCASM>
>
>	On a more serious note, PDF wasn't designed to be a word
>processor format, only a final print solution. Most docs that are designed
>to be edited are in pagemaker / word / whatever source format you use. You
>could even write up a TeX file and print it to the PDF printer, and voila
>- everything is cool.

The fundamental idea behind Acrobat--the language of PDF's, a 
descendant of PostScript--is to be able to encapsulate and distribute 
a print job in a convenient form. That way everyone can look at or 
print the finished document without having whatever applications(s) 
created it. One big difference between Acrobat and PS is that it's 
paged--you can go straight to page 100. You can't do that with PS. 
There are programs around that let you look at/print PS files, but 
they have to read through the ENTIRE file up to the page you want.

>I still see two problems with PDF - one, the
>standard is controlled by Adobe, and is thus proprietary; two, there are
>no other apps than acrobat out there to deal with this type of thing. If
>there were more open PDF creators, then it would be a more level playing
>field.

Actually, there are already third party programs (on the Mac, anyway) 
that can write PDF's. Haven't seen any editors yet, but I suspect 
that it's just a matter of time. Competition is good.

There's actually a third problem: it adds more complexity, in the 
form of features, to the task. More options to choose, more things to 
set. More things to accidently forget.


>	The best format I have come up with as far as creating schematics
>and app notes has been to create the schematic in my capture tool (either
>OrCAD Capture or PADS PowerLogic), then print that document to PDF. Once
>in acrobat, I can export to EPS or whatever I want to dump it into my
>typesetter, Pagemaker. Then, when the document is done, I just print it
>off to a final PDF, and voila - done. Schematics come out clean as a
>whistle, and any graphics are carefully processed to preserve maximum
>resolution at minimum space.

Beats the old days when you had to print to a PostScript job file, 
then wrangle that into some other format, etc.

<SARCASM (sympathetic)>
It would help if that expensive CAD program would export to a common 
file format like EPS or TIFF, but what do you want for $K and a 
dongle...?
<SARCASM>


>	Obviously, most people can't get ahold of those tools to munge up
>docs. I mean, what I use is close to $4,000 US in tools (so graciously
>provided by my employer) - but at least the methodology is the same for
>whatever apps you use.

I've been lucky in with respect to employment in a similar fashion.


-- 
Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"