Re: PDF Alternatives?

Hi Dave,

First of all, I disagree with you on your last sentence. There are many
formats as good, or even better than PDF for printing, including Adobe's
own Postscript. The reasons why Adobe decided to market PDF so strongly
are only known to them, although I am able to think of some.

Secondly, the discussion was getting to the point where PDF "was almost
unavoidable", argument which I strongly disagree. I offered to Adam an
affordable solution. My solution is still valid with your argument,
because the "only" thing you need to do is "learn" PDF, and embed the
HTML form results in the PDF form. In any case, the user does not care
about the process because it is server-side. Let's not put the burden on
the  user.

Carlos

Dave J Woolley wrote:
> I don't think the bureacrats want PDF; they want a paper
> document in a fixed format, which the same format as was
> used by the person completing the form.  You can meet the
> first requirement by printing the captured data onto a
> pre-printed form, but, if it weren't for the second point,
> the bureacrat would probably have no problem with a single
> font printout of the key data and labels.
> 
> In many cases they may also want a signature (some internet
> banks in the UK take the initial form data online and then
> print it and send it to the applicant for confirmation and
> signing).
> 
> PDF just happens to be the best available format for producing
> a near exact online replica of a document.

-- 
Dr Carlos A Velasco
mailto:Carlos.Velasco-Nunez@gmd.de   mailto:velasco@pobox.com
GMD - German National Research Center for Information Technology
  Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT.MMK)
  Schloss Birlinghoven, D-53754 Sankt Augustin (Germany)
  Tel: +49-2241-142609 Fax: +49-2241-142146
DISTEC: Discapacidad y Tecnología de la Rehabilitación
  http://fit.gmd.de/~velasco/distec/

Received on Thursday, 3 August 2000 09:36:40 UTC