The benefits of Acrobat depend on software being available for this to take effect. Roughly the availability seems to divide into Decade1 and Decade2. These do not cover exactly ten years but the start of each phase involves a sort of interlude while features are described, made to work, and then appreciated.

Decade1 started around 1993. As PDF develops from Postscript, Adobe always intended PDF as part of a digital workflow, the digital equivalent of film. This is now widely implemented. Designers (including anyone with a personal computer) can save a page design as PDF. It can be combined as part of a larger set of contents and sent for digital printing or converted to a plate for litho. Proofing can be fast and cheap.

On the internet, PDF files are used to communicate documents across platforms with confidence as to how they will be displayed. The Reader is free and is widely available.

Capture and other products can scan hard copy and convert this to PDF so there is a transition to digital ways of working.

A PDF from Decade 1 (1997)

Catalyst for convergance (155k)

Decade2 starts round about now and extends the use of the web for interactive PDF with links to data. XML support is improved in PDF 1.5 so some of the things already talked about will become easier. Broadband is now more widely available so the multimedia possibilities of PDF will be more available. The collaboration features have been promoted but are only possible when all those involved have a full copy of Acrobat . With the new Reader and server software for 'Reader extensions' it will be possible for more functions to be added for some PDFs on the web. This is likley to start with form filling for government agencies. In principle though it could cover e-learning and all media.

Print workflows will be just one aspect of this use of PDF on the web. The key area will be server software and what it can support. Currently this is expensive but more options will probably appear over the next ten years.

ront to a database more


These points are expanded on below

the Adobe site is at
http://www.adobe.co.uk/fullacrobat