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Adobe aims at the YouTube Generation Not much on XML Paper at Digital Print World Free Seminars explain what is new with Acrobat 9 PDFXML reveals how to edit in ePUB The blog for Adobe Digital Editions has revealed that the PDFXML Inspector also works for the ePUB format as used in the Sony Reader. This may only interest people who work with code but it could also be a way to edit or create e-books. Paul Norton explains that "the Mars Project is an XML-friendly representation for PDF documents, and while the vocabularies used by Mars and by ePub documents are very different, the containers are very similar, and so we can share some of the same tools. In this case it's a matter of our "borrowing" the PDFXML Inspector." First you need to install AIR though there is nothing flash or animated about the interface. It is pointed out that "You certainly could also use the PDFXML Inspector to, say, add chapters to your book, but you'd have to understand the changes you'd need to make to the OPF file (manifest entry and spine entry) and to the NCX file (to add navPoints), as the tool was really made for small changes, not big ones." However, creating an ePUB file is no easy task. Feedbooks can do it from a blog. Bookglutton can do it from html but a few test files will reveal some details. The simple "save as ePUB" button is some way off. With the current version of InDesign it appears normal that creating an ePUB will cause all formatting to vanish. Another post on the Digital Editions blog explains that Creative Suite 4 includes a version of InDesign that solves this problem. "With InDesign CS3, the ePub export plug-in interpreted Paragraph and Character styles when generating the CSS. With InDesign CS4 we've added the option for generating CSS from whatever formatting is applied to the text, whether through styles or through "local" or direct formatting. Now you can apply bold to text and it will indeed be bold. " This is very welcome for people used to adding <b> and </b> to Wordstar and being amazed at the result. AnimX Archive tests out Acrobat 9 Presenter IPEX 2010 announces a logical layout for digital workflow The layout has been announced for the 2010 version of IPEX, an international print show held in the UK every four years. It shows a logical flow from creative design through to finishing. "Output" is shown for both digital printing and litho etc. Trevor Crawford, comments: "During recent years, the exhibition was split over two sides of the NEC. The new layout, concentrated around the Atrium concourse, offers huge benefits for both exhibitors and visitors including one main central entrance with easy access to public transport and car parks. The linked and adjoining halls provide easier navigation and will ensure a smooth visitor flow within an encapsulated and defined area. We're absolutely thrilled about the new layout as it will reduce the distance between halls so visitors can maximise their time at the event." The layout may be useful in making sense of the halls at drupa. Like previous occasions for IPEX the layout has chenged to incorporate software and digital print but without any major redesign. The 2008 drupa may revolve around the Innovation Parc or this may be missed by people who follow a regular route. See www.atford for a schemed layout of drupa 2008. By 2010 software etc could be just normal as part of communications. For web fans the route may just include creation and pre-media. more on news through 2010 and larger IPEX layout British Library switch to Digital Editions The British Library has started to promote the use of Adobe Digital Editions Reader instead of Adobe Reader 8. This is part of the British Libray service for document supply, including 20,000 journals. The digital rights management is a concern for the publishers of journals. Usually there are restrictions on copying and the number of times a page can be printed. Versions 6 and 7 of Adobe Reader, once known as Acrobat Reader, can still be used but the use of Adobe Reader 8 is only possible through using Adobe Digital Editions instead. The reasons for this may become clearer when the Adobe Integrated Runtime (codename Apollo) is released. According to the FAQ, Digital Editions is not yet an Apollo application but is written in Flex 2. "The Apollo project is in essence developing the next version of the runtime engine of the Adobe Engagement Platform. As a RIA that can operate offline and outside the browser, Digital Editions exemplifies the kind of next-generation application that the Apollo runtime will enable third-party developers to create, and we expect that Digital Editions will ultimately utilize the Apollo runtime." An update to Digital Editions may follow quickly from Runtime availability, "The distributed RIA architecture of Digital Editions and its associated content protection services requires that Internet-connected users always use the latest version, similar to a browser-based web application." So if you have downloaded Digital Editions it may require an update or may update automatically. The Adobe Reader may continue to be available for the PDF format only. Without Digital Rights Management this may be limited to documents that are not published commercially. Digital Rights Management has a mixed reputation with consumers. There are proposals from Universal Music to offer tracks without DRM. Recently Google decided to stop selling video and as a consequence the people who had already made purchases were unable to continue to watch them. The Sony Reader now supports the ePub format, also supported by Adobe Digital Editions. Feedbooks offer a service to create ePub files from a blog or news feed. There is a test on the drupa2008 blog. ABC groups products for web, print PDF numbers still a mystery as Adobe releases "Digital Editions" The UK Audit Bureau of Circulation has started to issue Group Product Reports in which news organisations can show numbers for both online and print publications. Tim Brooks, Managing Director of Guardian News and Media Limited, commented: “Increasing numbers of clients are using our brands across both traditional and digital platforms to communicate with the Guardian and Observer audiences." However there is still not much information on numbers for the "digital editions", complete PDF versions of the print content. It is possible that the numbers were too small to be included on certificates, although ABC was prepared for this if publishers "opted in". It seems that the web has gone past plans to charge for content online and that PDF has missed out as a format. The Guardian and Telegraph offer free PDF downloads but no numbers are publicised. Meanwhile, Adobe have announced a new reader known as "Digital Editions", based on Flash and requiring only a 3 meg download compared to over 20 megs for Acrobat. Later in 2007 an Adobe Media Player will include sound and video. Some news organisations already offer video and podcasts so the range of options will continue to expand. It may be possible to display video within pages on the "Digital Editions" Reader but there are no examples so far from UK newspapers. Digital Rights Management is no longer available in the latest versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader so it appears that Adobe intend the "Digital Editions" Reader to be the most widely available and default for general publishing. This page will be updated when it becomes clearer what is possible with the available technology and what is likley to develop in the UK. Online Publishers offer sample digital editions Free samples are available for a selection of digital editions from UK newspublishers. The UKAOP website lists the Evening Standard, Daily Mail and Guardian. The digital editions offer online all the design content including photographs and illustration. It seems that most promotion for digital editions is aimed outside the UK to avoid further declines in print circulation. The Times, TES and Telegraph are not available in the UK. This policy changes with IT Week who offer controlled circulation in the UK but subscription only outside. Over time there could be varied offers if for example advertisers valued the IT Week audience outside the UK. Web audience stats are often different to print circulation figures, rarely showing that an audience is exclusive to the UK. There may be a business model for transition from a print news organisation to one combining online and print. Currently published numbers do not make it obvious how this might be happening. There may be something from ABC on digital editions but the audience for websites is also a factor. Previously, Guardian offers free PDF Previous Stories Accountancy Age by the numbers Accountancy Age is the first UK publication to publish figures for digital circulation as audited by ABC. This may result in other publications following. there could be more publishing in digital editions, including PDF. see the story at OhmyNews. FTpm free evening briefing in PDF from Financial Times Two A4 pages distributed free in London and available on the web from 4pm each weekday. www.ft.com/ftpm Created in Quark and Adobe Distiller the PDF shows off what is possible for photographs and advertising. The advert from GE can relate to a glob There has been speculation Pearson may come under pressure to sell the FT as it was losing money in 2005. However the first half of 2006 shows a return to profit. Brand Republic reports that paid subscribers to FT.com now number 86,000. The ABC certificate for May shows a full rate circualation for England and Wales of 83, 930. Adding the Scotland number of 4,651 shows a UK print circulation still larger than the web subscribers but the trend may be towards an FT with a readership base in cyberspace, not the UK. The free PDF is probably helping to build the web audience. A longer report has been submitted to OhmyNews International. See below for how previous reports have been included on their technology pages. Click here for the full copy. Electronic Publishing at Online Information Online Information is a major show , mostly around data publishing. Recently there have been additinal sections on document management and electronic publishing. In 2005 there was a presentation by the Independent on how to publish through XML, with technical support from Mimotek .
Previous articles on this topic Talk about this at Guardian UK BETT continues UK bandwidth discussion, The learn9 blog will include text about BETT that may become stories for OhmyNews possibly similar to previous stories. In summary, UK broadband is way behind on OECD tables. Education policy assumes that all students and parents have access to the Web so the BETT event is the best chance to discuss this. What was the DTI is not nearly as interested. continues on blog. Also Guardian Talk. The Byron Report on online safety had more to say about benefits for education but this was mostly ignored on publication. Panics usually have a timescale so BETT may be time for further review. Also Guardian Talk and blog. BETT will also be a rare occasion when both Adobe and Macromedia will be at a UK computer show, Olymia as it happens. Any story about BETT will have to include Silverlight, Flash and open source. More on blog. Previously, story on BETT 2008 for OhmyNews Note on news scope for this site This site has concentrated on this ABC story for a while now. It still seems to be the most interesting thing happening around PDF in the UK. For a wider scope of current news there are sites like PlanetPDF and PDFzone. PDF is only part of the story around digital editions. However when the ABC figures are studied it should become clear what is possible with workflows for print and web. In 2004 two stories were accepted for OhmyNews International. The second one started with the Afaics report on e-book hardware and a comment from Guy Kewney that 'I think a lot of publishers may be caught with out-of-date plans for using wood pulp'. Web Influence on Print Media Growing Publishers Awaken to an 'E-Book Society' There have also been stories about perceptions of Google and the FT in PDF (see above.) Some stories are only on the 'talkback' board. To help develop some new ones there is now a page for drafts. Any new information or suggested links would be welcome. There is a lot of repitition but some changes over time. Acrobat and PDF are one part of the discussion. The discussion on OhmyNews assumes broadband. It is interesting to find UK news that connects with this. Information during May would be helpful, ahead of the June forum when related issues will be discussed. British Library offers Secure Electronic Delivery The British Library now offer a document delivery service using the rights management features of the latest Adobe Reader. As a deposit library for copyright, the British Library has been concerned to make longterm arrangements with publishers. Additional fees are charged for copyright material, up to around £20. The digital rights management restricts access to 14 days if the lower fee for libraries and private study is paid. If the full copyright fee is paid the PDF will be available for three years. The rights software will not work with earlier versions of Acrobat, so Acrobat 6 or the Adobe Reader is essential. The British Library subscribes to 50,000 journals and has back issues of 250,000. Conference proceedings are available in most languages. Any article or chapter could be emailed as a PDF attachment within two hours. Defra e-government project with Adobe Reader Extensions Defra has announced one of the first UK examples of e-government "The thousands of forms we create, sometimes up to twenty pages long, need to be carefully managed. Defra has therefore been actively investigating ways to simplify the application processes for a number of years," said John Kennedy, IT Programme Manager at Defra, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Reader Extensions adds functions to the freely available Adobe Reader. Without this some of the form-filling procedure would require the full Acrobat software. Adobe expect this approach to be widely used for e-government once the technology is better understood. John Kennedy has explained the suitability of PDF for forms. "We needed a secure format which intuitively cut down the amount of work the applicant needs to do, and we needed it as soon as possible." "PDF is such an established and user-friendly format, the end-user does not need extensive training or education to use it, which is ideal for our needs," There was another meeting on May 26th at the Slug and Lettuce, Islington. July 2008 MARS plug-in for Acrobat 9 coming soon There is a discussion on the drupa2008 blog about MARS, an XML approach to PDF. It often seems a rather forgotten topic in the enthusiam for Flash. Mathew Hardy has explained on the MARS blog- "Adobe Acrobat 9 has just been announced and an update to the Mars plug-in with full Acrobat 9 compliance will be released towards the end of July or early August. Mars continues to be a stand-alone plug-in for Adobe Acrobat, but Acrobat 9 now has built-in knowledge of Mars and will redirect users to our Adobe Labs Mars page when a Mars file is encountered by someone who does not have the Mars plug-in installed." Acrobat Services will continue to cover XML and PDF so any news about MARS would be welcome
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 The Acrobat User Forum is no longer active although previous presentations are on the website hosted by Acrobat Services. Adobe recently launched a website for Acrobat Users. UK meetings will start soon. You can contact them through the website.
A story about Mars, a new XML approach to PDF has been published by OhmyNews. See also drupa2008 blog. Globe promoted in PDF The autumn festival at the Globe, Exeter is promoted through a combination of posters and brochures. this year the PDFs are available for download- The poster |
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using the Reader Extensions server software from Adobe. David Stevenson from Adobe UK spoke about this at a meeting of the Acrobat User Forum during Digital Solutions at Excel in October 2003. There was an update at a meeting on June 2nd 2004. The slides are in a PDF on the 
A4 poster 