Duff Johnson's Blog

On May 13, the founders of Adobe Systems stepped up to the microphone to deliver a response to Steve Jobs' open letter about Flash. They say Adobe has acted on open standards while Apple offers mere words.

(I gave this testimony at the US Access Board's public hearing in Washington DC on May 12, 2010)

We get this question a lot, especially from our legal customers.

"How do we avoid creating PDFs that contain potentially harmful, embarrassing or confidential metadata?"

THE ANSWER: Stop creating metadata in the first place, or delete it all before delivery, there's help either way.

So, you think PDF is a problem when it comes to accessibility and Section 508 compliance? Let's talk about that expensive and widely used word-processing software known as Microsoft Word.

Almost every review of PDF software starts or ends with the complaint that Adobe's Reader is bloated “for some unknown reason.” As such, it is claimed, a need for alternative “lightweight” free PDF viewing software was born.

“Tags” sounds like HTML, doesn't it? What's that got to do with PDF?

1. PDFs can and must comply with Section 508 every bit as much as the HTML pages that link to them.
2. Section 508 applies to both Federal government agencies AND Federal contractors.  State and local governments are also adopting similar measures.

It's fairly commonplace to think of PDF as a format for official or reference documents, or perhaps as a simple way to share content without worrying about whether end-users have the software to view it.

Recent news accounts have highlighted some security vulnerabilities in current releases of Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader, with the latest such vulnerability addressed in an update released on January 12.

The 2010 CES featured a notable proliferation in slate/tablet/oversized handheld devices, with media attention to match. Consumers now await the unveiling of Apple's iThing, now scheduled (in an unfortunate collision with Obama's State of the Union address) for January 27.