[ale] PDF question

[John Mills]

ALErs -

I do find Acrobat Distiller expensive, but it is also impressively
effective, at least when matched with the *.doc->*.ps pseudo-printer under
MSWord.

Here are some comparative results from preparing this month's Atlanta ASME
newsletter:

-rw-rw-r--    1 jmills   jmills      70656 Oct  3 08:54 NewLetOct01.doc
-rw-rw-r--    1 jmills   jmills     144813 Oct  4 09:27 NewLetOct01.pdf
-rw-r--r--    1 jmills   jmills     271798 Oct  4 09:25 NewLetOct01.ps
-rw-r--r--    1 jmills   jmills      21204 Oct  3 09:27 oct01.pdf

The *.doc is MSWord original. *.ps is the PS output from word for the
"Acrobat Distiller" 'printer'. NewLetOct01.pdf is the result of running
'ps2pdf' on the *.ps output. oct01.pdf is the result of running the Win32
'Acrobat Distiller' on the *.ps output. I think the file sizes speak for
themselves.

I expect the problem with 'ps2pdf' is its handling of fonts. There is a
man-page note c.1998 that 'ps2pdf' authors hoped to improve this. Have
they done so?

I also used the Solaris version of Distiller on PS generated from LaTex
for a large set of manuals and I found the results excellent (but the
process tedious!). Naturally one Solaris system could serve Distiller as a
remote printer (licenses permitting - I have no idea if the Adobe license
permits this).

Does anyone have comparative results for these or other PDF production
tools?

On Thu, 4 Oct 2001, Charles Marcus wrote:
> I'm very familiar with Acrobat - just don't wanna have to buy multiple
> copies.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Fowler
  ...
> Subject: RE: [ale] PDF question

> One other option.
> 1.  Purchase Adobe Acrobat.
> 2.  Install on Windows2000
> 3.  Share Acrobat Distiller which is a printer
>     that converts anything to PDF
> 4.  Configure that device on client.

> Cost of Acrobat:  $300
> Chris

For those associated with a University, Adobe used to have a
<WOW>FANTASTIC</WOW> price through campus bookstores. (I think I paid $45
about 3 years ago.) I recommend checking this out if you qualify.

-- 
Regards -
 John Mills