“PDF is not an open standard in the sense that we call Linux an open standard. Adobe still controls its development but is “open” to input on its growth and provides developer’s kits for extending functionality.”

Hi Ron, that was true, but in January the governance of PDF 1.7 and beyond was released to ISO:

www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200701/012907OpenPDFAIIM.html

Adobe provides a neutral layer of media services across the range of operating systems and device types. Microsoft seeks to bind every format to its own stack.

jd/adobe

Let me add to John's comments. The specification, in ISO language, is now in the process of review and approval within ISO TC 171 SC2. Our commitment, in January, was to release the specification. Adobe has met that commitment,and the standardization of PDF is well underway. In short, the call for votes is out, and Adobe is only one voice of many, many companies, since the ISO balloting is by country, not by company.

it is interesting to note that Linux is not a standard, in the sense of de jure standards. The LSB is a standard, a specification, a Linux distribution is an implementation that may or may not meet the standard. Open source is the ultimate in allowing open communication, in enabling the implementation of standards, but different than an international standard.

davemc/Adobe

Dave and John,

Thanks for the background. The press release noted above clearly states Adobe’s intention to move to the next level of “openness” and extensibility with PDF. PDF and Acrobat have been extended programmatically for years to the benefit of every industry. It’s the basis of so many vertical workflows that users believe it is a standard. XPS cannot match this legacy and would be just an interesting technology, just another output driver if it were not associated with Microsoft.

Ron

Thank you Ron for your words and insight on the future of XPS technology.

Readers can also find out more details about the lists of participants and planned events for XPS Land by going to the official website at www.xpsland.com

p>What I find amazing is that there is little mention of MARS, an Adobe project to rewrite PDF in XML.

Adobe marketing seem not to have heard of it, or at least believe the world is about to go so crazy for Flash that it is not worth any energy.

Global Graphics are a relatively restrained company from a marketing point of view but they do put out white papers etc. I do not expect XPS to be limited to a high end pre-press nuisance.

I have written about MARS for OhmyNews

english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=4&no=372521&rel_no=1

Any new info on MARS welcome.

Will,

Thanks for bringing up MARS. Flash does have the sizzle and it is a shipping product unlike MARS which is still in the Lab. In my opinion Adobe is positioning it as a web-centric, enterprise level enabling technology for automating publishing. As such it could eliminate the Import and Export functions in InDesign and provide the same native support that PDF provides today. I would expect future versions of Acrobat Reader to transparently read MARS and PDF without the currently required plug-ins. It’ll be interesting to see what transformations MARS undergoes before it is released from Adobe Labs.

Anyone wishing to explore this new technology can do so at:

labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Mars

I fail to see how a new file format that does little more than PDF already did 13 years ago would suddenly displace an file format that is entrenched as a defacto standard for exchange with a robust ecosystem with highly reliable tools for creation, preflight, editing, verification and lest we not forget, years of experience with system developers whom have implemented high speed and high quality image processing, rendering and rasterizing these PDF files for proofing and printing.

And before people get all wound up about silly ideas of how - just because it is ‘magically XML - the process somehow becomes simpler to import and export of complex objects like translucent drop shadowed typography with kerning - I say ‘hardly’. Each adobe authoring and creation product has its own “native format” file that is quite ‘different’ than PDF or some XML-ish file. The world of highly formatted automatic publishing may never actually arrive as we dumb down the high minded design for speed and portability. If Microsoft will be successful and changing anything, it will be to make all our documents look like they were built in Word or Powerpoint, with no attention to beauty, as that run opposite to efficiency. Adobe - with Mars - is indeed striving to fully represent all parts of PDF in XML. It will be 2 years before we will see an multifunction devices on sale at Best Buy that have XPS rips in them, and these systems will also be able to image PDF - so, sorry - no XPS change event there either. Where is the value proposition ? What will it really do that would make someone suddenly say “wow, this is BETTER!” - I just don’t see what XPS ‘brings’.

Things XPS can do that PDF cannot:

* Multiple documents in one file.
* Proper duplexing of multiple documents/chapters in a single file.

Example:
* First document has 3 pages.
* Second document has 1 page.

I want to print this duplexed.
It SHOULD print:
* 1st page front: 1st page of 1st doc.
* 1st page back: 2nd page of 1st doc.
* 2nd page front: 3rd page of 1st doc.
* 2nd page back: blank
* 3rd page front: 1st page of 2nd doc.
* 3rd page back: blank

The only way to do this in PDF is to insert an extra blank page into the PDF itself, which means the PDF can no longer print "correctly" when printed Simplex.

XPS allows each page to be specified as "Front" or "Back" - therefore allowing the document to print "correctly" whether the end user asks for Simplex or Duplex.