Comments on: Why I Like PDF

by: Rahul Bhushan

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 07:19:33 +0000

I am surprised you did not mention specifically one of the most useful things about PDF: Soft Proofing.

To be able to send tech challenged clients a PDF email attachment without fonts embedded and for them to be able to print it or send back with correction notes is fantastic and means I dont have to get out of my pajamas.

A bonus is that Acrobat Pro lets me control presentation so that I can show my CS2 work in a dramatic way. Full screen and transitions are gimmicky but effective for the right client and project.

by: Matty R

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 03:47:57 +0000

What about Microsoft Office?! That planned on implementing PDF output until some company threatened to sue…

by: Amanda Henson

Fri, 26 May 2006 18:22:16 +0000

I use PDFs on a daily basis at work, mainly for review and to send to our printer. I work in CS2, which I love because it makes for a great workflow, and when I need to send something for offset or digital printing, I can send a hi-res PDF that will go easily through email, and my printer loves me for it.

A previous designer at my work used to do everything in Illustrator or Photoshop and would end up with 30-80 MB files. Most companies we use for advertising accept PDF files, though a few still require an zipped EPS. Great article - I totally agree.

by: Jeremy Schultz

Thu, 25 May 2006 19:27:16 +0000

I still like PDF over PSD, because PDF is a smaller file format and more flexible. Not only that, but David Blatner at the InDesign Conference actually pointed out that the TIFF file format works as well as a PSD plus they can be compressed.

And re: packaging, I’ve never been a big fan of it myself and I think it’s because of all those times designers “collected for output” for our publications, only to learn later that not all the fonts or images were there. I think of PDF as a one-file “package” of fonts, images and layout.

by: Mike Funk

Thu, 25 May 2006 13:54:59 +0000

True, PDF is ubiquitous and can be output and placed in most applications. But I rarely use PDFs. The reason is I do most of my creative work in Adobe CS. For the sake of maintaining the original file as much as possible, I save to PSDs for photoshop, AIs for illustrator and INDDs for InDesign. Besides, in CS2 you can place anything in anything, you don’t need to worry about file format.

The only time I use PDFs is when I output to PDF to send to a crappy print shop that is still on Mac OS 9 and Quark 4. Which sucks. In fact, I had major problems outputting an InDesign PDF the other day. Would have worked fine if the print shop had InDesign, I could have just packaged it.