For years I’ve been buying Adobe Acrobat, and with each “upgrade” the program gets worse and worse: larger, less backward compatibility, less intuitive layout, and ever more complicated features that I don’t need. The full release of the new versions are $500 and up.
Meanwhile, there are many copycat versions out there, which, for whatever reason, I’ve somehow been scared to try. Finally Acrobat 9 put it over the top. The darn thing is ridiculously unusable. So I finally took the plunge and bought PDF Converter, the full release of which is only $100. There are others too.
Well, it turns out that the program is lightweight, easy, beautiful, and with every bit of the functionality of Adobe’s product, plus some extras that are missing in Adobe or buried in new releases. It is easier to use in every way.
Now, to the IP question. I have no idea whether and to what extent or in what respect the copycat program can be considered an infringement. I suppose not, else it wouldn’t be all over the market. It’s hard to imagine how much trouble the company must have had in trying to copy but not copy, if you know what I mean. It seems like senseless cost.
In the end, there is obviously a market for both products. The industry leader is five times more expensive and yet dweebs keep buying (I was one for many years). Meanwhile, the knockoff product is better and vastly cheaper and yet has a tiny niche. Abolish IP and you would get a similar result but at less cost.
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I recommend piracy.
Interesting. Is there a version (knock off) of photoshop that you recommend?
Pdf is for printing. If you don’t intend ALL readers to print the document don’t make a pdf.
This is a big pet peve of mine. I’m reading this on my phone, which cannot do pdf nicely, but web pages are just fin. We have perfectly fine ways to share electronic documents, but pdf is not one.
Cousin Briggs, google up “photoshop killer” and see what turns up. There are a number of options, none of which I’ve tried.
Regarding a photoshop clone, Gimp is an excellent open source alternative, if your needs aren’t too advanced.
PDF spec is an open format- according to Wikipedia -”Formerly a proprietary format, PDF was officially released as an open standard on July 1, 2008, and published by the ISO as ISO 32000-1:2008″
I think that OpenGL also supports the PDF spec, the same tech that Apple uses for its Quartz graphic layering technology in the OS. According to a wiki article, “It is widely stated that Quartz “uses PDF” internally, often by people making comparisons with the Display PostScript technology used in NeXTSTEP (of which Mac OS X is a descendant) and OPENSTEP. Quartz’s internal imaging model correlates well with the PDF object graph, making it easy to output PDF to multiple devices.[6].”
PDF is now an ISO standard file format. That means that Adobe doesn’t hold any sort of monopoly on software for reading and writing PDF files. OpenOffice(.org) is free (as in speech and beer) and can export to PDF natively, and does so very well.
Also, I use Foxit reader to view PDFs (on windows anyway. In linux, I use xpdf). Foxit is many times faster than the Adobe’s reader.
As for a “Photoshop Killer”… it’s not quite that, but I use gimp (gimp.org), it’s free and open source and quite powerful. I hear Paint.NET is good, but I haven’t really used it (I think it’s free, but not open-source)
I gave up on Quicken for similar reasons. I am now very happy with GnuCash http://www.gnucash.org/ It even imported all my history.
I second foxit.
I use any free software at all for reading PDFs; on the rare occasion when I need to generate them, I download a free driver that will permit my Windows machine to have a “virtual printer” that creates PDF files; then any application at all, such as Word, can just print to that printer and a PDF file will be the result.
I have never sent a penny to Adobe regarding PDFs.
Not to mention it gets more and more expensive, intrusive, buggy and malfunctionning.
I’m fed up with the adobe updater that reminds you every 5 seconds if you want to update.
So I have finally decided to get rid of acrobat reader and use an alternative free reader instead.
I use foxit reader to read .pdf files and pdf creator to make .pdf files.
It cost me nothing and it works without harrassing me. Those programs are simple, small and fast.
Adobe can go to hell !
I use kpdf or evince (on GNU/Linux) to read pdf files. Openoffice can export to pdf. All of that is FOSS and it works just fine for nearly all documents. Anyway, I still have the free-of-cost Adobe reader for Linux around, just in case.
Jeff,
Although PDF format is convenient for desktop computers, as a previous poster points out, it really sucks when you try to read PDF’s on handhelds.
I love catching up on Mises publications on my iPhone and Kindle, in those spare moments when I am away from the computer or net access.
Kindle still cannot read PDF’s, but handles plain text files just fine. Would you consider converting the PDF library to either Kindle/mobi format or straight text files, so those of us addicted to both our handheld technology and Mises.org can download and read your files where ever we may be?
Translating PDF’s back into text or .mobi files is crude and buggy, and very slow. Being able to download from your site in native Kindle or other reader formats, or plain text, would help to spread the Austrian word to the millions out there using these devices today.
“Abolish IP and you would get a similar result but at less cost.”
How so?
If we assume that people are honest (and most are) and that honor what they commit to in their contracts (such as the EULA of the product) then how exactly would anything change?
Of course, liars who agree to one thing and then do the opposite will get it “cheaper” but does that include you? If not, then nothing will change.
http://mltan100.blogspot.com/2008/06/free-pdf-editor.html
If you only intend to use it occasionally, you could have used OpenOffice 3.0, which is free!
I actually bought a copy of Acrobat for $159 and Microsoft Office for $99. (mea culpa, mea culpa). The reason I paid was that sometimes people send me documents that do not render correctly on the free products.
BTW Adobe had a visiting Russian professor, who was giving a talk on encryption and description, arrested by the FBI because the tool he distributed for an entirely different purpose, could have been used to circumvent Adobe password protection. He was subsequently released an not charged.
C,
“Kindle still cannot read PDF’s, but handles plain text files just fine. Would you consider converting the PDF library to either Kindle/mobi format or straight text files, so those of us addicted to both our handheld technology and Mises.org can download and read your files where ever we may be?”
Foxit is releasing an eReader handheld with a Kindle-like screen called eSlick. There is every reason to believe that it will be able to handle pdf files about as well as they can be handled.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/ebook/index.html
(I find this site unreadable with a CRT monitor, but OK with an LCD)
I would vote against anything that would reduce the number of pdf’s published at all.
Regards, Don
Jeffrey_Tucker: Instances of consumers buying a more expensive, worse version of something are legion, and hardly limited to IP. I’m not sure what you think you’ve proven. Again, many intellectual works are produced and have been produced without dependence on IP rights, and so would continue to be produced without IP. Yet you could say the same thing about physical products! Lots of people produce things and give them away for free, but only the clueless see that as an argument for abolishing property rights.
(And since everyone brings it up: neither fact hinges on the cheap reproducibility of intellectual works, so bringing that up is non-responsive to the point.)
I’ll 4th or 5th the call for less PDF. HTML resizes paragraphs for the width of the viewer, which is something that is very important. I have a Zaurus which I like to use to read at night, since I don’t have to turn on a light. PDFs are USELESS on it, since it ends up being rendered to about a newspaper column width. Sure I have to hit “page down” more, but with HTML it works just fine.
I’m also a Linux user, Debian particularly.
Photoshop = GIMP
Office = OpenOffice
I.E. = Firefox
Those are the big three, and they run on Windows exactly the same as they run on Linux. Can’t say the same about proprietary software for Windows that doesn’t run on anything else!
OpenOffice saves to PDF natively, as well as MSOffice, HTML, PowerPoint and other formats. There is also the ISO standard OpenDocumentFormat which OpenOffice implements, along with a dozen other OpenSource and Proprietary software packages world wide.
(compare that with Microsoft’s so-called OpenXML which is used by no one, and is not even be implemented by Microsoft!)
This reminds me of the present prosecution in Sweden of “The Pirate Bay” Bittorrent tracking site. Anything and everything has an alternative, yet people focus so much on where the money is they lose track of the rest of the world.
Jay K:
Paint.Net is free and open source, using the MIT license. I like it better than the GIMP, but it is Windows-only and doesn’t have all the features.
Curt Howland:
Windows software can be run on Linux via the WINE project. Not all software can run, of course, but tons of stuff will run. Even Office 2007, though some of its features will not work (equation editor). I believe it can also run ancient DOS programs as well. A port is available for Mac OS X, though it may not be as mature. It can also be found on any of the BSDs.
The software you bought is owned by Adobe too. They just “price discriminated you”.
And, chockingly, I actually see no wrong with that!
Curt,
“… HTML resizes paragraphs for the width of the viewer, which is something that is very important.”
The Foxit eSlick reader is supposed to do this for pdf files as well.
“…The zooming feature allows users to magnify the page size from 50% to 400%. While in the reflow mode, users can read the text that has been automatically reorganized to fit the screen size and also control the font size via the menu.”"
We’ll see.
Regards, Don
Zack, yes, I know about WINE, I’ve been using it off and on since it began.
However, I am discussing software which is compiled to run on multiple OSs, not through an emulation layer or virtualization to fool the software into working on a different OS.
While I’m not averse to doing that for software I “can’t live without”, the fact is that I prefer native code. GPL and other OpenSource software offers quality hands and feet above what proprietary software achieves.
My wife’s Windows machine is a constant source of infections, crashes and trash, which I have to clean up. Those cleanups are a complete waste of my time, her time, and only happen with Windows.
Luckily, my work does not require Windows. The last one that did didn’t last, to put it in tongue-twister format.
The pedant in me wishes to point out that WINE stands for “Wine is not an emulator.” it is also not virtualizing anything. It provides the APIs that the Windows software uses in a native Linux form, kind of like a wrapper. For example, if $Game calls a Direct3D function, it would route the call to OpenGL.
Also, being compiled to run on different OSes isn’t required; Python is cross platform, yet it is interpreted. It requires a Python runtime for the platform.
I do love Linux, and do use Linux every day. My desktop runs Windows for certain games, with Linux there for everything else. My desktop is Linux only, the way God intended. I, too, would rather have native code; however, working at all is fine for me. It allows Linux to grow and become a platform to develop desktop software for.
It’s already pointed out but PDF is an open standard. It’s so old any patents that did exist would have expired. Also, you are all technological retards. PDFs have immense benefits. Go back to your economics!
PDFCreator is a free open-source program that installs a ‘virtual printer’ on your machine. Then, in any program, you just choose the Print command, select your PDFCreator printer instead of your physical computer, and tell it where to save the resulting file. Shazaam! Free PDFs from any file in any program.
Foxit Reader is a decent PDF reader.
All of this talk of broken windows reminds me of something….Oh Yeah! My Income! I’m a Broken Window fixer! (No, Really).
I use Linux. Every machine in the house is Linux, except the ones I’m fixing, they’re windows.
KDE 4.2 is available for windows now, though it’s not ready for prime-time on that platform. Ubuntu and SUSE have installers for windows systems that will let you dual-boot to Linux, which can save your butt if(when) you get an infection.
VMWare, VirtualBox, and XEN work well for running windows in Virtual Machines and pretty much solve the “Windows Only” problem for the couple of programs that don’t have a FOSS equivalent.
Good apps for PDF that havn’t been mentioned yet are Ghostscript, PDFEdit.
Inkscape for Graphics, My mom is an artist and used to use Corel Draw. Switched her over to OpenSUSE and she uses Inscape now and loves it.
MoneyDance is a great personal finance program for windows, Linux, or Mac and is only $40US.
GnuCash – very popular money management.
I’m about to give Kumula a try for business finance.
OpenOffice.org – Opens and edit DOCX from MS office 2007….
OpenSUSE Build Service has a cool One-click Install feature that is great for trying stuff out without any hassle. It’s easier now to install something in Linux that it is on the Mac!
I’ve noticed that this website is running on a windows system with MSSQL. Not a good idea gentlemen. Attaching a windows server directly to the Internet is a disaster waiting to happen IMHO and my experience….
Adobe used to release the old version of their spec (and IIRC the software) under an open source license. When the new version came out the old version was free for all. This is similar to Sun’s original strategy of growing the market for their premium products by growing the market for the open standards they implemented.
It was only fifteen years ago that most printable web documents were distributed as postscript files and not pdfs, so Adobe can be considered a success.
For those complaining about PDF–it works fine on my iPhone. Soon it will no doubt work fine on all mobile devices. Why bother to convert things that will soon not need to have been converted? Same with kindle–they are working on a PDF conversion. This is just a matter of time. PDF is a lifesaver for so many people and applications. You are aware of all the tons of older documents like older issues of RAE, Reason Papers, etc., that have been converted to digital format thanks to PDF, right? There is apparently a cult of open source PDF hating fanatics, akin to the Word-haters, the Apple fanboys (no offense, me), and the Apple-bashers. Sheesh. This stuff is all free. IMO people should just be grateful for what they get for free instead of complaining.
There are valid reasons against using PDF, just as there are valid reasons for using it. The main feature of PDF is that it keeps the page layout fixed. Which sometimes is what you want, sometimes what you don’t.
But because PDF has an open definition, it is simple to convert it to other formats. You can convert them to text with pdftotext (part of xpdf package), or to mobi (I forgot what the program is called, but I use it frequently).
PDF has its place, just as there are places where you wouldn’t use it. I send my invoices as PDF, but I read books as mobi.
CutePDF Writer supplies a “PDF” printer interface on Windows. It actually uses Ghostscript as the back end.
OpenOffice.org can also export documents as PDF, very well in my experience.
Zack, put the pedant away.
WINE’s original name was WINdows Emulator. Microsoft started suing anyone using the word Windows, so the WINE project wisely changed their name.
put the pedant away
Would you also say that to someone who believed that Chicago and Austrian economics were the same thing?
My first economics book was Free to Choose
Hi Jeffrey
To respond to your main point, the availability of numerous PDF creation tools is perfectly consistent with IP and free markets. Adobe, as the software company that created and owns the format, chose to make it available to rivals and customers.
Probably this was for the commercial reason that wider access means more products, which bolsters PDF’s role as the market leader in the publishing ecosystem. This obviously sustains the market for Adobe’s own high end commercial products.
This phenomenon is actually a good example of how IP works to generate innovation that benefits everyone.
Tony, I appreciate your point, but, with all respect, it seems to show the opposite. In giving up its IP, the company saw that it could prosper. It is still the industry leader even though there are cheaper better competitors out there.
Your point is like saying company x was heavily regulated, but it found a way around the regulations and did well, so therefore regulations are great.
That would be true if Adobe started business at the same time it released its format. But that’s not what happened. Adobe had at least ten years during which it developed and refined the PDF format and products that use that format as a proprietary operation.
Also, Adobe hasn’t actually surrendered its IP. It keeps the source code of its products to itself, and retains patents over the PDF format. All it has done is to release the specification of the format and allow other developers to use those patents.
Regards.
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