Shantavira wrote:
> Can someone point me to a reasoned argument about the pros and
> cons please?
Pros and cons aside, both paths will easily get you anywhere you want
to go, and they work about the same.
> Also, I expect to be able to upgrade to Ventura 10 shortly, which I
> understand creates PDFs directly. Will I still need Jaws (or Acrobat)
> at all?
I would not rely on this to create PDFs for press. It has some uses,
but for anything going on press, you should use Jaws or Acrobat.
-- Eric
[C_TECH Volunteer]
Check out the Ventura FAQ at:
http://www.draw.nu/venturafaq/
or download a PDF copy at:
http://www.fhcomm.com/VenturaFAQ.pdf
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I use Ventura 8. We have a new IT manager who is keen to get everyone using
Adobe Acrobat Professional to create PDFs. I know the general opinion here
is to use JAWS PDF Creator, which I what I have been using for a while. I
have no experience with Acrobat and she has never heard of JAWS, but is
willing to be persuaded. I couldn't see a thread on this specific topic. Can
someone point me to a reasoned argument about the pros and cons please?
Also, I expect to be able to upgrade to Ventura 10 shortly, which I
understand creates PDFs directly. Will I still need Jaws (or Acrobat) at
all?
Shantavira
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> I use Ventura 8. We have a new IT manager who is keen to get everyone
using
> Adobe Acrobat Professional to create PDFs. I know the general opinion here
> is to use JAWS PDF Creator, which I what I have been using for a while. I
> have no experience with Acrobat and she has never heard of JAWS, but is
> willing to be persuaded. I couldn't see a thread on this specific topic.
Can
> someone point me to a reasoned argument about the pros and cons please?
I personally have not been very happy with Acrobat, which is
one of the reasons I use Jaws most of the time.
Jaws is much less expensive and, in my experience, much more
reliable. I've rarely had a problem with Jaws. Can't say
that for Acro.
Historically, Jaws has been substantially faster than
Acrobat. It was only around Acro v7.08 that Adobe finally
started to catch up with Jaws on speed. Jaws was still
faster -- it's just that the gap between the two wasn't as
dramatic. Whether Acro 8 is as fast, I have no idea. We
don't intend to purchase it.
Both Acro and Jaws can create very compact files. Which does
a better job depends on the settings and the file content.
It's worth experimenting with the settings in both packages.
Jaws tech support is more responsive. Jaws doesn't eat
resources the way Acro can. Global Graphics, the company
that develops Jaws, does the Harlequin RIPS for commercial
presses, so there's plenty of technical expertise behind it.
FWIW, the commercial printer to whom I take our outside jobs
uses both Jaws and Acro, although they don't talk about
Jaws. Since I was initially nervous about sending them
non-Acro pdfs, I used to give them files from both Acro and
Jaws for each job. In every case, they chose the Jaws pdf
without comment. I no longer bother giving them Acro pdfs.
So, are there reasons you might choose Acro over Jaws? Yes:
- If you need one or more of the other bells & whistles that
Acrobat plugs into the package. (If you use them, by all
means go Acrobat. If you don't use them, they're bloatware,
and you're wasting your money and your resources.)
- If you need to create pdf forms. (I've given up on pdf
forms, BTW. Can't get people to use them. Now doing forms in
Word instead.)
- If you have to extract data from pdfs into tables, or you
want to convert pdfs into some other format. (We keep one
copy of Acro around for this purpose. There are other apps
that will convert pdfs, but I haven't tested them since we
only do it a few times a year.)
- If your pdfs frequently include automatic bookmarks from
Ventura and you prefer working in continuous pages mode.
(The bookmarks are correct and display properly in other
readers, but the Jaws Editor can't find the right pages in
continuous pages mode. Single page mode works fine. It has
to do with the way Ventura defines pages. This hiccup is a
very minor issue for us, but your workflow may be different.)
- If you need to generate pdfs in the latest format.
(Understandably, Adobe keeps its newest format close to
hand, so only the latest version of Acro will offer the most
recent pdf format. OTOH, it takes the rest of the world a
while to catch up, so using the latest format won't help you
much if your printer or client can't read it.)
The best thing to do is download trial versions and give
them a run so you can see which product will work better for
you.
HTH,
Allison
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