Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/11/06

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] anyone up for making a digital file format FAQ?
From: hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson)
Date: Mon Nov 6 14:21:27 2006

Very interesting indeed, Brian. Well if you took part in the development of 
Adobe and the PDF, I'm grateful for your output! I think
I mentioned that I was print-centric and hence like the PDF very much. I'm 
just a user, with no development skills. Electronic paper
is exactly the approach that I have worked with some years, so your 
hammer-nail analogy is probably apt. I had in mind short text
documents with some layout formatting and sometimes small graphics. The 
intent being that it might provide a finished document that
required no extra effort by our already hard working saloon keep, other than 
placing in your designated  location.

When I read a (light-hearted) comment that it is a format belonging to 
satan, I assume that you have a dislike! Regarding the DNG,
your comment, as with your response here, was factual and reasonable. I 
thought some others were more complaints that Adobe was a
monopoly not to be trusted. I disagree. A lot of the DNG issue seems to be 
about *open*. I can see that *published* is a better
term. That being so, I think that it a commendable approach to a raw format 
and superior to proprietary formats. I dislike the
approaches by other camera manufacturers.

Cheers
Hoppy

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+hoppyman=bigpond.net.au@leica-users.org 
[mailto:lug-bounces+hoppyman=bigpond.net.au@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Brian Reid
Sent: Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:27
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: RE: [Leica] anyone up for making a digital file format FAQ?


>> I've never noticed these anti-Adobe opinions anywhere except here recently
>> (DNG & PDF).

I helped found Adobe. I was one of the original developers of what became 
the PDF format. I did my PhD dissertation on document
representation structures. I assure you that my comments about PDF are not 
"anti-Adobe" but are about PDF.

PDF is electronic paper. It does that job very well. It is a very bad match 
to on-screen display needs.

My earlier comment about DNG was simply a statement that it is not an open 
format because it can be changed at any time by its
publisher, Adobe. I like DNG and I use it and I am not worried about Adobe 
maliciously changing it, but it is wrong to call it an
open format. DNG is, like Type-1 font structure, a *published* format, but 
not an *open* format.



_______________________________________________
Leica Users Group.
See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information



In reply to: Message from reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid) ([Leica] anyone up for making a digital file format FAQ?)