Application of PDF in Editing Work (I)

Abstract PDF is a file exchange format popular on the Internet in recent years. It can maintain the typesetting format and creation style of original files, can be compressed with high fidelity, and can be displayed and printed independently of original application programs and operating platforms. The PDF is suitable for transmitting edit proofs and advertisement graphics, and is also suitable for the editorial department to publish special materials.

1. The question is raised

In the editorial work of academic journals, reviewing documents in different places and proofreading in different places are routine procedures. In reviewing the manuscript, the editor hopes that the reviewer will provide detailed comments but does not directly modify the original text. It is a common practice to copy several copies of each manuscript, mail them to different reviewers, and wait for the reviewers to return receipts. Since then, the manuscript has been edited, typeset, and two schools. Before the official printing, it is necessary to feedback the sample to the author to determine if there are any mistakes. In this way, the editorial department usually takes several months to complete the first-stage publication task, and the time for publishing the paper is inevitably delayed. Some time lags are as long as two years. If you can complete the transfer process by e-mail, you can save a lot of time.

In the trial e-mail transmission of documents, often encountered some problems: First, the file could not open, the computer informed the application is wrong or the version is too low; Second, open the file out of shape, the computer informed the lack of special fonts and plug-ins. In order to solve the above problems, the editorial department needs to install as many application software as possible and keep the application software version to the highest level. Even so, it only solved the problem of one-way communication, and the editorial department could not guarantee that the reviewers saw the originals, nor could they guarantee that the authors saw the proofs.

In order to achieve rapid and accurate transmission of manuscripts and other graphic materials from the editorial department to reviewers and authors, the editorial department needs to solve the following technical problems:

1) The editorial department can compile the author's manuscript into the original as-is electronic file, which does not care about the software and hardware configuration of the reviewer and can be displayed and printed on the reviewer's computer.

2) Printing houses are usually typeset using the Founder system. The large sample file format is S2, S72, or PS2. However, common word processing software cannot read large samples. To do a little try, you can see the look of the Founder from the interface of word processing software such as word or WPS. However, the sample file is not intuitive, and some symbol errors may appear. For example, “1±0.2” may become “ 10.2", "3.5" may become "35" and so on. As for the formula and the form, it is completely invisible. Obviously, such generic software is not suitable for reading proofs. In order to achieve the author's self-education, the editorial department needs to try to make the author see the Founder on the computer.

3) The image file is huge and it is difficult to send it by e-mail. If it is black and white, the image file with small layout can still be smooth, but for 5-60Mb color ad files, if it is not compressed, it is difficult to ensure successful delivery. The current method is to use a Mo disk or a CD-ROM to post it, and the efficiency is hard to guarantee.

If the conversion of texts, forms, formulas, and pictures can be realized, the transmission of e-mails and display and printing in the other party's computer can greatly improve the work efficiency of the editorial department and effectively guarantee the printing quality.

2. The features of PDF and the technical conditions of application

PDF is the abbreviation of Portable document format, meaning portable file format, and is an open electronic file format developed by Adobe Corporation for transferring and sharing files between different computer platforms. After several years of development, PDF has been recognized as the de facto industry standard for the online publishing industry. Now, no matter which computer platform or application software is used to edit the file, almost all of it can be converted to PDF, transmitted via disk or e-mail, and PDF reader can browse and print on any other computer screen (text, graphics). , images are exactly the same style, but also print out all the truth.

2.1 Features of PDF

PDF files have the advantages of cross-platform, high compression, suitable for screen viewing, network transmission, file protection, electronic review, and high print quality. Combined with the actual application of editing, they can be briefly described as follows: 1) Faithfully reproduce the original text. PDF files can faithfully retain their original appearance and content, as well as fonts and images. Files on the screen can be enlarged to 800% without losing clarity. Browsing and printing can be customized as needed to create PDF files of different sizes and different precisions.
2) Does not rely on the computer's hardware configuration, operating system, and applications that create files. Users only need to install a free PDF reader software, and they can read the PDF created by the Mac operating system on Windows 98, and can also print PDF files containing Chinese characters under pure English version of the operating system. Using the new version of Founder Dispatch software, you can directly identify and output PDF files as if you are recognizing and exporting s2 files, and get laser-illuminated films. 3) File protection. PDF files can be encrypted, control access to sensitive information, prevent PDFs from being altered or printed, and can therefore be used to transfer electronic documents that have intellectual property rights.

2 .2 Conversion of Common File Formats to PDFs

In order to make PDF a common and shared file format, two problems must be solved: one is to make all the editing software's layout results convertible to PDF, and the other is to have a software that can be installed on all operating systems specifically to achieve PDF reading and printing. . For this reason, Adobe designed an Acrobat suite for format conversion and Acrobat Reader software for reading and printing. The current version has been upgraded to 4.05. With Acrobat, you can convert almost any application's electronic files to PDF files. Acrobat can be converted using two different utilities, PDFwriter and Acrobat Distiller. PDFwriter converts files faster, but Distiller can better control the conversion process and provide high quality output.

The English version of Acrobat 4.0 directly supports four types of file formats, which are: 1) PDF files; 2) Microsoft office (word, Excel, PowerPoint), frameMaker and word Perfect files; 3) image files (tif, gif, Png, jpeg, Bmp, Pcx, le); 4) urlî•Žtml and Ascii text files. In the Windows version of Acrobat, you can use the "File" > "Open" to open another application file, you can convert the above four types of files to PDF.

The Chinese version of Acrobat 4.0 does not directly support the above 2) and 4) class files. It must be generated by printing. The general method is to create application lines. The rest of the work is done in the editorial department. The common feature is to use graphic methods to achieve conversion. The resulting PDF is slightly larger and the text is inconvenient to reuse. Mode 3) All are done in the editorial department, with minimal hardware dependencies and PDF files are the best. Using the illustrated method (Figure 2), a specific comparison of the "Freshwater Fisheries" page program uses the "File" > "Print" command and the Acrobat printer driver to "print" the current file to PDF.

The popular image editing software has greatly improved the support for PDF file formats. Some PDF files can be generated without using Acrobat. For example, Photoshop 5.0, Coreldraw 9.0, and freehand 9 are all included in the program. The function can be used to customize the output of PDF files of varying degrees of compression through commands such as "save as" or "export" in the file menu.