> Oh....I think I see the disconnect. I can print _to_ PDF anyway I
> like, at any scale, using CAD and the Adobe printer driver, but if
> I receive a PDF from someone else, I can't turn that into a reduced
> size hard copy in Acrobat.
Not my experience, but I'll defer to yours. Whether or not the PDF is
actually reduced or simply appears reduced on the screen isn't all
that relevant for me because I'm always zooming in and out anyway. In
fact the only way I can tell is by the size note at the lower left of
the window. PDFs are related to PostScript in a way I don't
understand. (Probably because it's proprietary--my son works for
Adobe but we never talk shop or at least he never does.) It's not
like a bit map--I think it's simply a series of statements in some
form like a vector graphic representation. You can scale indefinitely
without loss of resolution or jaggies, unlike a screen shot. That's
why I can't figure out why your pdfs won't scale. The whole reason
for pdfs is so you can display any way you like without loss of
accuracy.
Just a hunch, but I wonder if AutoCad or what-have you works like a
scan and turns the vector representation of the drawing into a huge
bit-map-type deal. That's what you get when you scan a typewritten
page into a pdf. In order to make editable text, you need to run the
page through an OCR program (or use Paper Capture) in Acrobat. The
only reason I mention this is that the problem with scaling may not
be at your end but with whoever is supplying you with pdfs. You can
check this out by trying to select drawing text or cutting out a
piece of the drawing and pasting it into a vector graphics program.
If the snippet doesn't come in as vector objects, my guess is that
your drawing is basically a bit map. That might also explain why your
printer has issues with scaled pages, and it would also explain why
it takes so long to read in the drawing PDF's. It basically has to do
all those bitmaps one pixel at a time.
I'm probably beating this to death, but I've gone from anti-pdf to
avidly partisan. Kind of like an ex-smoker who can smell lilacs in
May. The first pdfs I ever used were scanned print, and I thought
they were a big pain in the ass. Since that time Acrobat has made
almost all of my document issues go away. It's been at least 8 years
since I sent or received a fax, so I don't have to deal with crappy
resolution and slow transmission, fax machinery, junk faxes or
separate phone lines. Mac to PC software compatibility is a complete
non-issue. I get client submittals including P.O.s in clear archival
text and I send out e-signed reports and invoices the same way.
Sending color is no longer an issue and replying to some rotten faxed
sketch of a bad detail (and retaining a copy on disk) makes things
much faster. The measuring tool makes scaling a drawing very easy, if
not less distasteful (It's an ME thing). Communicating is my biggest
task not involving math or actual design, and probably the most
important task of all. Acrobat has made it simpler and more reliable
by orders of magnitude. No wonder I'm thrilled.
Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant at
chrisw@skypoint.com | this distance" (last words of Gen.
.......................................| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania
1864)
http://www.skypoint.com/members/chrisw/
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