Introduction to PDF

Before we get any further on converting PDF (Portable Document Format) to Flash we would first try to analyze both of these technologies to some depth to have a better understanding of each one of them. We would then see various scenarios under which the need to convert PDFs to Flash arises.

As the name PDF suggests, these are readable document files, you may also insert images and graphics though as in Microsoft Word, which are independent of the hardware & operating systems and can easily be opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader which is a freely downloadable application. Software such as Open Office and Google Documents also provide the functionality to open PDF documents. When we say that PDFs are readable document files, we mean that the end product doesn’t need to be edited by the reader and thus there are two different software introduced by Adobe (the creator of PDF):

• Adobe Acrobat Reader – Free software to read PDF documents
• Adobe Acrobat – Paid version with which you can create PDF documents

People prefer using a PDF file because necessary objects such as images, fonts, etc get embedded to it and the dependability over the user’s PC is minimized. A PDF file doesn’t provide editorial freedom and this is a boon for some people and companies in scenarios such as the following where you just can’t leave a chance for the file to be edited:

• When you are sending your resume or presentation
• when you are publishing an e-version of your print magazine
• When you are sending or declaring your annual reports
• While publishing product brochures and pamphlets
• For keeping electronic records of older documents
• When some document needs to be printed and the format needs to be preserved as is (independent of machine specifics)

There are times, though, when a PDF document can be used to get some data as an input from the user. These are used for surveys & bank forms which need to be printed.

The PDF file format combines the following three technologies:

• A subset of the PostScript (.ps) page description programming language which is proprietary of Adobe. The PostScript is used for generating the layout & graphics of a Portable Document Format.
• A font embedding or replacement system which allow the fonts used within the documents to be used as meta data within the file.
• A structured storage system to bundle the above said elements and any other associated content, such as images or vectors, into a single PDF file, with/without data compression.