Viewing PDF without AcrobatReader or FOP??

["Müller, Markus" <ma...@sdm.de>]

Hi there,

we're just testing FOP to generate PDF on a host, then sending the PDF
document in a way we don't know yet to some clients. The clients should be
able to view (and perhaps to print) the document. Is this possible without
AcrobatReader? The AcroRead for Java is not really a good thing, and using
FOP only to display a file isn't a solution, too (since it's too large). Has
anybody a little hint?

Markus

Re: Viewing PDF without AcrobatReader or FOP??

[Oleg Tkachenko <ol...@multiconn.com>]

Müller, Markus wrote:

> we're just testing FOP to generate PDF on a host, then sending the PDF
> document in a way we don't know yet to some clients. The clients should be
> able to view (and perhaps to print) the document. Is this possible without
> AcrobatReader? The AcroRead for Java is not really a good thing,
btw, what's wrong with it? I've been told it's ok despite the fact that 
it was not updated long time.

  and using
> FOP only to display a file isn't a solution, too (since it's too large). Has
> anybody a little hint?
If wanna high-quality pdf preview, I believe using Acrobat is the only 
way. Surely client must have Acrobat Reader installed, but it's free and 
absence of it can be detected in javascript.

-- 
Oleg Tkachenko
eXperanto team
Multiconn Technologies, Israel

Re: AW: Viewing PDF without AcrobatReader or FOP??

[Jeremias Maerki <de...@greenmail.ch>]

Not necessarily, I've done tests with TIFF (CCITT group 4 compression,
300dpi) and the files weren't bigger than the PDF. But this is obviously
only a solution if you have pure black and white documents (no color, no
grayscale).

On Fri, 15 Nov 2002 10:08:18 +0100 Müller, Markus wrote:
> Nice idea, but the size of a TIFF is much greater than the PDF. One reason
> for chosing PDF was the size. So PDF is our format.

Jeremias Maerki

Re: Viewing PDF without AcrobatReader or FOP??

[Jeremias Maerki <de...@greenmail.ch>]

Hmm, what about converting the PDF to a TIFF (or similar) on the server
and sending that to the client? Can be accomplished with GhostScript,
for example.

On Fri, 15 Nov 2002 09:55:04 +0100 Müller, Markus wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> we're just testing FOP to generate PDF on a host, then sending the PDF
> document in a way we don't know yet to some clients. The clients should be
> able to view (and perhaps to print) the document. Is this possible without
> AcrobatReader? The AcroRead for Java is not really a good thing, and using
> FOP only to display a file isn't a solution, too (since it's too large). Has
> anybody a little hint?
> 
> Markus


Jeremias Maerki

RE: Viewing PDF without AcrobatReader or FOP??

[Victor Mote <vi...@outfitr.com>]

Markus Müller wrote:

> we're just testing FOP to generate PDF on a host, then sending the PDF
> document in a way we don't know yet to some clients. The clients should be
> able to view (and perhaps to print) the document. Is this possible without
> AcrobatReader? The AcroRead for Java is not really a good thing, and using
> FOP only to display a file isn't a solution, too (since it's too
> large). Has
> anybody a little hint?

Obviously you can always write your own viewer and there are other PDF
viewers available, but it will be difficult to answer your question unless
you can tell us what shortcoming in Acrobat Reader you are trying to
overcome.

Victor Mote