The Format of Things to Come

PDF files are created by "distilling" designs from such programs as Illustrator and Quark through Adobe's Acrobat software. The result is a compact, WYSIWYG document that can be viewed and printed by anyone with a reasonably configured Mac or PC, and a free Reader application.

According to Michael Jahn, Agfa's officially-titled "PDF Evangelist," "Within a closed environment—say, a single trade shop—each prepress equipment vendor can conduct many creative, time-efficient manipulations using their internal proprietary data format. It's when you have to go outside, into the great unknown, that PDF begins to look really attractive."