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.
Keywords PDF; reviewer; proofreading; file transfer; application
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 its 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.
3. Practice and Exploration of PDF Application
3. 1 word, wPS file conversion to PDf If the author submits the manuscript electronic file when submitting, we can directly convert it to a PDF file and send it by e-mail. At the other end, the reviewer can see the manuscript The original appearance and comments were added. After installing the Chinese version of Acrobat 4.0, using the method of “printing†in the previous section, it can be easily implemented. All we have to do is to inform each other where there is a PDF reader to download.
3.2. The transformation of Founder PS2 into PDF When the author is asked to make a copy, it is necessary to use the original version as it is. It is an inevitable choice to merge the Founder example with the illustration and convert it into a PDF file. Usually, large-scale sample display and printing require the use of an emission card, and a large number of conversions must be combined with the printing plant's computer to do some preparatory work. Using Acrobat 4.0 Chinese version under win98 operating system, the author carried out the practice of three programs (Figure 1):
1) Screen capture mode. Additional requirements: issuing cards. Dos+win3.x, snagit16 (snapshot software), Photoshop 5.0.
2) Print scan mode. Additional Requirements: Issue cards, printers, scanners and accompanying software.
3) Software conversion method. Additional requirements: Online publishing star or party text easy. In practice, methods 1) capture images and methods 2) proof prints of PDF files produced in three ways by printing documents entered in a print shop. During the execution, the scan defaults to black and white and 300 dpi. The PDFwriter print default settings are unified, the resolution is 150 dpi, jpeg high quality compression, and other settings are default values. In order to compare the original effect, the text in the diagram is extracted from the printout. In this way, a typical 1 Mb tif file can generate approximately 150 Kb of PDF files, a 5,000-word article, and approximately 350 Kb of PDF files in tif mode, suitable for transmission by e-mail. PDF files generated by software conversion are smaller and of higher quality.
4.3 PSD, cdr image file conversion to PDf PSD is a file format automatically generated by Photoshop. The simplest conversion method is to use the “Save As†command in the Photoshop application. Cdr is a file format automatically generated by Coreldraw. The simplest conversion method is to use the "output" command in the Coreldraw application. In practice, for any format of image file, you should select "Print" mode, set Acrobat Distiller as the default printer, and customize various precision and various sizes of PDF files according to different application needs. In general, "screen optimizer" is used for web browsing. This option uses compression, downsampling, and resolution reduction to create the smallest possible PDF file. "Print optimize" is used to obtain color proofs for desktop printers, digital copiers, and CD ROM publications. “Press optimize†(publishing optimization) for output to an image-setter or plate-making machine for precision printing. This option handles color and grayscale bitmap images at 300 dpi downsampling, and monochrome images at up to 1200 dpi. Keep all the information of the original document.
For example, there is an advertisement sample produced by Photoshop on a Mac printer. The layout size is 20.4cm×28.0cm, the tif file in cmyk mode is 31.2Mb, the Distiller print resolution is set to 300 dpi, and other settings are missing. Province, you can output the following kinds of pictures:
1) File compressed to 303Kb in screen mode, suitable for online proofreading files;
2) File compression to 7.03Mb in Print mode, which can meet desktop publishing requirements;
3) Under the Press mode, the file is compressed to 12.4Mb, and the compression ratio also reaches 40%, which can completely replace the original tif for precision printing. In practice, the author sends the 303Kb PDF as a sample proof to advertisers for proofreading, which can fully meet the validation requirements of customers. Another cdr ad image created by an advertiser using Coreldraw was originally 9.8Mb. It was inconvenient to send it by disk transfer and e-mail. I requested it to be compressed into a PDF file, and the customer converted 1.02Mb and 2.4 respectively. Mb's PDF file was sent to the printing factory. The effect of the color page produced by the 2nd edition was stronger than that of the color page produced by the original print.
3.4 Publishing Electronic Data in PDF In the editing work, readers often purchase thematic technical data. The annual demand for each topical data is about dozens of copies. If the data is printed in a book format, the cost of a single book may be high. , if issued in ordinary electronic text, it is easily misappropriated. The use of PDF to publish electronic materials is an ideal way. Before converting the edited electronic text into a PDF, you can set up some special formats, add some copyright marks, and set a changeable password when you convert. In this way, each topical data can be condensed onto one disk, and users can choose to print after receiving the PDF data, but they can't reprint it, protecting the rights and interests of the editorial department to a certain extent.
4. Prospects for PDF editing applications
At present, the application of PDF in the online publishing industry is being promoted. The well-known Wanfang Data Network Center has adopted PDF to provide network users with the original original journal papers. Users can feel the convenience brought by PDF. Published in the journal