Re: [ARSCLIST] Cataloguing still :-)--was: Cataloguing again--ARSC responsibility?

[steven c <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Richter" <mrichter@xxxxxxx>
> steven c wrote:
>
> > Worse yet, the .pdf format requires a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader
> > (admittedly
> > downloadable for free if you go looking) in a version equal to or newer
than
> > the one used to create the file...and you CAN'T use "Edit, Copy" to save
> > the piece you were looking for, because a .pdf is just a PICTURE of
> > text...not text! This means you have to save the entire .pdf on your
> > HD, use Acrobat Reader to access it and manually copy the text you
> > are interested in! This is something like making sound recordings
> > available in a proprietary format with limited fidelity...
>
> Were that so, it would be an unfortunate format. Fortunately, it ain't
> so it ain't. <G>
>
> There are readers not from Adobe; OCR programs such as OmniPage will
> capture the text. (All assuming that the file is not protected or that
> you have broken the simplistic protection afforded.)
>
> By the way, text is not usually stored as a "picture", though since the
> format does accomodate graphics, some can be stored in that way.
>
I'm going by my own experience:

1) I can't select (highlight and copy) text in a .pdf using my mouse
and the "Edit" menu.

2) I don't own (and can't afford) a variety of software...I'm only
speaking to opening a .pdf file (which will appear in IE6, my
current browser application). Once it's there, I can increase
the size (all the way to 1000% of the original) but not much more!

3) Looking at the digital contents (the actual bytes) that make
up a .pdf file, I don't see the text contents. In MS Word (and
similar programs) the bytes making up the text content are in
the file. Seems to me, if Adobe Acrobat uses the text content
as text...it would have to be in the file as such. Is it
encrypted?

Steven C. Barr