open source alternatives to PDF ?

[zexoc]

Even though there are much cheaper and free (at least pdf creation) alternatives to Adobe Acrobat, I was wondering if there is a credible alternative to the pdf format itself ?

any thoughts ?

[Bachstelze]

PDF has been an open format for a bit less than two years now (since June 2008 IIRC).

[zexoc]

PDF has been an open format for a bit less than two years now (since June 2008 IIRC).

Oops, didnt read about that one. Thanks for the update Bachestelze !

[reyfer]

Yes, PDF is open, but if you still want to try alternatives, I suggest DjVU. Same quality scans, a lot more compression.


DjVu (pronounced "déjà vu") is a digital document format with advanced compression technology and high performance value. DjVu allows for the distribution on the Internet and on DVD of very high resolution images of scanned documents, digital documents, and photographs. DjVu viewers are available for the web browser, the desktop, and PDA devices.
http://djvu.org/

EDIT: I forgot to mention, both the viewer and the Firefox plugin are in the repos ;)

[Tibuda]

+1 to stick to PDF. It is almost an universal format.

For the Acrobat alternative, try Scribus.

[markbuntu]

Open Office has PDF creation/editing capability now if you are looking for some way to make PDFs. I have not tried it myself. I am not sure but it may be an add on.

[juancarlospaco]

PDFedit, the Ubuntu PDF printer, OpenOffice, Scribus.

Use Evince (avaliable for Windows too) or ePDF Viewer (lighweight)

[eumetaxas]

Don't forget Latex in order to make high quality pdf documents

[qyot27]

I've never tried to use PDFs in Ubuntu, but in Windows I use Sumatra PDF (http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/index.html) (which is GPLv3) - consumes a whole lot fewer resources than Acrobat/Reader. It's rated as Platinum level in Wine. (http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=5973)

[matthew.ball]

Don't forget Latex in order to make high quality pdf documents
AUCTeX + Emacs!

[Tibuda]

AUCTeX + Emacs!

Vim LaTeX suite!

[shafin]

I've never tried to use PDFs in Ubuntu, but in Windows I use Sumatra PDF (http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/index.html) (which is GPLv3) - consumes a whole lot fewer resources than Acrobat/Reader. It's rated as Platinum level in Wine. (http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=5973)
Evince has become available for windows recently (http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binaries/win32/evince/2.28/evince-2.28.0.msi), and it works great there too.

[Groucho Marxist]

Even though there are much cheaper and free (at least pdf creation) alternatives to Adobe Acrobat, I was wondering if there is a credible alternative to the pdf format itself ?

Paper.

In fact, I made some a couple of years ago; good times.

[Tibuda]

Evince has become available for windows recently (http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binaries/win32/evince/2.28/evince-2.28.0.msi), and it works great there too.

Evince can edit PDFs now? That's interesting...

[reyfer]

Sorry, I see all of you are suggesting alternatives to the viewer. I suggested DjVu because I thought the OP was asking about alternatives to the PDF format, not the reader. I may have been mistaken, but....


Even though there are much cheaper and free (at least pdf creation) alternatives to Adobe Acrobat, I was wondering if there is a credible alternative to the pdf format itself ?

any thoughts ?

Is it the reader or the format?

[Tibuda]

Sorry, I see all of you are suggesting alternatives to the viewer. I suggested DjVu because I thought the OP was asking about alternatives to the PDF format, not the reader. I may have been mistaken, but....



Is it the reader or the format?

I think the OP is asking for both the editor (not the reader) and the format.