>>But PDF/A solves the compatibility issue. So I would still have to
respectfully disagree.<<
While I agree that PDF/A has great promise, I am not sure I am ready to
move from a TIF to PDF/A world. PDF/A may be a standard but it is still
very new and the tools to create it are relatively rare and untested
when compared to those for TIF. Granted, the PDF Viewers are
commonplace, but for those of us that have millions of images already in
systems, we have just as many TIF viewers, and most of them have
significantly more capabilities that your standard PDF plug-in.
We also commonly store a TIF image with self contained text negating the
portability argument. Additionally, MS desktops currently come with OCR
enabling users to OCR at will if they like.
Finally, electronic documents can be electronically printed to TIF as
simply as they can be distilled in PDF, it just takes a different tool.
The struggle for me why I would want to change:
- There are already 50 quadzillion pages of tifs in systems.
- My production imaging systems format of choice is tif.
- I don't want to OCR 99% of the images I capture (it's a waste of
effort and resources).
- Annotations are a vital part of my CM solutions. Most ECM systems
support annotations on TIF's not PDF's.
- The majority of stored content in our environment has a relatively
short life so I am not concerned compatibility issues.
- While the percentage of captured econtent is increasing, I still have
need to scan 10-50 pages of existing paper documentation to be able to
leverage the small percentage of incoming econtent. The scales are
tipping, but with improved capture technologies, better storage
solutions, and an increasingly distributed work force, we will probably
be scanning much more in the future than we have in the past.
Finally, I used to regularly recommend using Adobe Acrobat and PDF as a
inexpensive DM solution for small businesses. I did it based on the
premise of the Adobe promotions that promised that PDF's would remain
accessible even in future releases of the product (Fool me once...).
That being said, I am looking forward to where PDF/A might lead us. If
I was in an archives environment I expect I would be a lot more excited
about it. I fully expect that in the future, I will recommend its use
for those things that require long term retention.
It is certainly appears to have all of the criteria for success: Strong
support, superior performance, high quality, and a whole lot of
hoopla...then again, I still have some Beta tapes...
Bill R
Bill Roach, CRM
Manager, Corporate Records
MoneyGram International
1550 Utica Ave. So.
Minneapolis, MN 55416
Direct: 952-591-3325
Fax: 952-591-3333
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