Acrobat Reader 2.0 Beta Now Available

Posted By: Ed Tuesday, March 19, 2002 11:15:34 AM

Adobe has released into public beta Acrobat Reader for Palm OS 2.0. This new version adds some features users have been clamoring for, including color and Macintosh support. It can also read secured PDF files. The beta is available now and is, of course, free, though the user must register it.

Acrobate Reader 2.0 Beta Screenshot The product allows users to view files in the ubiquitous Adobe PDF format. It is capable of displaying both text and images and preserves the rich content of files -- styled text, images, and bookmarks -- and adapts it for viewing on small screens. This is the first version that supports color.

The PDF files have to be converted to a Palm-only format by the Acrobat conduit first but it can then save them directly to an SD, MMC, or Memory Stick where the Reader can access them.

PDF documents created using Acrobat 5.0 will offer a better reading experience on Palm OS handhelds than files created using earlier versions of Acrobat because they are automatically tagged with information on the document structure and organization. This allows for easier and more reliable text re-flow on the smaller device.

This is the first version of Acrobat Reader that provides a Macintosh conduit. This is compatible with Mac OS 9.x and OS 10.1 (Classic mode). The app also has support for Windows 98 and above.

It will run on all currently-shipping Palm OS handhelds.

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How big is the software and how big are the documents?

C @ 3/19/2002 11:43:43 AM #
Just wanted to know :-)

RE: How big is the software and how big are the documents?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 11:48:33 AM #
The Windows download is 6.7MB. The Macintosh is 10MB, according to the download site.

RE: How big is the software and how big are the documents?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 11:53:07 AM #
I think the original question was refering to the Palm storage size

RE: How big is the software and how big are the documents?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 11:56:06 AM #
The palm app is ~290 K. Document size depends on how big the original is. They don't get any smaller when you convert them. Many get bigger. It really needs an SD/MMC/MemStick.

RE: How big is the software and how big are the documents?
taxus @ 3/19/2002 6:55:17 PM #
Here's an example. I took a Fictionwise.com novel by Mike Resnick, "A Miracle of Rare Design: A Tragedy of Transcendence" (54948 words), available in the following Palm formats:

Palm DOC: 179 KB
iSilo: 148 KB
MobiPocket: 189 KB
Acrobat: 632 KB

I used Acrobat Reader for PalmOS 2.0 to convert the Acrobat version of "Miracle" to a Palm-friendly format. Note that the original file is in Acrobat 3, and is untagged, which doesn't help optimization for Palm. Also, the Acrobat file is the only one with an image, the cover of the book.

The conversion process took quite a while. Something around 3-5 minutes. The end-result is a 1156 KB file.

Considering my Palm has a classic serial connection, much slower than USB, and that the other formats are 7 times smaller, I don't think I'll use Acrobat Reader for PalmOS.

I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the reader, though. Except for changing pages, which can take 3 seconds on my 16 MHz Palm IIIxe, text displays about as quick as MobiPocket.

Can it do high resolution?

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 11:54:49 AM #
Can it take advantage of a 320x320 screen resolution? I might have to try this thing.

RE: Can it do high resolution?
Ed @ 3/19/2002 11:58:53 AM #
Trust me, if it had hi-res support, I would have mentioned it in the article.

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News Editor
RE: Can it do high resolution?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 12:12:02 PM #
Is it hard to make programs 320x320 compatible? im not complaining here, just asking. It seems that i havent found any programs im currently using that has 320 support.

RE: Can it do high resolution?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 12:29:48 PM #
Actually, Sony high resolution is supported.



RE: Can it do high resolution?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 12:45:31 PM #
Do you mean it will run in 160 x 160 on a 320 x 320 screen, or do PDF files actually appear in 360 x 360?

RE: Can it do high resolution?
ssummer @ 3/19/2002 1:00:21 PM #
High resolution is supported, sort of. Images in the PDF files are displayed in hi-res mode but the standard font is the system font (or whatever you call it, you know the font you see in the standard built-in apps). You can't make it smaller (like the "small" option in iSilo) but you can make it bigger. Click on "Preferences" and then "Get Best Settings" and it will detect your PDA as hi-res/color/16-bit or whatever variation thereof.

RE: Can it do high resolution?
popko @ 3/19/2002 1:02:21 PM #
"Do you mean it will run in 160 x 160 on a 320 x 320 screen ..."

Speaking of the res, I have always found English at 320x320 too small to read. If I increase the font size, I'd defeat the point of having high res (no longer display more stuff on the screen than 160x160).

RE: Can it do high resolution?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 1:13:57 PM #
yes. hi-res image is supported.

RE: Can it do high resolution?
Ed @ 3/19/2002 2:24:00 PM #
> Trust me, if it had hi-res support, I would have mentioned it in the article.

* sigh * ssummer is correct. There are times I wish companies would make life a little easier on me. Would it have killed Adobe to mention this in its product description or user manual? It isn't anywhere that I can find it. But when I loaded Reader onto an N610C, I was able to figure out the same thing ssummer did. Sorry for being incorrect before.

Also, can someone confirm something for me? One of the options when converting a PDF is fit graphics to screen. Someone please check to be sure this is smart enough to fit them to the 320 by 320 screen. The conduit is being troublesome on my Mac.

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News Editor

RE: Can it do high resolution?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 2:56:07 PM #
Ed: yes it does.

RE: Can it do high resolution on HandEra 330?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 4:26:55 PM #
The desktop software detects the 240x320 screen on the HandEra 330, and the Palm software appears to draw images in hi-res from what I can see. It seems to have some occasional trouble with italic text though, and doesn't support closing the virtual graffiti area. I got it to draw over the first couple pixel lines of the graffiti area every once in a while. Otherwise, it seemed to work well.

The 330 isn't on Adobe's supported device list. It seems to work pretty well though (except the occasional things above), so maybe they are currently working on it. In what way did you expect it to look different? There's an e-mail address on the beta web page, send them an e-mail with the problems you see.

RE: Can it do high resolution?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 4:33:25 PM #
Clie users: it does play nicely with FontHack123c and lubiak's Clie fonts. I was able to override the default font settings and squeeze quite a bit more text on to the screen.

The install process appears to assume that you've got Acrobat 5 installed - can anyone confirm this?

RE: Can it do high resolution on HandEra330?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 4:41:44 PM #
I just installed it. It tests my PDA and comes back with the proper info. When I view a PDF, on my 330, it looks no different. Does it not support the 320 X 240 on the 330 as it suggests?

Bill McKelvey

RE: Can it do high resolution on HandEra 330?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/20/2002 9:16:03 AM #
The response I received from Adobe was that the 330 is not supported with this beta release, but that they were definitely interested in what problems I was having with it. My suggestion would be that since it works fairly well on the 330, I'd use it and submit any problems you see to the feedback e-mail address they provide on the public beta web page linked to by this article. I'd recommend being very specific with any problems you are seeing, if you'd like to see them fixed. It certainly won't hurt to let them know how many HandEra 330 owners are out there and that we're interested in their software.

The problems I saw certainly aren't bad enough to keep me from using it if I need it. The text looks good (other than the occasional italics glitch), the graphics look good, and the speed is OK. I actually think it's pretty nice. I really do wish these reader-type applications could support the virtual graffiti area when closed though. Somehow I doubt we'll see virtual graffiti area support from Adobe soon though.

Very nice

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 12:19:11 PM #
If you have the full version of Acrobat, try this. Drag your photos over into an empty Acrobat document to create a PDF "document" full of images. Then save the document over to the Palm. Instant image viewer, free of charge. Kinda fun.

Nice stuff, Adobe.

JBH

RE: Very nice
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/20/2002 2:42:08 PM #
But surely Acrobat saves images using lossless compression ala GIF, rather than JPG? If the former than documents can be VERY big

RE: Very nice
ssummer @ 3/20/2002 5:34:21 PM #
Acrobat stores images with either JPG or ZIP (yes ZIP as in WinZip) compression. You have an option to use either one by default or Acrobat can pick for you.

I'm impressed

ssummer @ 3/19/2002 1:09:16 PM #
I have to say I like the improvements from v1.1 (especially in the speed department). Main thing I would like to see is small-font support but otherwise, on preliminary testing, I think it has everything I need.

''unable to install notifier''

Leech @ 3/19/2002 3:17:24 PM #
I had this same problem with the previous version and Adobe was of no help. I just can't install it. Gets 2/3 of the way through, and as it's accessing the registry I get this message. Judging by the Adobe forms I'm not the only one with this problem.
I was REALLY hoping they would overcome this with the new version.

RE: ''unable to install notifier''
bcombee @ 3/19/2002 4:43:22 PM #
This message sounds like a problem with your Palm Desktop installation. Notifiers are special DLLs that get installed into the registry and are notified by HotSync when the HS process starts and stops. If there was a registy problem on your system, they might be able to register their notification DLL, giving this message.

CodeWarrior for Palm OS technical lead
RE: ''unable to install notifier''
Leech @ 3/19/2002 8:06:31 PM #

Thanks for shedding some light. Any suggestions about a fix? I've run FixIt utilities registry fixer-- it actually caused more problems than it fixed. If you've got a sec to help I'm running Windows 98se, Clie 610, Hotsync 4.11.

lsprung@hotmail.com

Thanks.

Doesn't work with Palm Desktop 4 for OS X

bfishman @ 3/19/2002 3:21:18 PM #
While Mac compatibility is a step in the right direction, it's too bad they focused their beta efforts on a soon-to-be obsolete set of software for the Mac!

I guess I can understand focusing on the installed base, but come on, not even the installer is carbonized.

Give me something I can use in OS X with Palm Desktop 4!

(I could make the same comment for all the other major Palm conduits -- like AvantGo and Vindigo. Not even a peep from these companies about future compatibility, at least as far as I can tell.)

RE: Doesn't work with Palm Desktop 4 for OS X
C @ 3/19/2002 3:41:28 PM #
Mac compatibility really sucks...I know what you mean...that's why I won't switch over to Os X no compatibility...It sucks...I have a perfect machine for it too with 576 mb of ram...SUCKS :-)

RE: Doesn't work with Palm Desktop 4 for OS X
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/20/2002 8:41:51 PM #
Yes, it definitely ought to support OS X. I plan to tell them that, and would encourage others to do the same. Especially since OS X gives you the ability to save any document directly into the PDF format.

RE: Doesn't work with Palm Desktop 4 for OS X
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/23/2002 3:00:42 AM #
Agreed.

iSilo

C @ 3/19/2002 3:39:45 PM #
That sucks...why do I need that? I have Isilo already...and I know how to conver PDF into another format...so why do I need this...Thanks for the info...

RE: ISilo
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 3:43:30 PM #
I know how to make a convert but I don't know how to convert a PDF to something else like iSilo. How do you do it? Can you do it on a Mac? (Convert a PDF to something else, not do *it*)

RE: iSilo
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 5:04:03 PM #
Are there any freeware programs that convert PDF to HTML? It would be easy to then convert HTML to iSilo.

RE: iSilo
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 6:39:02 PM #
Yes:

http://access.adobe.com/simple_form.html

http://access.adobe.com/access_email.html

RE: iSilo
C @ 3/20/2002 10:21:52 AM #
Well...you guys only get the text...but you copy and paste the information...

Now is Microsoft out

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 4:04:06 PM #
I supports hires . ( tried on t615c) looks grea. with overclocking the perfomance is much better than on pocket pc. Resolution is Resolution and can only be beaten by resolution.


GREAT JOB ADOBE

Full size image option broken

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 5:55:44 PM #
Is this working for anyone? Any files I convert all have the images scaled down to screen size, with no option to zoom in when you tap them (and yes, I did select the option to keep them full size). This worked fine in the last version for me. Color is great finally, but not without usable images...

RE: Full size image option broken
Ed @ 3/19/2002 6:04:57 PM #
Don't just tap on the images; press down on them for several seconds. It works for me.

I haven't had a chance to fool around with this app much. Keep in mind, though, this is a beta. There could still be problems.

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News Editor

MMC compatible?

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 6:23:37 PM #
As with the earlier version, I can't get the thing to send a .pdf to my mmc card on the m505. Anybody else had this problem?

RE: MMC compatible?
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/20/2002 4:42:40 AM #
on mac, SD and MMC are both supported.
on win, SD is supported, MMC is not. maybe MMC support will come in the final version.

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