A member of the Manchester Fellowship has asked me for advice regarding a PDF document she has received from a British charity.
She was confused because when she opens the PDF in a Free Software PDF reader all that appears is a full page advert for Adobe 9 (see adobe-advert.pdf attached).
It actually appears that there are two separate PDF documents embedded in this PDF, but that all that is viewable is the Adobe advert initially, or at all in some non-Adobe readers.
Presumably the charity distributing this PDF is unaware of this because they are using Adobe reader, and so don't realise that they are spreading this advertising.
I found this quite shocking and wanted to share it with the list. Next steps are presumably to contact the charity and notify them of the despicable behaviour of their Adobe software :)
Thanks,
Sam.
Hi Sam,
* Sam Tuke samtuke@fsfe.org [2011-12-02 17:24:40 +0000]:
She was confused because when she opens the PDF in a Free Software PDF reader all that appears is a full page advert for Adobe 9 (see adobe-advert.pdf attached).
I heard about that before from Sweden. Do you think it would be ok, if we have a short blog entry about it, and linking to http://www.communitymatters.org.uk/resources_details.aspx?ResourceId=114&... comparing it to the old "you need Internet Explorer 4.1.2.5.9 to view this website".
Thanks, Matthias
On Wednesday 07 December 2011 09:58:21 Matthias Kirschner wrote:
Do you think it would be ok, if we have a short blog entry about it
I've asked Yuwei if that would be OK by her. I don't know if the PDF she referred me to is widely used / known and I would like to get her permission before you write about it. Also, the charity responsible in this case is associated with the UK Government, either under contract or a branch of, apparently, so that makes this case of advertising even more serious.
I think a blog post on the subject would be an excellent idea!
Thanks,
Sam.
On Wednesday 07 December 2011 13:48:22 Sam Tuke wrote:
On Wednesday 07 December 2011 09:58:21 Matthias Kirschner wrote:
Do you think it would be ok, if we have a short blog entry about it
Yes I've checked and it's fine - blog away!
Sam.
On 08.12.2011 13:15, Sam Tuke wrote:
On Wednesday 07 December 2011 13:48:22 Sam Tuke wrote:
On Wednesday 07 December 2011 09:58:21 Matthias Kirschner wrote:
Do you think it would be ok, if we have a short blog entry about it
Yes I've checked and it's fine - blog away!
Sam.
Just FYI the real PDF-file is embedded and displays just fine in okular. You could extract it and offer it with the "wrapper"-PDF to show that it is a non-feature and unneccessary.
Regards, Hannes
* Hannes Hauswedell h2@fsfe.org [2011-12-23 12:16:50 +0100]:
Just FYI the real PDF-file is embedded and displays just fine in okular. You could extract it and offer it with the "wrapper"-PDF to show that it is a non-feature and unneccessary.
Can you do that, and tell my how you did it? Than I can add it to the blog entry?
Thanks, Matthias
On 23.12.2011 13:37, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
- Hannes Hauswedellh2@fsfe.org [2011-12-23 12:16:50 +0100]:
Just FYI the real PDF-file is embedded and displays just fine in okular. You could extract it and offer it with the "wrapper"-PDF to show that it is a non-feature and unneccessary.
Can you do that, and tell my how you did it? Than I can add it to the blog entry?
Thanks, Matthias
Just open it in Okular, it will tell you that the document has embedded documents and ask if you want to see them. If it doesn't do it automatically go to "File->Embedded Files". You will be given a list of embedded documents and can extract them.
Regards, Hannes
* Hannes Hauswedell h2@fsfe.org [2011-12-23 13:47:22 +0100]:
Just open it in Okular, it will tell you that the document has embedded documents and ask if you want to see them. If it doesn't do it automatically go to "File->Embedded Files". You will be given a list of embedded documents and can extract them.
Thanks Hannes!