PDF document History

[T]

Is there any way to view a PDF documents history withOUT it being certified?

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Control (command) D will give you the file creator, using PDF-X will ensure you know the output intent.
There is alot of metadata.

(I think by refrying your PDFs you can make the history much shorter and appear straight forward... a PDF is like a dog no telling where it's been)

 

[T]

I was hope there was something more on the same level as the Certified PDFs version of history.

 

[mattbeals]

No, there really isn't anything quite as detailed as what Enfocus Certified PDF does. It's interesting "how" Enfocus keeps track of the document changes. Now that CertifiedPDF is open to other vendors to implement hopefully more will. It can add quite a bit of "fluff" to the document but it can be a real life saver!

 

[leonardr]

You can also use the "Certified Documents" feature of Adobe Acrobat (which has been there since version 6) or standard Acrobat digital signatures (which have been there since Acrobat 5) to also enable in Acrobat that ability to view history.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Just to be difficult, the problem is thinking that something is good when it is not.
I'll try to give an example: Getting a file tagged with our uncoated proflile where the file was originally an untagged ISO Coated. I wouldn't have discovered it unless I was checking for too much ink. If the file had not exceeded the ink limit, I would not have noticed it. It would have been technically flawless even though the result would not have been acceptable.

Certified PDF will check and logg events after a certain point, but it is very hard to know if what was put in was correct, so who is certified PDF for? I would think it is for the knowlegable prepress person who hands to a deaf and dumb printer. Or for a printer that needs to proove to clients that they didn't touch their file.