Brentwood Library: PDFs

Hmm …

Well, THAT was a bit of a sod … !

I’ve got to be honest, I was at Brentwood Library, today.

Believe it or not, I actually needed to do some printing off.

Frankly … ?

Frankly, I’ve got a printer, but haven’t been able to afford ink for it, for a while.

So the fact Brentwood Library’s not too far away, and FAIRLY reasonable on prices, helps, sometimes.

As done the existence of the .pdf file format.

You see, the file I wanted print off was some basic bits and bobs I wanted to have to had, so that I do do a clean re-install on the ageing Dell laptop I have sitting, behind me.

Basically, a ‘How To’ I’d saved from the web as a .pdf.

Just so you know … ?

.pdf stands for ‘portable document format’: and the file type was designed to be one that — no matter what — was and is capable of being opened by any computer, no matter what operating system it uses: there’s even a version of Adobe’s Reader software for Windoze, Mac OS X, and many forms of Linux.

The idea was — if I’ve understood things correctly — that you could design and write (say) a brochure on your Windows machine, and then take it down to your printing department — or local print shop — and have the thing printed out of their Macs.

Or vice verse.

And have it printed out, exactly as designed: and, again, regardless of operating system.

Now, on top of that … ?

Mac OS X can — as a legacy of it’s long association with the desktop publishing industry — can export near enough anything — webpage, Word document, Excel file, what-have-you — to .pdf format.

It’s in any and every Print menu within Mac OS X, and its predecessor, Mac OS since about the year dot.

At ANY rate … !

That’s how I managed to have the web-page with the information I needed: hitting ⌘ and p and picking the ‘Save As PDF’ option.

Saved the resultant file onto a little flash drive I keep around for exactly this kind of situation, and tottered up to the library to print it off.

Only to find, when I got there … ?

That Brentwood Library’s has a new procedure put in place to help them deal with printing: one that had both gone live, today …

And that, apparently, “… is having a problem printing .pdfs. And we can’t even convert them into anything else”.

Which was a cue for a raised eyebrow, from me …

»»·««

You see, something I noticed, a long time ago, is that Adobe’s Reader software has had a Save as text feature for some time.

Simply … ?

Simply the ability it has to save a given .pdf file — or the textural parts — as a .txt file: in File>Save As>Text, so you know.

And, as I pointed out to the staff at the library … ?

One that could be opened with either Notepad, or MS Office.

And either saved or printed from there.

»»·««

Now, I’ve got to admit, I’m …

Hmmm …

Feeling a bit smug, there, actually.

Well, but at least I think I’ve done a bit of good, passing a helpful bit of knowledge …