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It's hard to say that UTF-8 always doesn't work well on Linux. I'm using a Latin alphabet and it's been years since I had UTF-8 problems. However that's not your case...

I don't like the direction this is heading in (i.e. guaranteed broken) - bah (this always happens)! You didn't say what type of printer you have though. I'm also worried that you are getting duff results from Windows too.

Some part of me is thinking that if the printer is a laser postscript thing then the font it has does not have an extended character set. On Windows you might be able to fudge this by saying something like "Send as Bitmaps" (this has drawbacks though). What should ideally be happening is that the font should be being uploaded to the printer so it knows how to print the letter "natively" as it were.

On Windows (yeah I know I keep mentioning but I've seen these things in passing) make sure you have the right fonts for the right country. I'm vaguely aware there are Asian languages packs for Acrobat that ships with different fonts. This might let you verify a PDF produced on one system is correct even if it is mangled when sent to the printer.

Does this happen for all non-latin alphabets you try and print or only ones that are using an UTF-8 encoding? Does printing Chinese UTF-8 websites also break? If you open the text files in a browser and print do you have the same issue?

vi and friends have heuristics for trying to guess the encoding of a file. UTF-8 patches went in a few years ago. Assuming your terminal font has the characters it should display most characters.

The information in UTF-8 and Unicode FAQ for Unix/Linux under the printing says CUPS should be able to correctly convert a UTF8 text file to postscript so I would be interested in seeing some sample files...

Could you put up some short example documents on the web and link to them so I can try them?

Late breaking news! It's looking bad for unicode PDFs

The age of the internet, where things go bad and no one thinks it's unusual. Lots and lots of crap, all free, mind you, that dumbs down the users that much more. If you paid $1000 for it, you might have other thoughts, like this Photoshop 11 catastrophic UI failure

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx?128@@.59b6eb20

which is demonstrated here

http://img397.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ps11dropdownblacknotyelbt5.jpg

They've effectively locked new and old users out, and repeated pleas to bring back the old site have gone unheeded and the issues with the new site have been ignored. Where there was once a thriving community of third party additions, now there is a stagnant pool, as uploads have trickled to nothing.

Way to go Adobe - you've just killed your golden goose. Stop the madness of flash for flash's sake! (Don't be surprised if these links don't load, evidently Adobe purchased Fark's old servers.)

They've effectively locked new and old users out, and repeated pleas to bring back the old site have gone unheeded and the issues with the new site have been ignored. Where there was once a thriving community of third party additions, now there is a stagnant pool, as uploads have trickled to nothing.

Way to go Adobe - you've just killed your golden goose. Stop the madness of flash for flash's sake! (Don't be surprised if these links don't load, evidently Adobe purchased Fark's old servers.)

One of the biggest problems plaguing Linux in their efforts to make it on the common users desktop is software installation and updating.

There are many dependencies which sometimes need to be hunted down before an application will work, and often times software is buggy.

Ahead for one is porting Nero to work in Linux

I believe Adobe is porting Photoshop as well

They are also realizing how similar Windows Vista is to HAL9000

Fixing the one for windows might be a start http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@820.0Ci Ad7rhWTI.4@.3bb86abb Copy some numbers and then paste them - the numbers are corrupted on pasting

i am posting this because i too am not a fan of quickens tech support.

i paid my quicken tax again for the 3rd time in about 6 years - quicken home & biz 2005. i need to track a bunch of consulting for different companies, as well as my wifes 'horse boarding' company (our horse + 2 friends horses).

i need to create invoices in the business section and i like to make a PDF rather then a hardcopy and mail. all of our customers like to receive the invoice via email.

i was shocked when i tried to print an invoice to a PDF and got an acrobat barf-error message. other reports and views print to PDF fine.

i called tech support and the tech on the other side duplicated the problem. i then asked what can be done. he said nothing, that the developers wont listen to the tech support guys. i wrote several emails and sent them to as many different depts as i could, sales, Q&A, user feedback forms, etc.

i eagerly awaited the next patch. when i downloaded it i noted that they said amongst other things that they had taken care of a number of printing issues. alas, the PDF problem still exists.
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@1013.YO ggdEvZJo9.0@.3bb5d6c7/7!login=true
(you have to log in but you can log in as guest)

cliffs:
modern version of quicken cant print to PDF
tech support duplicates problem, intuit wont do anything

Phosphor=25thCenturyQuaker.

Photoshop is not broken but if you want to play the part of the drama queen, don't let me stop you. Here's a discussion about how and why Photoshop handles alphas and transparency. Here's a small hint, they're actually two seperate concepts. Chris Cox, by the way, is one of the Photoshop developers so he knows what he's talking about.

Full disclosure: I also work at Adobe, on Photoshop, and am passing along this reply

c.f. Article at the Adobe User to User Forums website

Kevin Connor - 06:33pm Jan 8, 2004 Pacific (#269 of 319)

As someone at Adobe who was involved in the decision to include counterfeit deterrence in Photoshop CS, let me finally provide you with a response to all of these concerns and questions. Sorry for the delay!:

Photoshop CS does indeed include a counterfeit deterrence system (CDS) to prevent the illegal duplication of banknotes. The CDS was created by a consortium of central banks from around the world. We, along with other hardware and software manufacturers, have included CDS in our products at their request to address the threat posed by the use of digital technologies in the counterfeiting of banknotes. There are other software products from other companies that already use this same technology. There are also hardware products that use the same or similar technology. For example, most color copiers sold today will not allow you to copy currency.

As digital imaging technology advances, becoming more broadly available and user friendly, the old barriers to currency reproduction are becoming less effective. The unscrupulous are taking advantage of the functionality that is being provided to the vast majority of honest users for the purposes of counterfeiting currency. In the US and around the world, counterfeiting through digital means is increasing exponentially, and retailers and the general public--including our own customers--are at risk.

Counterfeit currency is essentially a hot potato. Whoever holds it last, loses. The person who loses isn't necessarily the counterfeiter. There's no government body in place to "reimburse" people who, through no fault of their own, get paid with currency that turns out to be counterfeit. In our implementation of CDS, we've worked very hard to balance the need to protect these unsuspecting victims of counterfeiting along with the need to continue to provide a product that efficiently does what honest customers need it to do.

There appear to be several major concerns and objections repeated throughout this message thread, so I'll try to address each one individually:

1. Performance: CDS does not cause any noticeable slowdown in Photoshop performance. During most operations performed in Photoshop, CDS is not used at all. When it is used, the performance impact often is just a fraction of a second.

2. Legal use of notes: It is true that the current implementation of CDS will prevent you from scanning in your own banknotes even if your usage intent is entirely within legal boundaries. Regulations for using banknote images vary by country. It is the responsibility of the central bank in each country to provide images that can be used within the legal guidelines of that country. In other words, if you want to legally reproduce images of the new $20US bills on a Web site or in a marketing brochure, you can contact the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing for legal images that can be opened and manipulated in Photoshop CS. (You can visit them at www.moneyfactory.com.) Similar solutions should be available in other countries. If you find that your central bank is not providing adequate support to permit legal uses of their banknote images, then you should let them know.

3. Adobe's intentions: Please be assured that this implementation of CDS is not a step down the road towards Adobe becoming "Big Brother." We know that one of the reasons people love Photoshop is because it's an incredibly flexible tool that can be used for so many different things. That's also one of the reasons we at Adobe enjoy working on new versions. Finding ways to prevent you from doing things in Photoshop really doesn't interest us! Moreover, the CDS is not Adobe technology, but was provided by the central banks, who would have no reason to want to restric

Sure, click here, then "LOG IN AS A GUEST", scroll to the first post and click on the enclosure in the first response. Has a jpg the face side of a new new 20 - will not open in PSCS.

I think Adobe should be aware of the number of concerned individuals. Some contacts at Adobe (listed on http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/prcontac ts.html) include:

Adobe Community Relations Ginny Babbit gbabbit@adobe.com
Adobe Public Policy Autumn Blatchford ablatchf@adobe.com
Adobe Investor Relations ir@adobe.com
Adobe User Forums (located on adobe.com) may be found here: http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?.ee6b30e

Any other contacts at Adobe I missed?

Since major software vendors are looking after 'the masses' (read: x86) the lack of 3rd party software for a Linux on the PPC is sometimes disappointing.

I once asked Adobe on one of their forums why there was no port for their Acrobat PDF reader to Linux for the Macintosh PPC. The answer from the Adobe-man on the forum was: There isn't (a port).

This lack of support for Linux from companies who go to great lengths to make money on the x86 and MacOS platform just turns you down.

If it compiles on an x86, it may very well compile on a PPC version, and make a lot of users happy [Adobe (Acrobat), Sun (SO), are you listening? ;-) )

Onet.