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Revealing Hidden PDF Services in Mac OS X 10.2.4
cspiff writes "In Mac OS X 10.2.4, Apple quietly added the ability for users and developers to enhance the standard Print dialog with custom PDF-handling options. To enable it, just create a folder '~/Library/PDF Services' and populate it with aliases to applications, scripts, Unix tools, or other folders. Those items then show up in the Print dialog as optional handlers for Mac OS X's built-in 'Save as PDF' feature. Drop a renamed alias to your mail client in there, and you've added convenient 'Send PDF as Email' functionality to every application."
... is it just me, or does OSX frickin' rock or what?
.DLL monkeybusiness? Registry hacking?
... 'something has gone wrong with the USB driver updates'.
What would you have to do to do something like this in Windows land? Some sort of
Man, am I ever glad I switched. Friend of mine just came to my office to report yet *another* full re-install of WinXP is required on his test machine because
Can he figure it out? No. Is he stupid? No. Does Microsoft suck at designing OS's that make sense? Yes.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Really, is it a surprise that Apple continues to survive in the MS-dominated world? Look at the "innovations" from Microsoft - Media Center, DRM, Windows Update (damn, you need IE for that), ... nothing really to make most users say "geez, that IS useful. cool!"
Now look at Apple - "you mean I can now automatically do basically anything with this PDF I'm about to print? Damn, that sounds really useful. I'll be able to get this done way quicker and have more time for X" (see here)
BTW, MS has VBA, which can be used to do all sorts of shit on your PC, like Outlook viruses, Word viruses, etc, but Apple's AppleScript seems to be relatively secure whilst still providing enough functionality (see the bottom of this). Although perhaps it's because Apple's marketshare isn't seen as big enough for virus-writers to really take notice - I don't know.
Okay, that's not exactly a rock-solid proof, but I think it does illustrate the orthogonal directions Apple and MS seem to be taking - MS wants more and more control of what you do with your computer (eg, WM8 or 9 or whatever they're up to), while Apple introduces features like the aforementioned that are actually somewhat useful. They also make changes when their users whinge (eg, some of the stuff they put in Jaguar to satisfy old-skool Mac fans).
Perhaps this is just part of Apple and Steve Jobs being 'cool', but it sure makes sense in the OS industry. I'm almost at the stage where I'd consider going MacOSX (with X11) when I next upgrade (at least a year from now, though)
This sig intentionally left bla... dammit!
Who's got the whiteout?
I have had my Yao laptop for about 3 weeks now, after not having a Mac since system 8 had just come out.
While I think it has some neat features, other people around me are dumbfounded that I can print anything into PDF. PDF -> Mail is something that QuickBooks/Mac has been missing. Not that I use that feature of Quickbooks, but maybe that is something they left out knowing this was coming.
Does anyone have an sites where I can find scripts that do these things?
BTW - I entertained people in meeting for about 5 minutes yesterday with my "YaoBook"...taking requests to minimize and maximize windows, just so they could watch the gennie effect into and out of the dock. Wow. Apple really hit the marketing bullseye with that otherwise useless feature.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
You can give it to all users on the machine by putting it in /Library instead of ~/Library
Okay, I'm an idiot. It only works if there is a ~/Library/PDF Services.
BUT - If you have it in both places, you see double entries in the print dialog. I guess this is probably one of the reasons it isn't documented yet.
I don't want to be a wet blanket but this function, while very cool, lacks the ability to name the outgoing document. It gets the moniker 'print job.pdf' and unless someone can figure out a way via scripting (perhaps to wrap the application?) this is a little non-descriptive. Will be interested to watch the progress though!
I think it's awesome that Apple is always innovating and improving the awesome OS X. The ability to automatically generate PDFs and use different scripts to regulate their behavior is a great testament to Apple's undying commitment to making user's lives easier. Publishing PDfs for on-line useage will probably become more efficient as the user writes more scripts. However, this seems like it would not be very helpful for those involved in offset printing.
At most pre-press shops around the world, PDFs are becoming integrated into the workflow more and more. But most prfessional design programs already have their own print dialogs and methods for exporting PDFs. Take Adobe InDesign, for instance. I can already export a PDF from the File menu (though I cannot see how to regulate it with all those cool Applescripts). And why would I want to do that anyway? If I send anything to a pre-press dept. at a print shop, it will most likely be a fully separated PDF, or (in most cases) a Postscript file. Many pre-press shops cannot deal with composite PDFs yet. A lot of them are not equipped with a fully PDF workflow. That would make trapping and imposition from a composite PDF quite difficult.
Other software titles that professionals use like Quark, PageMaker, etc. already have their own print dialogs. A high-res PDF of a four-color print job would be too large to attach to most e-mails anyway.
I like the idea for every other usage. This new option is great for titles like Word which use the Apple print dialog. This can have many advantages. Students will most likely benefit from this as they will be able to publish their PDFs on-line to professors and teachers.
Mr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time is enemy action.
Prepress designers know that the Quark/Distiller combo is basically how you get stuff done, for the most part, in recent years. However, Quark is muchos late with their application, and Adobe has yet to mention Distiller for OS X, even though they've ported pretty much everything else.
The rumour mill has it that Adobe is holding back - or possibly has cancelled - Distiller for OS X, just to give InDesign a shot in the arm (which has Distiller-like capabilities built in of course).
Also, it's possible that Adobe is still miffed by any of the following:
- the knifing of Adobe Premiere by Final Cut
- the competition for photo-management via iPhoto (notice no Adobe Album for OS X. Too bad, looks nice.)
- the non-licensing of Display PostScript for OS X (which I believe has been nothing but a good decision for Apple; Quartz is a milestone in 2D graphics display systems, and has many advantages over old-school DP, not the least of which is support for true transparency)
Makes you wonder if Apple is stepping up yet again to fill the void *cough*safari*cough*
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Perhaps this may actually be the way OS X functions; A Library folder must have an equivalent instance in the ~/Library folder to be active. It would reflect an object-oriented nature of the OS, and would allow for relatively easy overrides of preferences or any setting (and this seems to be the case). The root:Library is global and sets the defaults, while the user:Library overrides the defaults. Not having the folder, means the User does not get the functionality at all. Anybody want to test this? It would be an easy way to turn of some functions for someone who wanted to make a User that was just, say a print server and turn off unneccessary functions.
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