On Mon, Dec 14, 1998 at 08:54:45AM -0600, Randolph J. Herber wrote:

> Primarily Adobe PostScript PDF is a method of Adobe, Inc., to reduce Adobe's
> problems with thief for their fonts which is quite easy to do if the fonts
> are included within an Adobe PostScript file.

I don't think that is the primary motivation for PDF,
and I'm not sure if it is true anyway.
Adobe has published the encryption/decryption algorithms
for PFB font files.

To my mind,
the fundamental point about PDF (as opposed to PostScript)
is that it is object-oriented,
a PDF document consisting essentially of a collection of PDF objects.

> If one remains with the almost universal Apple LaserWriter basic 13 fonts
> and the TeX bitmapped fonts, then the files are more portable than when
> Adobe PDF is used.

This isn't much use for maths, of course.

--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
tel: +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland