The only answer I have is expensive: get Adobe Acrobat Pro.
* Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
* Go to Advanced > Preflight.
* Highlight any profile, for example "List all images".
* Execute.
In the resulting window, expand the data for all image and check if it is CMYK or RGB.
These are mostly questions that frequently have been asked by mac users about iWork's word processor Pages for MacOS X in Apple's support forums. Even though the blog's focus is Pages, many entries apply to Numbers and Keynote as well. To find an answer use the search field above.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Where is the future of Pages?
There was some consternation at Macworld in San Francisco January 2007, as Steve Jobs did not present any computer updates - no new Macbooks, no news about MacOS X and no new versions of iLife and iWork.
This clearly does not mean that Apple will stop producing computers and MacOS X. The new iPhone runs MacOS X after all, and Apple has a huge investment in computers and software.
It seems Steve simply thought this was not the place for that kind of announcements.
But regardless of that, it may be good to be skeptical about updates to iWork and Pages.
Apple is unlikely to ever position Pages as a business word processor. To fullfil the needs of all businesses is a daunting task, and even MS Word does not do everything on its own. Microsoft has been investing in Word for more than 20 years, and it still is not perfect.
The two main purposes of Pages are likely to be
1. to make sure there is a reasonably priced Apple branded word processor for people who want one.
2. to show off Apple's technology - like advanced typography, graphics and inclusion of media in text documents and so on.
Point 1 is solved. There is nothing more to be done there. Pages works - it creates documents and saves them. There are quirks in Pages. There are things that could be added to satisfy some users or markets, but for most users it does most of the things we want.
The application AppleWorks/ClarisWorks is arguably one of the greatest applications ever. When I started using it in the beginning of the nineties, I said to myself "it only needs so little extra development to be perfect". But Apple never added that extra development. They never added an efficient index to the database and they never made it as easy to enter dates in a spreadsheet, as it is in MS Excel. And they never added unicode support.
It looks easy to do it, but it would cost Apple a lot and it would not bring a lot of additional revenue. So they did not do it.
However, point 2 is only solved for MacOS X 10.4 - not for upcoming versions. It is likely that MacOS X 10.5 will include new graphical and typographical features, which Pages can use, if it is updated. For that reason, it is likely that there will be new versions of iWork.
But do not expect big expensive development dedicated to Pages. If it can be reused in other applications, the OS will get it. If not, it will probably not be implemented.
The text above was written before iWork '08 came out in August 2007. It is still largely valid.
This clearly does not mean that Apple will stop producing computers and MacOS X. The new iPhone runs MacOS X after all, and Apple has a huge investment in computers and software.
It seems Steve simply thought this was not the place for that kind of announcements.
But regardless of that, it may be good to be skeptical about updates to iWork and Pages.
Apple is unlikely to ever position Pages as a business word processor. To fullfil the needs of all businesses is a daunting task, and even MS Word does not do everything on its own. Microsoft has been investing in Word for more than 20 years, and it still is not perfect.
The two main purposes of Pages are likely to be
1. to make sure there is a reasonably priced Apple branded word processor for people who want one.
2. to show off Apple's technology - like advanced typography, graphics and inclusion of media in text documents and so on.
Point 1 is solved. There is nothing more to be done there. Pages works - it creates documents and saves them. There are quirks in Pages. There are things that could be added to satisfy some users or markets, but for most users it does most of the things we want.
The application AppleWorks/ClarisWorks is arguably one of the greatest applications ever. When I started using it in the beginning of the nineties, I said to myself "it only needs so little extra development to be perfect". But Apple never added that extra development. They never added an efficient index to the database and they never made it as easy to enter dates in a spreadsheet, as it is in MS Excel. And they never added unicode support.
It looks easy to do it, but it would cost Apple a lot and it would not bring a lot of additional revenue. So they did not do it.
However, point 2 is only solved for MacOS X 10.4 - not for upcoming versions. It is likely that MacOS X 10.5 will include new graphical and typographical features, which Pages can use, if it is updated. For that reason, it is likely that there will be new versions of iWork.
But do not expect big expensive development dedicated to Pages. If it can be reused in other applications, the OS will get it. If not, it will probably not be implemented.
The text above was written before iWork '08 came out in August 2007. It is still largely valid.
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