Goodbye interactive PDF... Hello Folio !
Last week, Adobe announced that the Folio format will be freely licensed to anyone who wants to dig into it. Sounds great ! But what will be the exact implication of this ? Can more developers tap into the Folio format with plugins for InDesign or completely new applications ? Will other providers be able to host and serve Folio’s ? Will viewing Folio’s become less of an expensive and exotic experiment on desktops and in browsers ? Personally, I think this probably explains why they didn't move much further anymore with new Folio features in InDesign, or that "social" experiment to access a folio/article through the web. They initiated and nurtured the format, experimented with it, and now expect and allow others to jump on the bandwagon. In the meantime Adobe can focus and expand their efforts and services on the analysis and marketing level (all that green stuff). Others voice the less optimistic opinion that the Folio and DPS in general did not leverage enough attraction and results, and by opening it up, Adobe hopes it will survive. After all, the PDF also became a free license and open standard after its haydays on desktops (while mobile was dawning). With HTML5 soaring and blazing at full throttle, any other proprietary or open technique will be lagging behind in both features and numbers. Adobe afficianados might claim that graphically and visually, Adobe PostScript and PDF are superior to anything else out there, touting refined and sophisticated technologies like typography, transparancy, color fidelity, etc. But newer generations of designers don't care about that, at least not for the majority of their purposes. As long as it looks great on a screen, reads nicely, prints adequately, and is not too difficult to produce, they'll have a go at it. From that viewpoint, HTML5 (with HTML, CSS3 and JavaScript) serves them more than enough. It's a bit like the beginning of the DTP era, when designers who demanded Berthold typesetting, pristine lithography, and hand-crafted layout, were passed by and felt ignored by youngsters having a ball with PageMaker, FreeHand, ColorStudio. Is it again time to change gears, drop PostScript and PDF output, forget the attempt that Folio made, and go for GIMP, DaFont, and open-source tools ? It's almost the final week of the year, the Holidays are coming, time for some reflection. Will 2014 bring a Do-It-Yourself Adobe Folio server, or are we going over the (Adobe) Edge, without looking back at how and to what our beloved print tools eventually evolve to ?