Tags: Adobe, Microsoft

Microsoft has a challenger for Adobe PDF in Metro

Microsoft just cannot live without entering each and every field. No matter they end up delivering a sub-standard product. The latest target by the world’s biggest software company is the document format PDF (portable document format) and PostScript. Both the technologies are products of rivals Adobe who just recently acquired another major tech giant Macromedia. Microsoft’s planned offering Metro is in direct rivalry to Adobe offerings.

It is expected to come with the upcoming Operating System from Microsoft codenamed Longhorn. And it was unveiled during Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates‘ keynote at the start of the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference on Monday. It is based on the open standard XML and would come royalty free as apposed to PDF format. Users would be able to open it in any application, which supports it in the future.

They gave the viewing public a demonstration where they opened a document in the Metro standard and printed it from the Internet Explorer. Microsoft also said that Printers and printer drivers could include support for Metro and deliver better and faster printing results than with today’s printing technology. They used a Metro enabled Xerox Corp. printer to print a sample slide.

Critics are quite certain that this technology can really take on Adobe’s technology but also claimed that Adobe just might have something special to offer which might take the focus back to their standards.