Acrobat PDF Bible

The Acrobat PDF Bible preaches the gospel of the Portable Document Format (PDF) with religious thoroughness. Written by Ted Padova, a knowledgeable lecturer, businessman, and PDF zealot, it covers the fundamentals of Adobe Acrobat; the process of creating and enhancing documents with links, movies, and sounds; and the benefits of PDF on the Web, on CD-ROM, and in the world of digital prepress.

At over 700 pages, it's an impressive doorstop of a book. The writing style is clear if somewhat perfunctory. Screen shots are never merely decorative but rather are carefully chosen to enhance the reader's understanding, while the accompanying CD-ROM contains the stock selection of examples from the book, plus third-party shareware. The book particularly emphasizes third-party plug-ins--something you won't find in the "official" guide.

To be frank, this title probably contains more than most people want to know about a technology that has never become quite as widespread as many people believe it should be. The voluminous Acrobat PDF Bible is a book for those who really want an in-depth, cross-application, comprehensive treatment of PDF. --Josh Smith, amazon.co.uk