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HTML as an Accessible Format for Papers (2023)

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Re: HTML as an Accessible Format for Papers (2023)

#51

Post by ekjhgkejhgk »

teddy-smith wrote: post #32

It's extremely easy to convert HTML/CSS to a PDF with the print to PDF feature of the browser. All papers should be in HTML/CSS or Tex then just simply converted to PDF. Why are we even talking about this?

LOL what. You're either trolling, or you've never written a paper in your life.

Re: HTML as an Accessible Format for Papers (2023)

#52

Post by leobg »

It must have been around 1998. I was editor of our school’s newspaper. We were using Corel Draw. At some point, I proposed that we start using HTML instead. In the end, we decided against it, and the reasons were the same that you can read here in the comments now.

Re: HTML as an Accessible Format for Papers (2023)

#53

Post by qart »

nateroling wrote: post #11

Seeing the Gemini 3 capabilities, I can imagine a near future where file formats are effectively irrelevant.

I have family members with health conditions that require periodic monitoring. For some tests, a phlebotomist comes home. For some tests, we go to a hospital. For some other tests, we go to a specialized testing center. They all give us PDFs in their own formats. I manually enter the data to my spreadsheet, for easy tracking. I use LLMs for some extraction, but they still miss a lot. At least for the foreseeable future, no LLM will ever guarantee that all the data has been extracted correctly. By "guarantee", I mean someone's life may depend on it. For now, doctors take up the responsibility of ensuring the data is correct and complete. But not having to deal with PDFs would make at least a part of their job (and our shared responsibilities) easier.

Re: HTML as an Accessible Format for Papers (2023)

#54

Post by JadeNB »

sansseriff wrote: post #41
nateroling wrote: post #11

Seeing the Gemini 3 capabilities, I can imagine a near future where file formats are effectively irrelevant.

Seriously. More people need to wake up to this. Older generations can keep arguing over display formats if they want. Meanwhile younger undergrad and grad students are getting more and more accustomed to LLMs forming the front end for any knowledge they consume. Why would research papers be any different.

> Meanwhile younger undergrad and grad students are getting more and more accustomed to LLMs forming the front end for any knowledge they consume.

Well, that's terrifying. I mean, I knew it about undergrads, but I sure hoped people going into grad school would be aware of the dangers of making your main contact with research, where subtle details are important, through a known-distorting filter.

(I mean, I'd still be kinda terrified if you said that grad students first encounter papers through LLMs. But if it is the front end for all knowledge they consume? Absolutely dystopian.)

Re: HTML as an Accessible Format for Papers (2023)

#55

Post by nateroling »

s0rce wrote: post #43
nateroling wrote: post #11

Seeing the Gemini 3 capabilities, I can imagine a near future where file formats are effectively irrelevant.

Can you elaborate? Are you never reading papers directly but only using Gemini to reformat or combine/summarize?

I mean that when a computer can visually understand a document and reformat and reinterpret it in any imaginable way, who cares how it’s stored? When a png or a pdf or a markdown doc can all be be read and reinterpreted into an infographic or a database or an audiobook or an interactive infographic the original format won’t matter.

Re: HTML as an Accessible Format for Papers (2023)

#57

Post by mmooss »

ekjhgkejhgk wrote: post #50

I wish epub was more common for papers. I have no idea if there's any real difficulties with that, or just not enough demand.

epub is html, under the hood

Is there an epub reader that can format text approximately as usably and beautifully as pdf? What I've seen makes it noticeably harder to read longer texts, though I haven't looked around much.

epub also lacks annotation, or at least annotation that will be readable across platforms and time.

Re: HTML as an Accessible Format for Papers (2023)

#58

Post by inglor »

ForceBru wrote: post #5

Is this new or somehow updated? HTML versions of papers have been available for several years now. EDIT: indeed, it was introduced in 2023: https://blog.arxiv.org/2023/12/21/accessibility-update-arxiv...

You're right https://github.com/arXiv/arxiv-docs/blob/develop/source/abou... this needs a 2023 tag @dang

Re: HTML as an Accessible Format for Papers (2023)

#59

Post by mmooss »

vatsachak wrote: post #29

Why do we like HTML more than pdfs? HTML rendering requires you to be connected to the internet, or setting up the images and mathJax locally. A PDF just works. HTML obviously supports dynamic embedding, such as programs, much better but people just usually post a github.io page with the paper.

epub 'just works' locally, and it's html under the hood.

Re: HTML as an Accessible Format for Papers (2023)

#60

Post by vatsachak »

nine_k wrote: post #44
vatsachak wrote: post #29

Why do we like HTML more than pdfs? HTML rendering requires you to be connected to the internet, or setting up the images and mathJax locally. A PDF just works. HTML obviously supports dynamic embedding, such as programs, much better but people just usually post a github.io page with the paper.

Try opening a PDF on a phone screen.

I do it all the time to read papers. It's easy
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