About time. Biorxiv and medrxiv have been doing this for probably half a decade at this point?
ArXiv now offers papers in HTML format
31–40 of 325 posts
Re: ArXiv now offers papers in HTML format
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
And here's the PDF of the same paper for comparison: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2312.12451.pdf
The contrast is massive. I'm much more likely to read the html version; that PDF is deeply off-putting in some hard to define way. Maybe it's the two columns, or the font, or the fact that the format doesn't adjust to fit different screen sizes.
Definitely the two columns for me. It's super annoying skimming a paper and having to scroll down and back up again in a zig-zag pattern.
Re: ArXiv now offers papers in HTML format
#33It would be neat if they offered submitters the chance to upload their own HTML version alongside the PDF version, instead of always relying on an automatic conversion process.
- I can imagine authors feeling frustrated if someone reaches out about a problem in the HTML version of their paper, but they have no way to correct it except by hoping that a change to the PDF fixes a change to the generated HTML. Easier to just fix the formatting problem in the PDF outright.
- It would be neat to allow people to experiment with alternative formatting for their papers. For example, imagine a paper about a programming language that embeds a sandbox you can use to play around with the language under discussion. Or a paper about multivariable calculus and you can interact with a three dimensional plot of some function.
Re: ArXiv now offers papers in HTML format
#34I was hoping this meant that html native submissions would be possible, so that people made interactive explanations.
Re: ArXiv now offers papers in HTML format
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
And here's the PDF of the same paper for comparison: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2312.12451.pdf
The contrast is massive. I'm much more likely to read the html version; that PDF is deeply off-putting in some hard to define way. Maybe it's the two columns, or the font, or the fact that the format doesn't adjust to fit different screen sizes.
This is very interesting, because for me it's just the opposite. In particular the two column layout is just more readable and approachable for me. The PDF version also allows for a presentation just as the authors intended.
I guess it's good that they offer both now.
Re: ArXiv now offers papers in HTML format
#36It would be neat if they offered submitters the chance to upload their own HTML version alongside the PDF version, instead of always relying on an automatic conversion process. - I can imagine authors feeling frustrated if someone reaches out about a problem in the HTML version of their paper, but they have no way to correct it except by hoping that a change to the PDF fixes a change to the generated HTML. Easier to…
They’d have to define and document a “safe” subset of HTML, and implement a filter/checker for it. Otherwise we’d end up with papers containing ads and tracking and XSS vulnerabilities and whatnot.
Re: ArXiv now offers papers in HTML format
#37It would be neat if they offered submitters the chance to upload their own HTML version alongside the PDF version, instead of always relying on an automatic conversion process. - I can imagine authors feeling frustrated if someone reaches out about a problem in the HTML version of their paper, but they have no way to correct it except by hoping that a change to the PDF fixes a change to the generated HTML. Easier to…
> It would be neat if they offered submitters the chance to upload their own HTML version alongside the PDF version, instead of always relying on an automatic conversion process.
Please don't. Then you will have a mismatch between the source and the "own html" which ruins the point of uploading the source.
Re: ArXiv now offers papers in HTML format
#38nice! will make reading papers on the phone so much more pleasant!
Re: ArXiv now offers papers in HTML format
#39One of the reasons is to make the papers more accessible to people with disabilities, especially the blind. I participated in a conference they hosted on this a few months ago, I recommend taking a look at the recordings if you're interested in thinking on this.
Re: ArXiv now offers papers in HTML format
#40 article {
text-justify: Knuth-Plass;
}