The Editable PDF Initiative
editablepdf.org
The Editable PDF Initiative
1–10 of 162 posts
Re: The Editable PDF Initiative
#2This is a mistake. The hard-to-edit, assembly-language-like nature of PDF is a feature, not a bug.
Re: The Editable PDF Initiative
#3I would prefer a “kill PDF” initiative :). PDF is a terrible format for almost all purposes it’s used for. It doesn’t adapt to screen sizes, is hard to parse and loses a ton of information from source documents. I don’t think we could have picked a much worse file format for widespread use.
Re: The Editable PDF Initiative
#4This is a mistake. The hard-to-edit, assembly-language-like nature of PDF is a feature, not a bug.
The FAQ addresses this objection: https://editablepdf.org/faq/
Re: The Editable PDF Initiative
#5I would prefer a “kill PDF” initiative :). PDF is a terrible format for almost all purposes it’s used for. It doesn’t adapt to screen sizes, is hard to parse and loses a ton of information from source documents. I don’t think we could have picked a much worse file format for widespread use.
What's a better format for displaying and printing documents consistently and with selectable text?
> It doesn’t adapt to screen sizes
That is a feature. I expect my PDFs to display with pixel-perfect consistency everywhere.
There are other formats that adapt to screen sizes. HTML is good for that, if we ignore how people break that with styling.
Re: The Editable PDF Initiative
#6I would prefer a “kill PDF” initiative :). PDF is a terrible format for almost all purposes it’s used for. It doesn’t adapt to screen sizes, is hard to parse and loses a ton of information from source documents. I don’t think we could have picked a much worse file format for widespread use.
Some documents aren't meant to adapt to screen sizes gracefully, particularly ones where layout and typesetting are important/mandated.
Re: The Editable PDF Initiative
#7I would prefer a “kill PDF” initiative :). PDF is a terrible format for almost all purposes it’s used for. It doesn’t adapt to screen sizes, is hard to parse and loses a ton of information from source documents. I don’t think we could have picked a much worse file format for widespread use.
Some documents aren't meant to adapt to screen sizes gracefully, particularly ones where layout and typesetting are important/mandated.
Yes, but an adaptive format could allow static layout, while a static format inherently can not allow an adaptive layout.
Re: The Editable PDF Initiative
#8I would prefer a “kill PDF” initiative :). PDF is a terrible format for almost all purposes it’s used for. It doesn’t adapt to screen sizes, is hard to parse and loses a ton of information from source documents. I don’t think we could have picked a much worse file format for widespread use.
What's a better format for displaying and printing documents consistently and with selectable text? > It doesn’t adapt to screen sizes That is a feature. I expect my PDFs to display with pixel-perfect consistency everywhere. There are other formats that adapt to screen sizes. HTML is good for that, if we ignore how people break that with styling.
I would argue that PDF is nightmarishly bad - truly one of the worst formats ever created on almost all fronts - but it's the best and most featured option for its use case. Depressingly, I find this is true about a lot of things. I don't know what the answer is.
Re: The Editable PDF Initiative
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some documents aren't meant to adapt to screen sizes gracefully, particularly ones where layout and typesetting are important/mandated.
Yes, but an adaptive format could allow static layout, while a static format inherently can not allow an adaptive layout.
And what is this adaptive format? Is it HTML? The FAQ addresses why this initiative is skeptical of using HTML:
> Why not use web standards, such as HTML/CSS?
> We do use the relevant parts of HTML and CSS, where appropriate. But web standards do not provide for specification of the layout of the document in a robust way, which is guaranteed not to reflow when opened on other systems. Furthermore, browser technologies are a moving target, with implementations changing very rapidly. Therefore, they do not provide a suitable basis for archival documents.
Re: The Editable PDF Initiative
#10I would prefer a “kill PDF” initiative :). PDF is a terrible format for almost all purposes it’s used for. It doesn’t adapt to screen sizes, is hard to parse and loses a ton of information from source documents. I don’t think we could have picked a much worse file format for widespread use.
Well, the idea behind PDF is good, just revamping the format will help a lot - remove the unnecessary features, ambiguities, remove old and legacy features, etc.