>On Mon, 17 Jun 2002, Ben Reser wrote: >> On Tue, Jun 18, 2002 at 07:55:42AM +0200, Tibor Pittich wrote: >> > this is BULLSHIT! pdf is binary format at all. there doesn't matter >> > that >> > containing graphics or only text. this is thing, that i testing about >> > 2 weeks and i have big problem with sending correct pdf document >> > (without graphics, only text!) to my business partner. at first, i >> > think >[snip] >> Try opening a text only pdf file with a text editor. It's text. If you >> see binary it's not a text only pdf file. Even still as long as all the >*EERRRRRR* wrong answer! It's not because you can read a large part of a >file that it is text/plain (i.e. pure ASCII TXT). PDF files can contain >binary objects and streams. Even text-only files can contain binary bitmap >font info, digital signatures, DRM info, logos (more often than not in >business documents), print info, ... > In fact, unlike embedded objects in PS, the binary data is in raw >format, not MIME encoded (binhex'ed, base64'd, ...) like in an email. The >text you see when reading a PDF is the PostScript framework on which a PDF >is based. While you might have a text-only PDF, this is hardly the >general case and since it is NOT pure ASCII, you need a correct MIME type >in order to guarantee its integrity (especially on non-ASCII foreign systems). > So Ben, either you didn't look deep enough in your example files or your >files are the exception, rather than Tibor's. (See attachment, look for >"stream" and what follows. Also check it with a hex-editor and you will >see that it even contains NULL characters for example. Yes, at the end it >contains a simple line drawing. I don't think all the binary is related to that, in fact, it can be easily handled by EPS.)
>However, I could be completely wrong. Anyway, I thought this list was to >report problems. Let Mandrake decide what goes in the distribution >and don't shoot the messengers (even when they sound ignorant to >you) because you think they are stupid (an impression (not by me) obviously >based on bad English language skills). The distribution is targeted at the desktop (i.e. client (f.i. mutt) fine tuning and easy, complete configuration), isn't it? This is not clear to me anymore, lately... (notice *tongue in cheek* for the humor-impaired) >Greets, >Guy Bormann PS: Sympa didn't like the message :-) Everybody interested can request a copy or download it from http://xtl.sourceforge.net/ under the header "Documentation". I also have a scientific report written using Lyx, converted to PDF. It is absolutely text-only and still contains stream objects (I suspect they are actually bytecode snippets used for rendering or filtering or such... To be really sure one has to check the source for xpdf or gv.) Alas, it has interesting unpublished results so I can't distribute it freely. However, if you really don't trust me I can produce another document. Note that it contains formula`s. Some consider this not text and think it uses bitmaps but LaTeX renders them using fonts (potentially bitmaps too, but irrelevant now) which looks like text to me.
