On Dec 31, 2006, at 5:12 PM, robert engels wrote:
> PDF was designed as print/prepress layout format.
PDF was designed as a static representation of printed material for
reliable on screen viewing.
> Over the years they
> have continually added more and interactive and multimedia features,
>
True.
> but it still is not a very good document format,
What is missing from PDF that you think is required for a static/
fixed document format?
> and the additional
> added complexities have made it essentially a proprietary format
If the ENTIRE PDF specification is public AND there are over 7
different International Standards Organization (ISO)-approved OPEN
PDF standards....How can you say that?
> (since the amount of effort required to fully implement the spec is
> enormous. It is easier to write software to create PDFs (like iText)
> than it is to write software to view them (Adobe Reader and then a
> bunch of other viewers that don't implement anywhere near the full
> spec).
>
That's true - but that's true of any complex program in today's
software world.
> Also many of the 'plugins' require M$ Windows, limiting with "open"
> nature.
>
Such as? Name me one plugin from Adobe Systems for Acrobat that is
Windows-only?
> Adobe Reader has become a pig, because the spec has become a pig.
>
I think your choice of adjectives is unfair, but yes, Reader is
large because it must do a lot...
> Things like open-doc are superior formats for actually working with
> data.
>
What sort of data?!?!?
> I think there are far superior open-source GIS solutions.
Perhaps for processing, but not as a file format for visual
representation of GIS data that can be viewed by ANYONE.
However, PDF today doesn't provide for containing rich GIS
information that can be retrieved/viewed as part of the viewing
process. It's certainly something we are looking at in the future
for PDF - but then PDF will simply become a LARGER specification ;).
> PDF may
> make working with trivial maps easier but even so, but a simple SVG
> would probably work even better.
SVG is an excellent tool, but it's viewability is limited :(.
Leonard
Adobe Systems
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