Not to make this a PDF bashing thread... but,
PDF was designed as a static representation of printed material for
reliable on screen viewing.
Your are correct, but I think this is splitting hairs over what I
said. Printed material is static, and was attempting to focus on the
fact that PDF has its history in static content.
What is missing from PDF that you think is required for a static/
fixed document format?
You missed the point my original statement. It is a great layout/
static format.
It is a poor interactive dynamic format, and all of the dynamic/
interaction capabilities that have been added make it an extremely
complex specification, which also hampers the ability to create
alternative PDF readers.
I challenge you to create a simple document that lays out differently
based on the client viewers screen resolution, size, or accessibility
needs. It can be done, but it certainly is not easy.
Such as? Name me one plugin from Adobe Systems for Acrobat that
is Windows-only?
By even allowing the user to add arbitrary third-party content that
is not controlled by the specification itself opens the door that
certain documents will only be viewable on certain systems. This make
it a poor interchange format. Also, that a document might require a
plugin that is tied to the Reader API limits the usefulness as an
interchange format (since any competing viewer probably will not have
the Reader API - but might support the JavaScript and DOM).
Just because Abode doesn't ship an 'Windows' only plugins does not
make any difference. I am sure many of the plugins they do ship won't
work with their Palm OS reader.
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?
The PDF specification is not an open standard. It is a proprietary
one that is governed by Adobe. It is free to make implementations of
the standard, but Adobe is also free to change it as they wish.
The ISO standardized version PDF/Archive is a subset of PDF designed
for the print industry - WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I SAID PDF SHOULD BE.
The ISO standard version specifically prohibits:
* Audio and video content are forbidden.
* Javascript and executable file launches are prohibited.
* All fonts must be embedded and also must be legally embeddable
for unlimited, universal rendering.
* Colorspaces specified in a device-independent manner.
* Encryption is disallowed.
* Use of standards-based metadata is mandated.
See
http://www.pdfa.org/lib/exe/fetch.php?id=start%
3Aen&cache=cache&media=cc:whitepaper-pdfa.pdf
for a free overview (rather than paying $150 for the ISP spec).
Also, PDF/A is based on PDF 1.4.
All of this points to exactly what I said. PDF and what it has become
is a VEY POOR standard. The PDF/A is much better.
What sort of data?!?!?
PDF does not contain any information of the logical structure of the
document, which make relayout or other interaction features very
difficult.
There are many PDFs in existence (not normally recent ones) that you
cannot do any full-text search on, because of the proprietary font
encodings and lack of unicode mappings.
SVG is an excellent tool, but it's viewability is limited :(.
There are MANY SVG viewers, including direct support in many
browsers. I think it is far easier to find a "open" SVG plugin to
view maps for a browser (or even for Reader), than to develop a
proprietary plugin for Adobe Reader to view maps in a proprietary
format.
Happy New Year to all.
On Dec 31, 2006, at 5:59 PM, Leonard Rosenthol wrote:
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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