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At 8:36 AM -0500 6/26/03, David Lewis wrote:
I would restate this question to say, Is there any way to only serve up a portion of a PDF file at a time to a remote client reader? If the user goes to page 10 of a document, then serve that page for instance.
In theory, that's what "linearization" (aka Fast Web View) is supposed to provide when used in conjunction with a modern web server and a properly configured web browser.
Unfortunately, not all software that performs linearization of PDF's does it correctly, not all web servers are 100% compliant with the "byte-serving" spec, and not everyone's browser and/or Acrobat is setup to "do the right thing".
As defined PDF is a random access format and therefore the entire PDF file needs to be present before viewing any of it.
Actually, the random access nature isn't what requires that (anymore), but it's the fact that in a normal PDF, the cross reference table is at the end, and not the beginning. That's the big thing that linearization brings - Xref at the beginning so that it can be easily read.
Also, with HTTP/1.1 there is this concept of "byte-serving" whereby a client can request a range of bytes from the server (instead of all bytes, the default). This is how the PDF plugin can read selective parts of the PDF.
It would be nice to be able to send just the portions of a document that the viewer is currently viewing.
Yes it would - and again, in some cases, that works.
Even down to the zoom level, low res images for a zoomed out view and higher res images as the user tries to zoom in.
for that type of document, you might be better "served" by using a dynamic server-based solution possibly even doing PDF->SVG conversion on the fly.
This would reduce network traffic
Only for users who were NOT going to read the entire document - otherwise it actually BLOATS network traffic due to the MANY more "command packets" that would be sent.
Leonard -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leonard Rosenthol <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Chief Technical Officer <http://www.pdfsages.com> PDF Sages, Inc. 215-629-3700 (voice) 215-629-0789 (fax)
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