[Formerly DoomBuilder] Now, PDFs... Good or Evil?

[Risen]

I feel compelled to right the misconceptions, even if it is terribly off-topic...

PDFs are an excellent format. However, they are often pushed to do much more than the original intent, and therein lies the problem.

Consider:
- PDFs are an excellent cross-platform transportation method for printed documents. Build a PDF and bring it to a commercial printer and you will not need to worry about externally linked images, color profiles, and the biggest demon of all, fonts.
- PDFs are not meant to be modified. The original document should be modified and re-exported to PDF.
- The compression algorithms are optimized for the type of data used in print production.
- Compression is greatly used to generate files of small sizes. This contributes heavily to the inability to modify them. This is also intended behavior.
- A PDF will be bigger than a text file, however it will certainly not be larger than a lossless postscript file that contains all the information to print the page exactly as it appears. PDF compression is actually quite incredible. A text file contain absolutely no information on how it should be printed. This, not being the intent of PDF, should not be expected to be a reasonable comparison.
- Many applications which are optimized for print production (like the Adobe Creative Suite) can write PDF files without Acrobat.
- Only those who do print production ever really have a need to create PDFs in the first place. Others who do not require the graphic presentation nature of a document should use other more suitable formats.
- Acrobat reader was not the intended output destination for a PDF. The intended destination is a printed page. Acrobat reader does not even do a good job antialiasing graphic elements in a PDF for screen view.

The format itself is not the problem, it's how people are (ab)using it.

[Enjay]

Well, that all makes sense and pretty much covers all the cons identified by Mr Tee. Especially this bit...

The format itself is not the problem, it's how people are (ab)using it.

I guess at the root of that problem is the fact that so many people have a misconception of what the format is about. Therefor they (mis)use it thinking they are doing the right thing. Which is why the education authorities distributed course work intended to be modified by individual teachers in PDF format, then later realised their error and provided the same documents in a more suitable format (Word documents).

Of course, it still can be a very useful format for making documents available at a reasonable size and providing a limited level of security for the author too. eg, my rules system. I needed to place it on the internet. There was no way I could upload 100MB nor expect people to download it. 1MB was perfectly acceptable though and gave me a little piece of mind that someone wasn't easily going to unpick my work and pass it off as their own either. I didn't need anyone to print it, but I did need the information out there in a usable format. PDF was perfect.

I guess, if the format is being used so widely for purposes other than providing a good source document for printing, then perhaps criticism should be aimed at the Acrobat Reader instead. Let's face it, Acrobat Reader is what most people will use to look at docs distributed as PDFs (and Adobe must know this) so perhaps a better looking, more user-friendly version is overdue? Even if using Acrobat reader as the primary tool for working with and reading PDF documents with is actually abusing the format.

[MasterOFDeath]

I have had issues with PDF files that were just 3 pages of text! No pictures or anything.

[Risen]

I guess, if the format is being used so widely for purposes other than providing a good source document for printing, then perhaps criticism should be aimed at the Acrobat Reader instead. Let's face it, Acrobat Reader is what most people will use to look at docs distributed as PDFs (and Adobe must know this) so perhaps a better looking, more user-friendly version is overdue? Even if using Acrobat reader as the primary tool for working with and reading PDF documents with is actually abusing the format.

I agree. If PDFs are meant to become a transport method for anything other than material ready and intended for print, then the reader needs to improve in speed and content navigation.

[Mr. Tee]

So, contrary to popular belief, it isn't compressed at all, but actually bigger!

Well, I guess it depends on what you are compressing. I have used PDF and got considerably smaller files as a result.

eg a Word Document and an Adobe Page Maker document of a role playing rules system I wrote - slighty over 100MB each. The PDF version, just under 1 MB...

Really? That's pretty cool! I haven't seen anything like this yet but I'll take your word for it.

As for what Risen wrote, he does make a lot of sense, but it still doesn't make me like PDFs more... (I generally stay away from Evil things... Dracula... Zombies... Black Licorice... PDFs... )

[GeeDougg]

LOL! That last part reallt makes sense! I hate black licorice too! Pure effing evil!

[TheDarkArchon]

Don't forget Marmite.

[GeeDougg]

Heh well I can't say the same thing for marmite since I've never tried it bt by the sound of it it's pretty gross seeing as to how everyone from the UK is so harsh anti-marmite.