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Re: [LUG] yet another reason to avoid pointless pdfs

 

> The only major difference with formats I see, are things like HTML,
> which are written open, have a lot of readers available, and are
> designed to degrade nicely if your viewer doesn't support a feature.

Seen IE recently ? It generally does not look nice if you use 
"unsupported code" it will seemingly splatter images allover your 
carefully worded article

> As such I would tend to use HTML first if I needed to convey something
> that plain text doesn't convey. Although to be honest, plain text has a
> lot going for it.
 >
> I'd concede PDF has advantages over HTML itself (although I'm not sure
> about other things like ODF) when it comes to content intended to be
> printed. Adobe have done a lot of nice things with fonts, layouts and
> such like, but I'd still prefer to keep content in formats that are
> easier to manipulate and machine if possible.

It depends on what you're trying to put across to the other party.

We use PDF formats a lot where i work, they allow us to send CAD files 
to people, and we know that what we see is what they see.. yeah they 
need a viewer, but Acrobat Reader (and others) are available for free 
download.. if needed we can even supply a copy of the file on CD or 
whatver for the person..

> Note with GNUPG, you can make a plain text file (or any other file,
> including Word documents) non-modifiable (or at least show unauthorised
> modifications have been made), whilst still allowing the normal search,
> cut and paste, and other features of that format, which so many PDF
> viewer mess up with. Indeed this approach is better than the PDF one, as
> it proves authorship, one non-modifiable PDF is very like another.

PDF supports digital signing... searching, indexing, file protection 
(read, write, print, copy etc) can all be implemented..

Now tell me.. can GNUPG support a multi layered image ?

In fact, do we know of anything free that will support the creation and 
modification of this, be user friendly and "just work" ??

didn't think so..

Sorry, this time I am on the side of the non-free world.. (not often you 
will hear me say that)

Also, AFAIK the scripting problems do not excist in Acrobat 8...

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