Does Anyone Else Hate PDFs As Much As I Do?
- Thread starter AdHustler
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it sucks when pdf freeze my Firefox, however aside from that it is really great file type.
Is there any other file type that is so universal and quite "feature rich"? I guess no. So why hate it?
Is there any other file type that is so universal and quite "feature rich"? I guess no. So why hate it?
When I'm on my lappy, PDFs really screw me over. The browser hangs and me being on my 1x CDMA connection have to wait for ages till the PDF is downloaded before I can start working again. I would shoot the person who came up with the idea of making PDF if I knew him (and if I had a gun).
HarveyJ
He is - THE CACTUS!
Where the hell are you downloading it from that you have to complete offers for it?
Go to TuCows or CNET like everyone else does when they need a quick fix.
iPaper anyone?
i know pdf has established itself as the way to share documents online without losing formatting...but it does have issues. online applications are the new trend, and things that run in the browser without having to install plugins or software are soon going to be the norm (ie. google docs). which is why ipaper has the potential to do to pdf what firefox did to internet explorer. not to mention efficiency
i know pdf has established itself as the way to share documents online without losing formatting...but it does have issues. online applications are the new trend, and things that run in the browser without having to install plugins or software are soon going to be the norm (ie. google docs). which is why ipaper has the potential to do to pdf what firefox did to internet explorer. not to mention efficiency
HarveyJ
He is - THE CACTUS!
Except that PDFs aren't just a universal text format.
Admittedly, anything a PDF can do can be done in XHTML, although at a somewhat more system resource intensive level...
However, I have serious doubts about iPaper being able to do the other things that PDF was originally designed, and later adapted, for.
Security features are pretty solid in PDF formats if you know how to use them properly.
You can make self-destroying files if you know how to use Acrobat. You can lock down printing access to certain computers, etc etc.
The claims of security that iPaper espouses for being a widget don't gel with me. I've heard people say the same thing about Flash, but low and behold, any little flash game or animation I like, I have. How? I looked for the source file in the page code... Not hard to do. And websites are inherently less secure from interception than a physical format or terminal computer.
Not to mention PDF supports vector images and 3D objects, which is something very few multi-media document formats do support. I can't see anything in the iPaper documentation about that, and the FAQ is pretty extensive.
Unfortunately, PDF gets used and abused by people that just want to make shitty eBooks, because it IS a universal format (They should have stuck with LIT, dammit!), but it's got a lot of features that a LOT of people are simply unaware of.
Admittedly, anything a PDF can do can be done in XHTML, although at a somewhat more system resource intensive level...
However, I have serious doubts about iPaper being able to do the other things that PDF was originally designed, and later adapted, for.
Security features are pretty solid in PDF formats if you know how to use them properly.
You can make self-destroying files if you know how to use Acrobat. You can lock down printing access to certain computers, etc etc.
The claims of security that iPaper espouses for being a widget don't gel with me. I've heard people say the same thing about Flash, but low and behold, any little flash game or animation I like, I have. How? I looked for the source file in the page code... Not hard to do. And websites are inherently less secure from interception than a physical format or terminal computer.
Not to mention PDF supports vector images and 3D objects, which is something very few multi-media document formats do support. I can't see anything in the iPaper documentation about that, and the FAQ is pretty extensive.
Unfortunately, PDF gets used and abused by people that just want to make shitty eBooks, because it IS a universal format (They should have stuck with LIT, dammit!), but it's got a lot of features that a LOT of people are simply unaware of.
iPaper does what it's supposed to do and it's only going to get better, whereas pdf is a bloated and inefficient method of displaying documents. The reason people are unaware of the pdf features that you mentioned is because a majority of people don't need and don't care about them (actually, iPaper is flash based, meaning it can probably do those things better). If you believe it is those minor differences that make one product successful over another, you need to brush up on your basic business principles. iPaper was designed for the internet from the ground up...pdf was only adapted for it.
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