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More generally, PDF is a vector graphic format, not a text format. A bunch of things we absolutely take for granted, like selection and copying, simply don't wo
by mrec 10y ago
More generally, PDF is a vector graphic format, not a text format. A bunch of things we absolutely take for granted, like selection and copying, simply don't work reliably. (I've hit a number of glitches with the JS-implemented PDF readers that make me pretty sure they're just OCRing the rendered page, which is a ridiculous state of affairs.)
- taejo 10y ago> they're just OCRing the rendered page Not quite. Usually the PDF specifies each character (although the reader still has to do a slightly wacky conversion from glyph name to unicode character) but the position is specified as an (x,y) position, so the reader has to reconstruct the order that they come in, add spaces and newlines, etc.