6 ms·

Everything on the Mac has Print to PDF natively and it’s so nice It’s one of the things I miss most when using an other OS.

tonyedgecombe 9y ago
Windows has that now.
- abritinthebay 9y ago
  Got to admit - not used Win10 much, is it’s PDF support good out of the box system wide now?
  - shitlord 9y ago
    Yeah, there's a printer called "Microsoft Print to PDF" now, which works in pretty much everything (even something as crappy as notepad).
    - isatty 9y ago
      Notepad is probably the only program that I wouldn't call crappy in windows. I think it follows the unix philosophy of doing only one thing and doing it right. I'm not a windows user but it's been useful.
      - icebraining 9y ago
        No, Notepad does one thing but it doesn't do it right. Can't open large files without locking up. Still saves UTF-8 files with a BOM. It can't deal with unix-style newlines.
chungy 9y ago
Linux has had that since around 2000.
- abritinthebay 9y ago
  It’s had the ability to but even in recent Ubuntu versions you have to install a pdf printer. The level of integration is not even close to the same & it’s disingenuous to pretend it is currently, let alone from 2000.
  - asdfgadsfgasfdg 9y ago
    Weird every Ubuntu install I've ever seen had a "Print to file" option in the print dialogue - which just worked.
    - Freak_NL 9y ago
      Indeed. I can't remember installing a PDF-printer any time the past decade. It's just been there.
      - icebraining 9y ago
        This SE answer from six years ago corroborates that: https://askubuntu.com/questions/81817/how-to-install-a-pdf-printer https://askubuntu.com/questions/81817/how-to-install-a-pdf-p... Although, they say it doesn't show up in every application.
        abritinthebay 9y ago
        Indeed - it does not. I’m looking at it right now not doing so. So, as I said, not the same level of integration.
        icebraining 9y ago
        Yeah, apparently it requires the application to use GTK and its printing dialog: https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/GtkPrintUnixDialog.html https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/GtkPrintUnixDialog.h...
rcarmo 9y ago
Not just print, but also the ability to natively _manipulate_ PDF, because the Mac still has the display Postscript stack from the NeXT era and PDF essentially an envelope for it. It's underused these days, but still available to apps, and they can interchange data in that format. Linux support for PDF isn't anywhere near as integrated.
- duskwuff 9y ago
  > the Mac still has the display Postscript stack from the NeXT era and PDF essentially an envelope for it. This is a common misconception. Display PostScript was never present in any released version of macOS. It was replaced by the Quartz renderer, which is rather different. Quartz can display and output to PDFs, but it does not use PDF as an internal format.

tonyedgecombe 9y ago

Windows has that now.

abritinthebay 9y ago
Got to admit - not used Win10 much, is it’s PDF support good out of the box system wide now?
- shitlord 9y ago
  Yeah, there's a printer called "Microsoft Print to PDF" now, which works in pretty much everything (even something as crappy as notepad).
  - isatty 9y ago
    Notepad is probably the only program that I wouldn't call crappy in windows. I think it follows the unix philosophy of doing only one thing and doing it right. I'm not a windows user but it's been useful.
    - icebraining 9y ago
      No, Notepad does one thing but it doesn't do it right. Can't open large files without locking up. Still saves UTF-8 files with a BOM. It can't deal with unix-style newlines.

chungy 9y ago

Linux has had that since around 2000.

abritinthebay 9y ago
It’s had the ability to but even in recent Ubuntu versions you have to install a pdf printer. The level of integration is not even close to the same & it’s disingenuous to pretend it is currently, let alone from 2000.
- asdfgadsfgasfdg 9y ago
  Weird every Ubuntu install I've ever seen had a "Print to file" option in the print dialogue - which just worked.
  - Freak_NL 9y ago
    Indeed. I can't remember installing a PDF-printer any time the past decade. It's just been there.
    - icebraining 9y ago
      This SE answer from six years ago corroborates that: https://askubuntu.com/questions/81817/how-to-install-a-pdf-printer https://askubuntu.com/questions/81817/how-to-install-a-pdf-p... Although, they say it doesn't show up in every application.
      - abritinthebay 9y ago
        Indeed - it does not. I’m looking at it right now not doing so. So, as I said, not the same level of integration.
        icebraining 9y ago
        Yeah, apparently it requires the application to use GTK and its printing dialog: https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/GtkPrintUnixDialog.html https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/GtkPrintUnixDialog.h...

rcarmo 9y ago

Not just print, but also the ability to natively _manipulate_ PDF, because the Mac still has the display Postscript stack from the NeXT era and PDF essentially an envelope for it. It's underused these days, but still available to apps, and they can interchange data in that format. Linux support for PDF isn't anywhere near as integrated.

duskwuff 9y ago
> the Mac still has the display Postscript stack from the NeXT era and PDF essentially an envelope for it. This is a common misconception. Display PostScript was never present in any released version of macOS. It was replaced by the Quartz renderer, which is rather different. Quartz can display and output to PDFs, but it does not use PDF as an internal format.