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I just can open this djvu file with a viewer and display foreground, done. I can focus on reading it, which is the whole point of me accessing this file. I don'
by mnl 8y ago
I just can open this djvu file with a viewer and display foreground, done. I can focus on reading it, which is the whole point of me accessing this file. I don't have to process a bloated PDF version with any other tools you just don't even know, me neither.
Exactly, in this planet we still can read, for instance, books printed by Gutenberg, yet try to convert some Word files rotting in a low-density macintosh floppy from 25 years ago. Paper beats everything else because it's a passive medium that lasts centuries and comes with all the hardware you need. A computer file needs a whole ecosystem and being copied around often.
Will we even use files in 2068? I don't know. Maybe in 2047 PDFs will be out of mainstream support because 99% of customers will be using the next better format or workflow.
- CamperBob2 8y agoExactly, in this planet we still can read, for instance, books printed by Gutenberg, yet try to convert some Word files rotting in a low-density macintosh floppy from 25 years ago. Meanwhile, a .PDF from the same era would still be perfectly readable. There's a lesson there.
- mnl 8y agoThere was no way no create a pdf file with a Mac back in 1993. It didn't take off until Acrobat 3 a few years later, and then you couldn't make decent pdfs unless you bought Acrobat 4 and use Distiller. You'd typically share your doc (or whatever) files, and if you wanted portability you'd use PostScript. Which still is a better format if you have to make changes at the very last stage before printing. Ordinary users just couldn't make pdfs without paying for additional publishing software until some ten years ago. The lesson is that some formats become de facto standards, then people forget how that happened (and that it could happen again), and ignore better technical solutions for specific jobs.