5 ms·

OR I can just read and edit PDFs in the peak-optimized, ahead-of-time-compiled native PDF reader that comes on my computer.

steipete 8y ago
Ha! Not sure if you've seen it, but we offer native SDKs for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux. Our Web SDK also has a version that uses PSPDFKit Server via a Docker container to get faster performance. The performance difference to native is smaller than you might think though - see our post from a few months back: https://pspdfkit.com/blog/2017/webassembly-a-new-hope/ https://pspdfkit.com/blog/2017/webassembly-a-new-hope/ PSPDFKit for Web Standalone is a great choice for an easy-to-deploy web viewer, annotation editor and form filler, and performance is great. Definitely better than pdf.js - which is typically where people start with, before they upgrade to PSPDFKit for Web.
- ori_b 8y ago
  > Our Web SDK also has a version that uses PSPDFKit Server via a Docker container to get faster performance. ...what. why would I want that over a library that I can do whatever I want with?
olliej 8y ago
Right? The built in safari reader does everything correctly and interacts with the rest of the OS properly. I assume that the built in chrome one also Just Works (tm). Also why would I want to download an entire pdf engine when i already have an AOT version? (Stealing that phrasing by the way :) )
- steipete 8y ago
  Safari's PDF viewer doesn't allow you to annotate, especially not in real time with other users: https://pspdfkit.com/instant/ https://pspdfkit.com/instant/ It's also quite basic when it comes to forms and often loses data. For cases where more performance is required we always recommend using PSPDFKit Server, so PDFs render in native code on a high-power machine, and very likely using cached tiles.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >Safari's PDF viewer doesn't allow you to annotate, especially not in real time with other users: https://pspdfkit.com/instant/* https://pspdfkit.com/instant/* I never asked for that though, so there's that.
    - ravenstine 8y ago
      I can see people wanting that, but then I'd have to wonder why they are using PDFs for that purpose and not something like Google Docs.
      - steipete 8y ago
        Think construction plans, PowerPoint presentations, contracts - there are many documents that don't fit the classical Word document model.
        eecc 8y ago
        I wonder if the PDF file format is the best one for such kind of content
        izacus 8y ago
        Turns out that it is - it's amazingly flexible and pretty much anything out there will be able to render it. There's practically no other formats that can claim that.
        goatlover 8y ago
        But why would one expect a browser to support that feature for PDFs?
        mkl 8y ago
        You wouldn't, and it doesn't. But webapps and websites can usefully do it.
geofft 8y ago
On my computer, the native PDF reader is xpdf, which is made of security holes, or something based on libpoppler, which is made of patches to xpdf.
- SAI_Peregrinus 8y ago
  You mean "open cell security foam" of course. It means the same thing but sounds better for marketing.
greggman 8y ago
I prefer the sandboxed PDF reader in my browser to the native one that's not sandboxed https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/24/apple_security_update/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/24/apple_security_upda...

steipete 8y ago

Ha! Not sure if you've seen it, but we offer native SDKs for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux. Our Web SDK also has a version that uses PSPDFKit Server via a Docker container to get faster performance. The performance difference to native is smaller than you might think though - see our post from a few months back: https://pspdfkit.com/blog/2017/webassembly-a-new-hope/ https://pspdfkit.com/blog/2017/webassembly-a-new-hope/ PSPDFKit for Web Standalone is a great choice for an easy-to-deploy web viewer, annotation editor and form filler, and performance is great. Definitely better than pdf.js - which is typically where people start with, before they upgrade to PSPDFKit for Web.

ori_b 8y ago
> Our Web SDK also has a version that uses PSPDFKit Server via a Docker container to get faster performance. ...what. why would I want that over a library that I can do whatever I want with?

olliej 8y ago

Right? The built in safari reader does everything correctly and interacts with the rest of the OS properly. I assume that the built in chrome one also Just Works (tm). Also why would I want to download an entire pdf engine when i already have an AOT version? (Stealing that phrasing by the way :) )

steipete 8y ago
Safari's PDF viewer doesn't allow you to annotate, especially not in real time with other users: https://pspdfkit.com/instant/ https://pspdfkit.com/instant/ It's also quite basic when it comes to forms and often loses data. For cases where more performance is required we always recommend using PSPDFKit Server, so PDFs render in native code on a high-power machine, and very likely using cached tiles.
- coldtea 8y ago
  >Safari's PDF viewer doesn't allow you to annotate, especially not in real time with other users: https://pspdfkit.com/instant/* https://pspdfkit.com/instant/* I never asked for that though, so there's that.
  - ravenstine 8y ago
    I can see people wanting that, but then I'd have to wonder why they are using PDFs for that purpose and not something like Google Docs.
    - steipete 8y ago
      Think construction plans, PowerPoint presentations, contracts - there are many documents that don't fit the classical Word document model.
      - eecc 8y ago
        I wonder if the PDF file format is the best one for such kind of content
        izacus 8y ago
        Turns out that it is - it's amazingly flexible and pretty much anything out there will be able to render it. There's practically no other formats that can claim that.
      - goatlover 8y ago
        But why would one expect a browser to support that feature for PDFs?
        mkl 8y ago
        You wouldn't, and it doesn't. But webapps and websites can usefully do it.

geofft 8y ago

On my computer, the native PDF reader is xpdf, which is made of security holes, or something based on libpoppler, which is made of patches to xpdf.

SAI_Peregrinus 8y ago
You mean "open cell security foam" of course. It means the same thing but sounds better for marketing.

greggman 8y ago

I prefer the sandboxed PDF reader in my browser to the native one that's not sandboxed https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/24/apple_security_update/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/24/apple_security_upda...