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I have never seen anyone use any of these features in the real world. I presume that embedded animation and 3D extensions are used in art-related fields? If so

I have never seen anyone use any of these features in the real world. I presume that embedded animation and 3D extensions are used in art-related fields? If so that would explain my ignorance.

burfog 8y ago
The PDF used to apply for the BSA's Eagle Scout rank needs that stuff. I believe the reason is related to expandable text fields that might need to insert pages into the document. None of the non-Adobe viewers can handle it.
xvilka 8y ago
Art and engineering.
kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
I have to use Reader to fill out my state tax forms because they use some modern JavaScript driven system to auto fill that no other reader can handle.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
  We had the same situation in the UK until recently, thankfully the new API-based system has opened it up to other platforms (eg Xero) and works very well.
kccqzy 8y ago
A long time ago, when I used PDF exclusively as the format for my slides, I used features like animations and auto play videos embedded within PDFs. Very helpful if you want to give a presentation.
inferiorhuman 8y ago
PDF forms are used all over the place from what I can tell -- including a bunch of county government stuff I just had to deal with. No JS was involved though.
- vxNsr 8y ago
  I've seen pretty heavy js usage on US gov forms, the most recent example being i9 form you fill out when you get hired.
  - inferiorhuman 8y ago
    This is the I-9 I've used before: https://www.jobs.irs.gov/sites/default/files/wysiwyg-uploads/files/IRSDownloads/I-9EmploymentEligibilityVerification.pdf https://www.jobs.irs.gov/sites/default/files/wysiwyg-uploads... Interestingly enough I can't fill it out in Firefox, but I can with Preview.app. Running pdfinfo -js yielded some script, but it basically only looks like it's there as a gatekeeper so that you don't open the file with an older version of Reader. Is there more JS in there that pdfinfo can't extract?
oblio 8y ago
PDF forms are super common for government interactions in many countries. Good luck ignoring those!

I have never seen anyone use any of these features in the real world. I presume that embedded animation and 3D extensions are used in art-related fields? If so that would explain my ignorance.

burfog 8y ago

The PDF used to apply for the BSA's Eagle Scout rank needs that stuff. I believe the reason is related to expandable text fields that might need to insert pages into the document. None of the non-Adobe viewers can handle it.

xvilka 8y ago

Art and engineering.

kevin_thibedeau 8y ago

I have to use Reader to fill out my state tax forms because they use some modern JavaScript driven system to auto fill that no other reader can handle.

SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
We had the same situation in the UK until recently, thankfully the new API-based system has opened it up to other platforms (eg Xero) and works very well.

kccqzy 8y ago

A long time ago, when I used PDF exclusively as the format for my slides, I used features like animations and auto play videos embedded within PDFs. Very helpful if you want to give a presentation.

inferiorhuman 8y ago

PDF forms are used all over the place from what I can tell -- including a bunch of county government stuff I just had to deal with. No JS was involved though.

vxNsr 8y ago
I've seen pretty heavy js usage on US gov forms, the most recent example being i9 form you fill out when you get hired.
- inferiorhuman 8y ago
  This is the I-9 I've used before: https://www.jobs.irs.gov/sites/default/files/wysiwyg-uploads/files/IRSDownloads/I-9EmploymentEligibilityVerification.pdf https://www.jobs.irs.gov/sites/default/files/wysiwyg-uploads... Interestingly enough I can't fill it out in Firefox, but I can with Preview.app. Running pdfinfo -js yielded some script, but it basically only looks like it's there as a gatekeeper so that you don't open the file with an older version of Reader. Is there more JS in there that pdfinfo can't extract?

oblio 8y ago

PDF forms are super common for government interactions in many countries. Good luck ignoring those!