> While working with the PDF format I sometimes get the impression that this complexity is what Adobe wants. As a result, Adobe Reader is the only viewer that i

> While working with the PDF format I sometimes get the impression that this complexity is what Adobe wants. As a result, Adobe Reader is the only viewer that implements the entire spec and can handle all (or most) quirks. While that certainly does play in Adobe's favor, the complexity of the spec. is also what occurs when over time new features, some never even envisioned by the original creators, are bolted on to keep the whole "relevant" and/or to add new "features" to keep the 'thing' from becoming obsolete. We can certainly argue whether the addition of different features was worth the complexity increase, but simply taking an existing system and bolting on the latest "hotness" to use to add to the checklist of "why one should upgrade" features also produces similar levels of complexity. So some of the complexity increase is merely the fact that the pdf spec. has been evolved to do things it was likely never designed to do in the first place.