3 ms·
Why is pdf the default/de facto single-file publication format, even in public domain or copyleft works? It has so many drawbacks: it's usually unparseable; it
by ByThyGrace 7y ago
Why is pdf the default/de facto single-file publication format, even in public domain or copyleft works?
It has so many drawbacks: it's usually unparseable; it's usually unsearchable; incompatible with all sorts of format conversions; its rigid pagination makes it cumbersome to read when not in zoomed-in, especially on mobile; its best features require proprietary software when authoring them, yet most people seem to use generic pdf file export; it's been subject to exploits... and the list goes on.
- _Microft 7y agoMy guess is that opening particular file formats is a much more common problem and PDFs just shine there.
- toomuchtodo 7y agoBecause these PDFs are publicly/freely available, it could be undertaken to convert them to mobi and ePub formats (if one were so inclined). Maybe see if existing free ebook processors [1] [2] would accept these into their pipelines? Heck, the US gov even has a service to do this for departments who pay for it [3]. [1] https://www.pgdp.net/ https://www.pgdp.net/ [2] https://www.gitenberg.org/updates https://www.gitenberg.org/updates [3] https://www.gpo.gov/how-to-work-with-us/agency/services-for-agencies/ebook-conversion https://www.gpo.gov/how-to-work-with-us/agency/services-for-...
- Ididntdothis 7y agoTotally agree. Mobi or ePub would be much better for most purposes.
- WalterBright 7y agoSome of them, like "Flights of Discovery", are clearly scanned book copies. It takes a lot of manual work to convert a scanned book into an ebook format.
- daveoc64 7y agoI clicked on a book at random, and it had ePub and Mobi formats available for download. I guess it's just down to whatever format the book is in within their archives.