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As someone working on formats, I disagree with your generalization. But let's get into specifics. List the things about PDF that you believe can't be done with
by marvindanig 6y ago
As someone working on formats, I disagree with your generalization. But let's get into specifics. List the things about PDF that you believe can't be done with web pages?
- cptskippy 6y agoIt's easy to dismiss things in their entirety and then require someone else to "prove you wrong". Why don't you prove you're right instead? Why don't you list all of things that PDFs can do that can also be done with web pages?
- marvindanig 6y agoSure, here's my list: everything + more. There's nothing a PDF can do that a webpage can't. In fact there are a hundred of things that a webpage can do, but a PDF can't. Including, form fields, input fields and seamless form submissions. Webpages can also do this: https://bubblin.io/cover/official-handbook-by-marvin-danig#frontmatter https://bubblin.io/cover/official-handbook-by-marvin-danig#f... Disclosure: It's my work.
- cptskippy 6y agoAnyone can create a PDF form to capture data and signatures, email it to someone who can then fill it out offline, and then email it back. That's not something easily done with a webpage, and it's not something my mom can do. PDFs are easy to make and easy to work with. Web pages aren't. Your work is impressive, and why would anyone want that? Do you envision lawyers putting all their legal contracts into fancy flippy books?
- marvindanig 6y ago> Do you envision lawyers putting all their legal contracts into fancy flippy books? Someone will have to solve it for the lawyers in a not so 'fancy consumerish' way. Point is that it is possible to do that, and Firefox shouldn't be solving this problem using an ancient format and a layer of cruft in between.
- cptskippy 6y agoBut we have PDF today and everyone is already using it. What does this bring to the table that's improved over PDF from a user's perspective? You can be a developer who enjoys the smell of your own farts all day long but that doesn't mean anyone else wants to smell them.
- marvindanig 6y agoWell, if you sit so close to someone's opinions or comments on the Internet, wouldn't you have to smell whatever whether you like it or not? ;-)
- minerjoe 6y agoWish I could look at your work but my browser doesn't support javascript. I wonder what it is about.
- marvindanig 6y agoThose books do work without javascript. Go troll someone else.
- f1refly 6y agoDistributing a document with functioning kerning and embedded fonts that works offline
- marvindanig 6y agoServiceworkers+@font-faces+font-kerning property of CSS3. Done, next.
- yzmtf2008 6y agoI think you missed the point of distributing. I’m never going to let you email me your serviceworkers because I can’t forward this document to anyone without relying on you hosting a server / not changing the content.
- marvindanig 6y agoOh, I'm all in for email/attachment based distribution. Just not with Firefox sporting it on the web browser where you'd in all certainty require someone to host a server and for you to trust them that no changes have been made to the content. That was the entire point of my comment at the top.
- edflsafoiewq 6y agoGoing to a particular page and only having to render that one page. Large HTML documents are unwieldy.
- beervirus 6y agoThe modern web is slow for a lot of reasons, but none of them are about rendering lots of static html. Anyway just break things up into multiple pages if necessary.