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Unless you're talking about some odd, restricted subset of HTML, writing a HTML renderer is an incredibly complicated task. Chromium and Firefox are both huge a

Unless you're talking about some odd, restricted subset of HTML, writing a HTML renderer is an incredibly complicated task. Chromium and Firefox are both huge and have had so much development, and still have differing outputs for the same HTML. CSS, SVG and JS are all part of a complete renderer, and are huge projects in their own right. (And you're not getting the "interactive charts" mentioned in the article without implementing most of that.)

pasc1878 3y ago
You can easily implement a HTML reader that extracts the text and images to make the information understandable, agreed it will not look pretty. The difference is what matters - The information or the look of the document. HTML lets you get the information and you can alter the look. PDF locks in the look but is more difficult to get the information.
- crabmusket 3y ago
  I agree with this wholeheartedly. PDF is essentially a raster format when what I want for most documents is the content, not the pixels.
  - wolverine876 3y ago
    Yes, PDF is for consistent presentation, anywhere, any time, forever. Other formats are for content and other needs, including editing. It's a question of the user's needs in that situation; to dismiss one or the other format or needs is just embracing ignorance as an easy solution. However, if EPUB could get the precise formatting (maybe they already do), annotation, and long-term preservation correct, they could be all - or many - things to many people.
    - pasc1878 3y ago
      No pub is based on HTML and is viewable on different devices which must look different. So will not meet that requirement. I think annotations also are not part of ePub they need to be part of a specification that build on epub. epub is the original. Long term preservation is there as long as you don't try to do complex formatting in CSS.
  - pepa65 3y ago
    I view PDF more as a vector format (that is also able to use raster-based images). The vector (zoomability) properties of PDFs are important to me.
    - pasc1878 3y ago
      HTML zooms as well. It zooms better than pdf as the text will rewrap to fit the size of your screen whilst pdf zoom will force you to scroll;l to read a line.
cxr 3y ago
> Unless you're talking about some[...] restricted subset Are you familiar with what the "/A" part signifies in PDF/A? Or what the words "archive-quality HTML" implies about an analog? > writing a HTML renderer is an incredibly complicated task. You're moving the goalposts. We're talking about getting the information out. You don't need to implement a full-fledged browser engine that's at parity with { Gecko, Blink, WebKit } to accomplish that.

pasc1878 3y ago

You can easily implement a HTML reader that extracts the text and images to make the information understandable, agreed it will not look pretty. The difference is what matters - The information or the look of the document. HTML lets you get the information and you can alter the look. PDF locks in the look but is more difficult to get the information.

crabmusket 3y ago
I agree with this wholeheartedly. PDF is essentially a raster format when what I want for most documents is the content, not the pixels.
- wolverine876 3y ago
  Yes, PDF is for consistent presentation, anywhere, any time, forever. Other formats are for content and other needs, including editing. It's a question of the user's needs in that situation; to dismiss one or the other format or needs is just embracing ignorance as an easy solution. However, if EPUB could get the precise formatting (maybe they already do), annotation, and long-term preservation correct, they could be all - or many - things to many people.
  - pasc1878 3y ago
    No pub is based on HTML and is viewable on different devices which must look different. So will not meet that requirement. I think annotations also are not part of ePub they need to be part of a specification that build on epub. epub is the original. Long term preservation is there as long as you don't try to do complex formatting in CSS.
- pepa65 3y ago
  I view PDF more as a vector format (that is also able to use raster-based images). The vector (zoomability) properties of PDFs are important to me.
  - pasc1878 3y ago
    HTML zooms as well. It zooms better than pdf as the text will rewrap to fit the size of your screen whilst pdf zoom will force you to scroll;l to read a line.

cxr 3y ago

> Unless you're talking about some[...] restricted subset Are you familiar with what the "/A" part signifies in PDF/A? Or what the words "archive-quality HTML" implies about an analog? > writing a HTML renderer is an incredibly complicated task. You're moving the goalposts. We're talking about getting the information out. You don't need to implement a full-fledged browser engine that's at parity with { Gecko, Blink, WebKit } to accomplish that.