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[-] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 54 points 2 days ago

It's not? The p stands for portable, which implies a digital format for software use. Maybe you're thinking of postscript?

[-] lime@feddit.nu 30 points 2 days ago

pdf is a postscript container format, yes.

[-] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 2 days ago

Yep, but mainly meant for computer screens rather than paper, no?

[-] mogoh@lemmy.ml 41 points 2 days ago

No. It is designed for print. It is used for screens (that's the crazy part). Something like HTML or epub is designed for screens. PDF later got extended with some features, that only make sense on screen but the original design is for print and it shows. For example everything has a fixed layout size (like paper). And most of the time the order of words got lost so you can not select text in a meaningful way (something that would not matter if it is printed).

[-] zikzak025@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago
[-] lime@feddit.nu 3 points 2 days ago

you're thinking of display postscript? i think that was an extension of the original language.

[-] belluck@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 2 days ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_PDF

PDF was developed to share documents, including text formatting and inline images, among computer users of disparate platforms who may not have access to mutually-compatible application software.[2]

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago

And yet any pdf reader has one of the largest libraries to render a single format.

[-] danc4498@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Wait till I tell you what they’re doing with JavaScript.

[-] lime@feddit.nu 7 points 2 days ago

actually, you're kinda right! didn't know this before, but pdf started as a slimmed-down version of postscript that didn't support all print features.

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

~~Confidently incorrect.~~

Edit: apparently I kinda was actually.

[-] Cypher@aussie.zone 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This is funny. They’re correct.

Development of PDF began in 1991, when Adobe's co-founder John Warnock wrote a paper for a project then code-named Camelot, in which he proposed the creation of a simplified version of Adobe's PostScript format called Interchange PostScript (IPS).[1] Unlike traditional PostScript, which was tightly focused on rendering print jobs to output devices, IPS would be optimized for displaying pages to any screen and any platform.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_PDF

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

That's interesting indeed. I knew it was about portability, being right there in the name, but I thought it was about being as compatible everywhere (any device) as possible, then over time also became the defacto way to share a printable document, then that use case waned in popularity since the mid aughts.

this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2026
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