pdf is a print and typesetting format for printers. what's crazy is that we're using it for something other than that.
It's not? The p stands for portable, which implies a digital format for software use. Maybe you're thinking of postscript?
pdf is a postscript container format, yes.
Yep, but mainly meant for computer screens rather than paper, no?
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).
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.
History of PDF is basically: We need a standard format to get print jobs over there > Postscript > let's add feature X > also feature y > make it do thing too! > uh oh, it's gotten too powerful, security galore > reboot and slim it down > PDF > let's add feature X > also feature y > …
Yes. PDF is an embrace - extended - extinguish job done on PostScript.
I feel like websites tried to do the same with seperating CSS from the DOM, but then the web said, actually how about we invent webasm anyway....
Personally, I think in dealing with text documents, we should only respect:
Everything else is mental illness.
One could say that PDFs allow unique copy protection features, which is true. However, one mustn't forget that copy protection is yet to deserve it's right to exist at all.
I love markdown. I take all my work notes in markdown on vim and my coworkers look at me like I have 3 heads.
I then view them in a markdown viewer and I get to interact with the checklists I made 😼
Because PDF is literally that, a compressed print. it is not for editing, forms or anything it is a representation of a print.
File → Export PDF?
What? Libreoffice has had this one since always.
Try that with a JPEG
Do I look like I know hwhat a JPEG is?
I just want a picture of a got-dang hot dog
Do you pronounce that like JPEG or JPEG?
Only a moron pronounces it like JPEG.
Same with Word and any of the other Office products.
Seems like a standard feature in any document managing software.
I've found that exporting to PDF sometimes has inconsistent results vs passing it thru the systems print dialog. Like sometimes fonts fail to render or locations/margins get messed up when "exported" since that's the softwares built in interpreter.
Strangely, this kinda makes sense. PDF is based on PostScript, which is a file type (also by Adobe) that gets sent to printers. It's just skipping the final "send to printer" part and sends it to a file instead.
A fascinating thing (in a scary way) is that PostScript is technically a full programming language with loops, functions, logic, and a built-in font rendering and 2D graphics engine. When a document is printed using PostScript, your computer generates a script to lay out the page, that the printer runs in order to produce the document!
PDF is essentially "the safe parts" of PostScript - the same 2D graphics engine but with all the dynamic parts removed. PDFs are statically laid out when they're created, rather than having to run arbitrary code to lay them out like PostScript does.
PDF does support JavaScript code, but it's rarely used and needs to be granted permission to run. It's not a core part of the format.
For printing, PCL has somewhat taken over and it's less scary - it just has preset commands rather than allowing arbitrary code in a full programming language. PostScript is still used today for higher-end printers and print jobs though.
A fascinating thing (in a scary way) is that PostScript is technically a full programming language with loops, functions, logic, and a built-in font rendering and 2D graphics engine.
It also had a extension to create NextStep UI with it.
It wasn’t really an extension… The nextstep user interface was just written in postscript and objective-C.
This is how the nextstep UI was so smooth and sharp and so well built for design, especially output to print. And how that translated to macOS (although the graphics display subsystem and macOS is based on the more advanced PDF, not postscript). It’s also part of the entire print sub systems, and how it was always so easy to create a PDF in the manner the OP suggests. That functionality was really only added to other operating systems later with plugins.
You can run doom on a pdf
Ok but that's a really low bar, you could just list on what Doom can't run :).
Also if you print doom.pdf, does the printer run it like this
or like this
?
You’re not lying to your computer. A PDF is a print. It’s just on screen instead of on paper.
Not on screen, on storage usually.
Print Dat File
I would miss the little ruse tbh. Keep my computer guessing, it's trying to know me too much lately.
Because you are using the wrong tool. Libreoffice has a dedicated export to PDF button. Other tools do too.
so do Adobe Illustrator and many CAD tools
To print, these days, you generate PostScript and fire that off to the printer.
PostScript -> PDF is a very light translation.
The biggest slight is not renaming print to Print/PDF and just shortcutting the same exact code.
i mean, yeah. turned out to be a pretty good way to make pdf conversion accessible to a lot of people and make it convenient to convert it and print it all from one spot.
The entire tech stack is a tactical mess
you're printing it to disk. this is a trick as old as time. like piping.
Hey, if it works why fix?
I mean why would you build some PDF export stuff when this basic functionality is already available in most browsers.
All modern printers save documents as a multi-paged image (read: a PDF) in their memory before printing it onto paper. It's trivial to make the print dialog save a PDF file because you're telling it to give the file it just made back to the computer instead of giving it to the printer.
Post memes here.
A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.
An Internet meme or meme, is a cultural item that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The name is by the concept of memes proposed by Richard Dawkins in 1972. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.
Laittakaa meemejä tänne.
