Posted by: Anonymous
[ip: 97.84.177.5]
on December 02, 2007 04:37 AM
PDF is a PRINT format
Ehm, where in PDF name, description or specification does it say that PDF is a print format? PDF is a Portable Document Format. There is more to portability than printing.
...would look exactly on another machine.
Not sure what exactly do you mean by "look exactly". I will assume that you have omitted the words "the same", because that is very common misconception. In fact, it is nearly impossible for a document in any format to print or display exactly the same on two different devices: you have different resolutions, different media size, different printable area on the page, different contrast and intensity setting of a monitor, different shade of paper, different physical and chemical properties of ink, even different available fonts, and so on. PDF was designed to give you nearly as good display or print as possible under given circumstances. That's why it is called "portable".
How exactly am I supposed to print a PDF that has an embedded MP3?
Very easily. PDF specification states that is a feature of a document cannot be implemented on a given device, it is to be ignored. So for example things like hyperlinks or embedded audio will be ignored when printing, but the text and graphics on the page will still print as well as possible on a given printer.
I personally find this very useful. I can create a slideshow explaining how to solve a problem, demonstrating and explaining all calculations step by step, designed to be viewed on a screen. I can include voice explanations as well as written ones, thus making it more useful to both visual and auditory learners. You can still print the slideshow and study it on a train, you just get the visual part without the audio. PDF format is ideal for this, it contains everything in a single file, that you can download for offline use, will display in a very similar way on variety of devices, users of nearly all common operating systems can download a viewer free of charge, and, as noted above, various features of the document will be gracefully ignored when displayed or printed on devices that cannot handle them. In addition, thanks to pdfTeX, it is very easy to create.
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Re: Not all of the functionality is missing...
Posted by: Anonymous [ip: 97.84.177.5] on December 02, 2007 04:37 AMPDF is a PRINT format
Ehm, where in PDF name, description or specification does it say that PDF is a print format? PDF is a Portable Document Format. There is more to portability than printing.
...would look exactly on another machine.
Not sure what exactly do you mean by "look exactly". I will assume that you have omitted the words "the same", because that is very common misconception. In fact, it is nearly impossible for a document in any format to print or display exactly the same on two different devices: you have different resolutions, different media size, different printable area on the page, different contrast and intensity setting of a monitor, different shade of paper, different physical and chemical properties of ink, even different available fonts, and so on. PDF was designed to give you nearly as good display or print as possible under given circumstances. That's why it is called "portable".
How exactly am I supposed to print a PDF that has an embedded MP3?
Very easily. PDF specification states that is a feature of a document cannot be implemented on a given device, it is to be ignored. So for example things like hyperlinks or embedded audio will be ignored when printing, but the text and graphics on the page will still print as well as possible on a given printer.
I personally find this very useful. I can create a slideshow explaining how to solve a problem, demonstrating and explaining all calculations step by step, designed to be viewed on a screen. I can include voice explanations as well as written ones, thus making it more useful to both visual and auditory learners. You can still print the slideshow and study it on a train, you just get the visual part without the audio. PDF format is ideal for this, it contains everything in a single file, that you can download for offline use, will display in a very similar way on variety of devices, users of nearly all common operating systems can download a viewer free of charge, and, as noted above, various features of the document will be gracefully ignored when displayed or printed on devices that cannot handle them. In addition, thanks to pdfTeX, it is very easy to create.
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