>> inability to manipulate the text is a curious thing to consider a
>> shortcoming. If I sell you a book I've written I don't really want
>> you to go mucking about with it either.
> The author's desires are ultimately irrelevant to the end-user.
That's true I supposed but why would I sell, not give mind you, but sell you something where I didn't care how it was used. I want to protect my investment somehow. I went to the trouble of creating the damn thing and getting it in some shape that it was usable by others. Sure I want you to customize it for your campaign but I'm under no obligation to make that as easy as possible for you. If I make it too easy for you my investment is threatened. What's the point of that? Yes I could distribute it as an HTML, or Word or RTF document but those formats all have problems too.
HTML - lacks the fine control over formatting possible in PDF Word - not everyone has the software, large file sizes. RTF - lacks most of the formatting capablities of PDF
> > within Acrobat or that can't be printed (you can set your PDF to be
> And what about all those that can't be printed even though they're
> supposed to be printable? In my line of work I've run into far too
> many of those.
A valid point but what about all those word documents I can't load or those web pages I can't print off. This isn't just a problem with PDF's, it's a general electronic format issue. Set it up properly and test it, test it , test it. A format isn't to blame because the people producing it are too damn lazy to test it or unintentionally or purposefully made the file so fancy that your printer balks at printing it off. You might as well say printing's crap because of the occassional mistakes that get made in books and magazines.
>> To criticize them as being unsearchable from browsers or incapbale of
being
>> manipulated is missing the point of the format. If you have
>Not in the least. I GET the "point of the format". The fact that I
>disagree with it in no way means that I don't understand it. I can
>understand something and still disagree with it.
That last bit wasn't really aimed at your comments, though it did look like it was which I apologize for. But the reality is that it is a pretty decent way to share information. Every single way of sharing information has its shortcomings and its flaws and for what it does PDF does a pretty decent job. I see plenty of them that are buggered up but I see plenty of ordinary web pages that are buggered up too. If I have to kill another web page printing job that is supposed to be a page of text long but is actually 200 pages long I'm going to scream. Most of the criticisms people have been giving are valid ones BUT they're not just unique to PDF they're flaws of electronic formats. If it bothers people that things are in PDF I supposed they could be supplied in PDF and RTF. Obviously you're going to lose formatting in RTF but it might not be all that important anyways. Making things purty isn't always that important.
I can't see anyone making a lot of money off of PDF scenarios or such but I do see the possibilities of a PDF magazine that was subscription based. That way people could avoid S&H and printing costs and you get past the whole payment problem. However I don't think that would be fair to the people who go to all the trouble of producing printed magazines as it might reduce their subscription base. Or it might not.
Oliver
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