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[–] 118 points 1 day ago (25 children)

pdf is a print and typesetting format for printers. what's crazy is that we're using it for something other than that.

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  • [–] 30 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    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 > …

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  • [–] 49 points 1 day ago (12 children)

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

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  • [–] 30 points 1 day ago (11 children)

    pdf is a postscript container format, yes.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 day ago (10 children)

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

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  • [–] 39 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    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).

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  • [–] 17 points 1 day ago (3 children)
  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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

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  • [–] 27 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    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]

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  • [–] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

    Confidently incorrect.

    Edit: apparently I kinda was actually.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 child)

    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

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day 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.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    Personally, I think in dealing with text documents, we should only respect:

    • Markdown
    • Org
    • Wikidot
    • LaTeX
    • Typst if you are a progressive zoomer

    Everything else is mental illness.

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