Comments on: If Adobe Ran the Internet (PDF vs. HTML)… http://www.prepresspilgrim.com/index.php/archive/if-adobe-ran-the-internet-pdf-vs-html/ Cheap Printer Ink Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:13:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Laurens http://www.prepresspilgrim.com/index.php/archive/if-adobe-ran-the-internet-pdf-vs-html/comment-page-1/#comment-17771 Laurens Sun, 13 Dec 2009 10:56:12 +0000 http://www.prepresspilgrim.com/?p=17722#comment-17771 Thank God that PDF isn't the language of the internet. You seem to have forgotten that there is such a thing as an XREF table in PDF. It is at the end of the file and an application needs to read it before it can do anything at all with the PDF. If there is even 1 bit 'off' in that table, chances are you cannot do a single thing with the PDF file. In contrast, with HTML an application can start displaying stuff as soon as the first bytes of a file are being read. First you get to see the text and as additional files gets loaded, images and other stuff pops up. That makes browsing so much faster. Anything that is misunderstood is ignored so one corrupted byte somewhere won't destroy the entire page. I like PDF but even the current sorry state of HTML doesn't make it a valid technology for the internet. Maybe you forgot that Adobe Reader initially cost 50$ per pop (http://www.prepressure.com/pdf/basics/history). Would the web even have taken off at all if it would have started like that? Thank God that PDF isn’t the language of the internet. You seem to have forgotten that there is such a thing as an XREF table in PDF. It is at the end of the file and an application needs to read it before it can do anything at all with the PDF. If there is even 1 bit ‘off’ in that table, chances are you cannot do a single thing with the PDF file.

In contrast, with HTML an application can start displaying stuff as soon as the first bytes of a file are being read. First you get to see the text and as additional files gets loaded, images and other stuff pops up. That makes browsing so much faster. Anything that is misunderstood is ignored so one corrupted byte somewhere won’t destroy the entire page.

I like PDF but even the current sorry state of HTML doesn’t make it a valid technology for the internet.

Maybe you forgot that Adobe Reader initially cost 50$ per pop (http://www.prepressure.com/pdf/basics/history). Would the web even have taken off at all if it would have started like that?

]]> By: Gordon Pritchard http://www.prepresspilgrim.com/index.php/archive/if-adobe-ran-the-internet-pdf-vs-html/comment-page-1/#comment-17764 Gordon Pritchard Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:19:33 +0000 http://www.prepresspilgrim.com/?p=17722#comment-17764 Cricketdraw RULES!!!! gordo Cricketdraw RULES!!!!

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