PDF use

[The Typing Place]

I know that PDF means portable document format, but I don't know why a PDF is
used instead of using, for example, a Word document. Thank you.

 

[bxb7668]

PDF files are generally smaller; can be opened using the free Acrobat
Reader by people that do not have, for example, Word; is platform
independent (readers exist for Windows, Mac and UNIX). In other
words, its portable.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Contrary to your experience, .pdf files are much larger than other text file
formats. If you are not convinced, just check the legislative site for the
State of California and download one of the bills introduced in this
session.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, bxb7668 asked:

| PDF files are generally smaller; can be opened using the free Acrobat
| Reader by people that do not have, for example, Word; is platform
| independent (readers exist for Windows, Mac and UNIX). In other
| words, its portable.
|
| message || I know that PDF means portable document format, but I don't know why
|| a PDF is used instead of using, for example, a Word document. Thank
|| you. --
|| The Typing Place

 

[Opinicus]

"The Typing Place"

I know that PDF means portable document format, but I don't
know why a PDF is
used instead of using, for example, a Word document.
Thank you.

One reason is to prevent a document from being altered--or
at least to make casual alteration difficult if not entirely
impossible.

 

[VManes]

Maybe sometimes, maybe sometimes not.

I just took a 214KB word document (13 pages, lots of whitespace, a couple
black and white graphics) and made a PDF of it (using Acrobat 6), resulting
in a file of 74KB.

Another, rather silly example - a blank Word file is 19KB, the same
"document" in PDF is 9KB.

Val

***************************

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
Contrary to your experience, .pdf files are much larger than other text file
formats. If you are not convinced, just check the legislative site for the
State of California and download one of the bills introduced in this
session.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, bxb7668 asked:

| PDF files are generally smaller; can be opened using the free Acrobat
| Reader by people that do not have, for example, Word; is platform
| independent (readers exist for Windows, Mac and UNIX). In other
| words, its portable.
|
| message || I know that PDF means portable document format, but I don't know why
|| a PDF is used instead of using, for example, a Word document. Thank
|| you. --
|| The Typing Place

 

[Rob Schneider]

However, the point of PDF file use is not about their relative size. The
file format is complex (and fully documented/published, by the way) and
has purposes well beyond just a replacement for a txt for doc file.
Accordingly, it's easy to imagine there won't be strict correlation in
size between the formats. I think for the average person, the point of
PDF files is to provide a document in distributable format for which the
author/publisher can retain a reasonable degree of control and
resonibility for the content/format/quality of the document. This is
pretty much impossible to do when one sends out "source code" documents.

Back when we only had paper, it was the author/publisher's job to
control quality of the document. Now that we have computers, for some
reason this responsibilty has been transferred to the reader. I don't
know why.

 

[Bob I]

A "word" document can in no way be considered a "text" document. A blank
"text" document will be 0kb.