Which bad effects does pirating software have?

[Dewey Edwards]

[...]
Was it Rumsfeld, who demanded that all classic (immodest) art be
"covered" before he entered the room? Kind of kills the author's
message, doesn't it?

John Ashcroft

Thanks for the correction.

 

[\Mad\]

For that purpose you can use png, gif, or jpg file format, they give
total control of the final result and are a lot easier to handle than
PDF.

PDF is not good for documents you may want to change or disassemble
again. It is a display format, not a document format.

???? What?

No it's not. At least, not necessarily.

There is an option to generate the PDF file as a single image, but
that's not what I'm used to seeing.
[What PDF files are you looking at?]

The PDF file does not have to be a single image, it can be a
"container" file, still retaining the original separate images and texts,
along with fonts and other formatting information. In that case,
the PDF file might be larger, but still handles as a single file, and
has the advantage of allowing you to "change or disassemble" it.

In fact, come to think of it, most PDF files I view still have the text
intact and searchable.
[Use the button with the large "T" instead of the "hand" icon,
to switch into 'text mode' in the Adobe Reader, I think.]


You can't easily change or disassemble "png, gif, or jpg file format",
and I don't see how they "are a lot easier to handle than PDF."

I don't remember seeing a way to create a single "png, gif, or jpg"
file from a mix of text and graphics, but that could be my
inexperience.

They certainly don't enlarge as well for easier reading.
[Use the magnifying glass plus-and-minus icons in the
Adobe Reader.]

(I'm getting old and having trouble reading the smaller
sized fonts.

And have you noticed the trend towards using
something in the HTML to disable the Font Size control
in the browser? Bother!)


Magnifying and shrinking the _images_ may not work well,
but that isn't necessarily a feature of PDF, it's usually a
feature of the original image format.

Vector graphics images are wonderful for enlarging and
shrinking, but photographs can't easily be converted to
vector graphics.

Text, drawings and animation can be created in vector
graphics, and sometimes converted to vector graphics,
and PDF handles vector graphics very nicely.

In fact, I think the text images in PDF are vector graphics,
which is why they scale up and down and are so sharp.

HTML is a much better format. It is free, open, well known, there are
thousands of programs for viewing and editing HTML.

HTML allows the final user to adjust the display to suit the viewer.

8< snip >8

I don't think so. I don't remember a way for HTML to display
text in a font you don't have installed on your machine.
It'll substitute a font you do have installed, but you don't get a
choice.

I've also, recently, been running into way too many HTML pages
that somehow disable the already too limited Font Size
controls in my browser.


Admittedly I'm using Internet Explorer 6 which may be part of
my problem.

I don't know, is there a browser that has better Font Size control?

And/or is there a browser that gives me the option to go
download and use "suggested" fonts that I don't have installed,
instead of just quietly substituting whatever it thinks is
conveniently "close enough"?


If you want a webpage to include mixed text and non-text,
using HTML, they have to be transported as separate files
(the second "T" in HTTP), and kept track of. And then
there's the problem of needing browser helpers to handle
the newer non-text objects. -sigh- At that point, HTML is
flexible, but not clearly superior to PDF.


Aloha --
Kenneth Kawamura
Lansing, Michigan
USA

 

[Onno Tasler]

"Mad" scribebat:

the PDF file might be larger, but still handles as a single file, and
has the advantage of allowing you to "change or disassemble" it.

Well, PDF is, in fact, not very well suited to save text you are working on
and which shall still be edited. It is a kind of "printing on the screen",
not an editable document, even though that can be done.

In fact, I think the text images in PDF are vector graphics,
which is why they scale up and down and are so sharp.

That is correct, text is usually saved as vectors inside the PDF. Ever
tried to zoom an ordinary font to 6400%? You would be surprised about the
details some of them have!

I don't know, is there a browser that has better Font Size control?

As well in Opera as in Firefox you can change the fontsize by simply
clicking [CTRL]+[+] and [CTRL]+[-]. (I think in Opera you do not even need
the CTRL, but I am not sure)

And/or is there a browser that gives me the option to go download and use
"suggested" fonts that I don't have installed, instead of just quietly
substituting whatever it thinks is conveniently "close enough"?

Not as far as I know, it is up to the webmaster to use default fonts or at
least to say which font was used. After all, browsers shall ignore unknown
tags (fonts) and use the standards instead to guarantee compatibility.