[wellylug] TradeMe Linux jobs

Cliff Pratt enkidu at cliffp.com
Sun Jun 29 21:14:10 NZST 2008


Atom Smasher wrote:
> On Sun, 29 Jun 2008, Cliff Pratt wrote:
> 
>> There's no way of making a document look the same on varied
>> machines running varied OSes and varied apps. Even if you embed all
>> the various esoteric fonts that you are impelled to use, which
>> bloats the size of the PDF, they will still look different.
> ==========
> 
> other than an image format (even then, don't count on the colors
> being the same on someone elses screen) PDF is as good as it gets,
> and plenty good enough for anything i've used it for. the fact that
> some print-shops request work in PDF format tells me that it can be
> rendered the same on different machines (if you ever want to get
> laughed at, bring a DOC file to a print-shop).
> 
I'm interested in what is inside these PDFs? Are the PDFs just single 
image-wrappers? Or do they include text and embedded fonts and other 
objects?

I still maintain that a PDF will not format the same on two different 
machines, though grant you it will be close. (We have had cases where 
they were not even close - but that was, we think, in the main case, 
attributable to different versions of software used to reduce the size 
of the PDFs.)

> 
>> Trying to restrict the user to just those fonts and exactly the
>> layout that you designed into it is, IMO, arrogant and inflexible.
> ===========
> 
> restrict the user? if i'm sending them a PDF that implies that i'm
> the author; they're the audience. PDF is meant as an electronic
> substitute for paper, not a format for collaborative works.
>
Well, we were talking about providing a document to an agency, to be 
used to put forward the candidate to potential employers. The reason 
given for suggesting PDFs was *not* to 'provide a substitute for paper' 
but to lock in the recipient to a fixed format decided by the compiler 
of the PDF.

But what does the agency do when they get it? They cut and paste the 
data into their own documents. If they can't do that, I suspect that the 
CV is straight to the recycle bin.
 >
> oh-well... feel free to call me arrogant... do i even want to know
> what you'd call me if i told you that after the printer gets my work
> (lately in CMYK-TIF), they run it on a press and then it gets printed
> on paper? oh no!! what are people supposed to do then, if they don't
> like my fonts or formatting???
> 
That's easy! They'd perform the physical equivalent of sending the 
document to the Recycle Bin! But we were talking about providing PDFs to 
agencies. Providing documents to printers is a whole different bowl of 
chowder.

As an aside, isn't CMYK-TIF a scanned format? In which case you'd end up 
with a single image? (Please note - this is nothing to do with the 
discussion above.... Just interested.) TIFF seems to me to relate to 
document capture or things like masks for electronic work??

Cheers,

Cliff



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