GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2002-07 > 1027711930


From: (Ellen Keyne Seebacher)
Subject: [DNA] PDF files (was Re: mtDNA & NA origins)
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 15:36:59 -0400 (EDT)
In-Reply-To: <150.11743fb7.2a72d9db@aol.com>


[This is getting off-topic, but I think it needs a correction. Ann,
is there a logical place for further discussion?]

> The purpose of pdf files is so that people can post files on the
> web, without the possibility that they will be edited by whoever
> downloads them or reads them. It's a type of document security.

Printing and editing *can* be restricted in PDF files, but most
document publishers don't bother. Since anyone with Acrobat Reader
can cut and paste text from most PDF documents, I suspect that
security concerns are not a primary reason for using PDF.

PDF is simply a way to produce actual "what you see is what you get"
documents. HTML, while a quick and easy way to publish and view
files, allows most formatting to be determined by the browser -- so
HTML is more accessible to the visually disabled, and people on slow
connections. There are times, though, when visual formatting is of
primary importance to document publishers. And when the original file
appears first as a printed article, it can be much easier to scan and
convert to PDF than to HTML.

--
Ellen Keyne Seebacher

This thread: