# PDF

{% embed url="<https://www.vice.com/en/article/pam43n/why-the-pdf-is-secretly-the-worlds-most-important-file-format>" %}

## Against PDF

[PDF: Still Unfit for Human Consumption, 20 Years Later](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption/) ([HN](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24108950))

From <https://practicaltypography.com/why-theres-no-e-book-or-pdf.html> by Matthew Butterick:

> "*PDF started as a proprietary Adobe file format, but it eventually became an open standard. Today, writers can make PDFs with many tools; readers can view PDFs in many ways. That’s all good.*
>
> *What’s bad are the limitations of the format itself. PDF is fundamentally a digital simulation of paper. So it’s great for making paper documents available in the digital realm. But for natively digital documents—like this one—it removes functionality and imposes design constraints.*
>
> *Thus, as a format for digital books, I have to vote against PDF. As a typographer, that’s painful, because PDF preserves layout and typography better than the typical e-book formats. In all other respects, however, it’s an example of the Shirky Principle—a backward-looking format that wants to impose yesterday’s constraints on today’s projects. As a reader and writer, that’s not good enough.*"