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PDF: Still Unfit for Human Consumption, 20 Years Later (HN)
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. Thatโs all good.
Whatโs bad are the limitations of the format itself. PDF is fundamentally a digital simulation of paper. So itโs great for making paper documents available in the digital realm. But for natively digital documentsโlike this oneโit removes functionality and imposes design constraints.
Thus, as a format for digital books, I have to vote against PDF. As a typographer, thatโs painful, because PDF preserves layout and typography better than the typical e-book formats. In all other respects, however, itโs an example of the Shirky Principleโa backward-looking format that wants to impose yesterdayโs constraints on todayโs projects. As a reader and writer, thatโs not good enough."
