MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

drogo · 10-18-2006, 04:39 PM

I was wondering why there's such a preoccupation with trying to get everything into PDF as opposed to TXT or HTML?

It's my understanding that PDF won't reflow the text, at least, I've never seen a document that would, while most of the other ebook formats will. It's also difficult to extract anything from it. I know that every time I get a technical doc/book in PDF, I immediately begin trying to convert it to something else, usually HTML, but sometimes plain old TXT. PDFs just seem to be so much trouble.

I'm not trying to start a war or anything, just genuinely curious as to why so many people are heading to PDF, rather than from it. Maybe I'm missing some advantage of PDF?

10-18-2006, 04:39 PM	#1
drogo Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 321 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: PRS-500	Why the fascination with PDF? I was wondering why there's such a preoccupation with trying to get everything into PDF as opposed to TXT or HTML? It's my understanding that PDF won't reflow the text, at least, I've never seen a document that would, while most of the other ebook formats will. It's also difficult to extract anything from it. I know that every time I get a technical doc/book in PDF, I immediately begin trying to convert it to something else, usually HTML, but sometimes plain old TXT. PDFs just seem to be so much trouble. I'm not trying to start a war or anything, just genuinely curious as to why so many people are heading to PDF, rather than from it. Maybe I'm missing some advantage of PDF?