RE: [Groff] PDF printing coming

[Ted Harding]

On 21-Apr-06 Michail Vidiassov wrote:
> Portable Document Format (PDF) is set to displace PostScript
> as the standard print job transfer and processing format for
> Linux, though Linux will maintain PostScript support for a
> long time to ensure backward compatibility.
> 
> This switch was agreed upon at last week's Linux Desktop
> Printing Summit. Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and
> Linuxprinting.org organized the meeting, which was hosted
> by Lanier (a Ricoh corporation) at its Lanier Education
> Center in Atlanta. At the meeting there was virtually no
> disagreement about the change.
> 
> The fine details will have to be thrashed out over the coming
> months, but representatives from CUPS, Ghostscript,
> Linuxprinting.org, KDE, GNOME, hardware vendors (present were
> people from Epson, HP, IBM, Lanier, Lexmark, Ricoh, Sharp, and
> Xerox), and developers of free drivers all agreed that PDF 
> will give them more power, more reliability, and more control
> over the printing process.
> 
> http://applications.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/04/18/2114252
> 
> Are we ready? 

Very interesting, and I had no idea of this until you told us!
Thanks!

I am perturbed by some of the implications, however. Never
mind "backwards compatibility". As things stand at present,
PS has advantages over PDF.

For one thing, you can write your own PS file from scratch
using a text editor. And you can edit any PS file (except
for those which have been encrypted, which is unusual, or
depend on Hex encoding for graphics blocks etc.). PS is at
bottom a plain ASCII format.

On the other hand, I've never seen a PDF file that I would
want to even think about editing by hand; and while it may
be in principle possible to create one by hand I don't think
I would like to try that either. The plain fact, in real life,
is that editing or creating a PDF file requires specialised
software which, to the non-specialised user (including users
who could cope with editing PS), is simply a black box.

I grant that PDF has resources which PS lacks (the need for
PDFmarks in PS which is to be converted to PDF for some of
these is proof of that).

In my view, the main reason for the emergence of PDF as a
"standard" has little to do with these extra resources,
however. I think it is due to the fact that PDF files can
readily be read on Windows platforms (provided you have
the free Acrobat reader, of course), and can also be edited
if you have bought the appropriate Adobe software. On the
other hand, Windows support for PS has always been grudging
at best: you can in the limit import an EPS "graphic" into
a Word document, but you can't view it on screen, and you
can only print the result successfully on a PS printer.
(And when I say "graphic", the EPS could of course simply
be text).

And heaven help you if you try to edit a PS file in Word ...

So, for the sake of making our PSs available to the challenged
out there, we have happily converted them to PDF; and the
challenged are none the wiser since it still looks good.

I harbour fears that this proposed move towards PDF as the
standard indicates an impending domination of the capable
by the challenged. My only consolation is that, according
to Michail's account above, it will be (at peast partially)
in good hands; though the evident involvement of commercial
interests -- even at the basic level of organisating the
meeting -- causes me some disquiet.

I'm well aware (being one of them myself) that many people
on this list are there because they are survivors from the
Age of the Dinosaur (ca. 30 years ago). Unix and troff had
shown how things could be done properly, leaving the user
still in full control and with easy direct access to the
"internals" to achieve such control. Shortly afterwards,
PostScript emerged and supplanted the Optical Daisywheel
(aka CAT Phototypesetter), and extended that control beyond
the computer to the output itself.

We liked the way we worked then, and we like it still; and
the emergence of Linux has maintained that distinctive way
of working and made it available to a much larger userbase.

And I think we have been able, to this day, to feel happy
about the better performance and capabilities of this way
of working.

But, in my view again, somewhat unfortunately Linux has
increasingly yielded to the gravitational pull of the Windows
world. Increasingly, with the adoption of Office-type
software suites, the user's output is encapsulated in an
impenetrable format, and the control the user has over
this is becoming increasingly remote.

I fear that the above move from PS towards PDF may bring
similar disadvatages with it.

Unless, of course, we can gain the same control over PDF
as we have over PS (see above).

Just my thoughts ...

Best wishes to all,
Ted.

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Date: 21-Apr-06                                       Time: 10:33:56
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