text to pdf to email

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Tue, May 10, 2005 at 02:02:46PM -0400, Fairlight wrote:
> You'll never BELIEVE what Bob Rasmussen said here...:
> > Do you get out in the real world much, Bill?
> 
> Considering Bill's background, I find that kind of offensive.  Of course he
> does.

I assume Bob left off the smiley.

And people say they're not important.  :-)

> > Below my sig is a text report. Using Pine on Linux I attached it to the
> > end of my email. How does it look? Do the linedraw characters come out
> > right? Do you see the 125-column layout properly represented? Can you
> > print it properly if you need to?
> 
> Does it belong in email?  Likely not.

Well, maybe so, Mark.

> And yes, the linedraw characters looked fine in mutt under PuTTY on Win2K
> using Lucida Console.  The wrapping was present, but I could resize and use
> a 125xNN terminal window if I so chose, and all would be well.  Actually, I
> can change that on the fly, I believe.

But, oddly, sometimes, you don't *want* the recipient to adjust what it
looks like, for various reasons.  Anyone who does ASCII art -- as
simple as highlighting a word on a quoted line -- in something like
Mutt, ought to appreciate why this might be so.

> > For comparison, there is also attached a PDF version of the same file.
> > Take a look. I could have specified margins, of course.
> > 
> > Note that in this demonstration I haven't even approached:
> > 
> > a) pagination
> > b) accented characters
> > c) embedded tabs
> > d) backspace bolding
> > e) backspace underlining
> > f) page orientation
> > g) character pitch changes
> > h) line overstrike
> > 
> > And that's just "text" printing.
> 
> Yeah, which is the -only- reason it was 6.9K PDF over 6K ASCII.  Mess with
> all the other stuff, add in graphics, and you start edging into 30%+ bloat
> really quickly.

Perhaps.  But sometimes, you really *want* email to be a fancy version
of a fax machine -- you really care about the output coming out in
exactly the format you intended.  Not to mention it being fileable with
the name you gave it by the recipient, so they can reprint it exactly,
later.

> > By the way, I used Print Wizard to convert this plain-text (DOS character
> > set) file to a PDF. We have also recently added an automated way to
> > programmatically generate a PDF and email it (running in Windows).
> 
> And Print Wizard works great for what it does.  I've seen clients using it.
> The viability of PDF as a format is not (much) in question.  Its bloat may
> be, but its usefulness isn't.  
> 
> What's in question is the sending of large attachments via a transport
> mechanism that was never designed for this kind of thing--on a regular
> basis, no less.

You have a *better* suggestion for the transport of files to a specific
person than email?

> Well this is more like, "Guess you've just had to admin a mail server or
> fifty."  (Probably higher in Bill's case.
> 
> He has valid points.  It's an abuse of the transport technology.

I think perhaps "abuse" is a strong statement of the case.  It's sort
of like "any technology which is distinguishable from magic is
insufficiently advanced".  Certainly, you should do what you can to
optimize PDF's if you think you have a valid reason for using them as
an information transport technology.  And certainly, if you have to use
email to ship them around, you have another set of concerns.

But I don't think that a blanket statement that they have no valid use
is entirely accurate...

In fact, I'm about to set up just such a system for a client, to email
purchase orders as PDF to his suppliers... in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
And you thought the differential formatting problem possibilities were
worrisome already... :-)

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
Designer                          Baylink                             RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates        The Things I Think                        '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA      http://baylink.pitas.com             +1 727 647 1274

      If you can read this... thank a system administrator.  Or two.  --me