[Linux-users] Rotation of PDF files

[Rick Bowers]

At 8/15/2007 11:07 AM, you wrote:
>Ben Duncan wrote:
> > PDF is suppose to be a direct descendant of Postscript (could be 
> wrong here).
>
>I think this is essentially true, but relevant only to the extent that Bill
>Clinton being a direct descendant of Mrs. Noah helps explain anything.
>
>e.g. PDF is different enough that it must be read from a random access device
>and can't be processed as a stream. Great design feature, that.
>
>The sad fact is that PDF doesn't work very well with any OSS apps 
>and not very
>well even with the very closed, bloated and buggy Adobe Reader. Why 
>this is, I
>dunno, but suspect that it is simply a very poor "standard".

My company archives PDF data. It's always a challenge when we get new 
PDF files. Usually they work, sometimes they don't.

The PDF specification is quite clear (and very large). But many 
applications that create PDF don't create it with strict adherence to 
the standard. Adobe, it their great wisdom, has written their 
products to be flexible and ignore poorly-created PDF. So we often 
hear from customers "well, it views perfectly fine in Acrobat or 
Acrobat reader".

So, the net result is that there is a lot of "bad" PDF out there, 
making this an even bigger issue.  Just because it's viewable with 
Adobe products doesn't mean it is properly structured PDF. <sigh>

~Rick


>But we're stuck with in the same glorious way we're stuck with Windows.
>
>Perdition on them all.
>
>Michael
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