18.321 value of PDF?

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 18, No. 321.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

         Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 08:53:19 +0100
         From: Alexandre Enkerli <aenkerli_at_indiana.edu>
         Subject: Value of PDF File Format?

Colleagues, fellow computing humanists,

In a strikingly unrelated context, someone mentioned their aversion for PDF
files. Given that PDF files are rather prominent in academic computing,
what are your thoughts on the subject? Are PDF files a "Necessary Evil" or
a "Gift to the World?" If you dislike PDF files, what are their main
problems and which file format could be used to overcome these problems? If
you see PDF files as a blessing, what makes them so useful? If you use PDF
files, what do you do with them?
Of course, issues related to the Acrobat family of PDF-processing tools are
quite separate from issues related to the PDF file format. It seems that
this "PDF critic" mentioned earlier was mostly complaining about Acrobat
Reader. Issues related to the file format itself seem more relevant to us.

Oh, and yes, several things have been written to praise or condemn PDF
files. But in the context of Humanities Computing, it'd be interesting to
see what PDF represents for people in our fields.

Alex Enkerli, Teaching Fellow, Visiting Lecturer
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Indiana University South Bend, DW
2269
1700 Mishawaka Ave., South Bend, IN 46634-7111
Office: (574)520-4102
Fax: (574)520-5031 (to: Enkerli, Anthropology)
Received on Sat Oct 30 2004 - 05:02:43 EDT