Re: [ARSCLIST] Cataloguing still :-)--was: Cataloguing again--ARSC responsibi...

[Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 9/2/2006 12:42:43 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
I'm going by my own experience:

1) I can't select (highlight and copy) text in a .pdf using my mouse
and the "Edit" menu.

2) I don't own (and can't afford) a variety of software...I'm only
speaking to opening a .pdf file (which will appear in IE6, my
current browser application). Once it's there, I can increase
the size (all the way to 1000% of the original) but not much more!

3) Looking at the digital contents (the actual bytes) that make
up a .pdf file, I don't see the text contents. In MS Word (and
similar programs) the bytes making up the text content are in
the file. Seems to me, if Adobe Acrobat uses the text content
as text...it would have to be in the file as such. Is it
encrypted?

Steven C. Barr
*****************

My experience is that every time I open a .pdf file it takes longer to load 
and has a different set of features. As has been mentioned, there are many 
levels of coding, from bit mapped images to full text and formatting from digital 
source material. Then there are the DRM features and non-Adobe .pdf generating 
programs. And every time I use Acrobat while online I get a popup with a list 
of new features and fixes that I'm supposed to download. 

It is probably a matter of time before Microsoft, Google, and Adobe will 
merge and the entire system in embedded in a terabyte of code requiring a 64 bit 
processor to run. Then there will be a social/econiomic collapse and no one 
will be able to afford the software.

To me, the long term archiving by digitization of books is just as 
questionable as it is for images and audio.

Mike Csontos