[cups.general] OT: PDF versions (was: Problem printing pdf document)

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

On Sep 7 22:21 Ambrose Li wrote (shortened):
> On 07/09/06, Johannes Meixner <jsmeix at suse.de> wrote:
> > Seriously:
> > Ask the software vendor of the pdf generator which PDF level
> > the generator generates and if the PDF level can be choosen.
> > If it can be choosen, perfer a lover PDF level.
> > If a too high full-featured-topmost-high-level-make-user-happy
> > PDF level is used, existing software may not yet be able to
> > process its topmost-high-level-make-user-happy-features.
> 
> Seriously, this will not solve anything.

Using the topmost-high-level-make-user-happy-features by default
causes a lot of problems.
Being more conservative avoids a lot of problems.
Of course this may not "solve" any problem but what's wrong
when it works because a possible problem is avoided?


> No version of PDF can be guaranteed to
> be correctly viewed in all versions of Acrobat PDF Reader.

Of course there is no guarantee.
Nevertheless when someone reports a problem with PDF,
it is a good idea to tell him to try out if the problem
also happens with another (preferably older) PDF version.

In particular xpdf/pdftops does/did not support the
topmost-highest-level of PDF.


> And btw, whether the file can be correctly interpreted by Ghostscript
> has nothing to do say about whether the file can be read elsewhere.

Of course - again there is no guarantee (I wrote "very likely").


> PDF being "portable" is just a joke.

Obviously when new features are added to a data-format specification,
old-stlye applications which do not support the new features may
no longer be able to process the data-format correctly.


What would you tell a user who reports a problem with a particular PDF?
Would you tell him what you wrote, which means that it is hopeless?
Or wouldn't it be better to tell him about some best effort attempts
which may help him to solve/avoid/get-rid-of his problem?


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
-- 
SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5      Mail: jsmeix at suse.de
90409 Nuernberg, Germany                    WWW: http://www.suse.de/