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Comment by orangepanda

1 year ago

I expected to see some eldritch css monstrosity, but no, its just a pdf. A well formatted one, at that.

What’s your issue there?

9 comments

orangepanda

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simonw  1 year ago

Reading two column PDFs on a mobile phone sucks.

Plus I can't use web tools, like "Read this page" in Mobile Safari.

And copying and pasting is harder.

And I can't link to individual sections.

I'm honestly baffled by people who prefer PDFs for this kind of information. Are they printing them out on paper and going at them with a highlighter or something?

  • tmoertel  1 year ago

    Just my personal take, but when I have to read something carefully, I find it easier to do on paper.

    For example, I recently wrote an article about taking random samples using SQL. Even though I was writing it for my blog, which is HTML, I proofread the article by rendering it as a PDF doc, printing it out, and reviewing it with a blue pen in hand.

    What surprised me is that I also found it easier to review the article on the screen when it was in PDF format. TeX just does a way better job of putting words on a page than does a web browser.

    Actually, if you want to do the comparison yourself, I'll put both versions online:

    HTML: https://blog.moertel.com/posts/2024-08-23-sampling-with-sql....

    PDF: https://blog.moertel.com/images/public_html/blog/pix-2024060...

    I don't think either version is hard to read, but if I had my choice, I'd read the PDF version. But maybe that's just me.

    Let me know which you prefer.

    • LeonB  1 year ago

      On mobile phone, as a reader with photophobia, the pdf causes physical pain, and is illegible, whereas the html is perfectly readable via reader mode (where text can be enlarged and dark mode settings are respected.

      3 replies →

  • samatman  1 year ago

    Personally, it's sending it to GoodReader on a 13" iPad.

    I don't know that I'd go so far as to say I 'prefer' this, but there are a lot of PDFs out there, this works fine, and it's a nice change of pace given how much time I spend in front of a monitor / laptop screen.

  • lrem  1 year ago

    Indeed. That’s the easiest way to show your students/professor/coworkers which are the crucial bits.