Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:
For me the question of PDF is not limited by number of pages, or options
that PDF offers, but whether or not it is an efficient format for
sharing cartographic information - for which, so far, I'd say it fails
miserably. How many times have I went to a municipal mapping site only
to find their maps are all in PDF - what a pain! It might just be me
though :)
It depends on how they are made. Do they have a street index
that allows you to jump to the exact location when you click
on a streetname? Are they made out of raster images converted
to PDF or are they drawn using vector data?
Also, in the operational/industrial GIS map production environments I've
been in, we've needed easy ways to print and re-print maps without
having to open a viewer (and our printers didn't support PDF natively -
though I assume some do now). To print, I've focused on native plotter
file formats and/or Postscript since most plotters can support it. Of
course this isn't going to be good for web distribution.
There are ways to work around that print problem ;-)
For delivering digital files, I've often converted the PS files into PDF
but it's been far from ideal.
But then you get a 'flat' PDF without any interactivity.
I don't see any added value when you convert PS to PDF.
I increasingly believe that web-based
tools are going to be the only option. So what about off-line
delivery? A CD or USB runable system is an interesting and more
effective way than a PDF in some cases, though of course both have some
memory overhead issues.
So, is it just me or does stuffing a 1:20,000 topo map into a PDF makes
a huge file that is virtually unusable unless you have gigabytes of RAM
and dual processors. Delivering a 40MB PDF to client who is running an
old computer doesn't bode well for your service ;-)
Er... stuffing a 1:20,000 topo map. The fact that you mention 1:20,000
indicates that you are probably talking about raster images, not about
vector data. If you write the vector data to a PDF, all the data is
compressed. You get really small file sizes when compared to other
solutions.
In short: the major problem with PDF in the GIS world is a lack of
understanding of the Portable Document Format by people who are
specialized in GIS. Of course PDF sucks if you just stuff if with
raster images or use a PDF that was converted from PS. Even a FOP
generated PDF has no added value.
As soon as I have the time, I'll make you some examples.
br,
Bruno
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