I think you clearly have asked the right question, Mike - what is the purpose of the document?
If it is to be printed (either now or some point in the future), then there is no question that PDF is the correct format. If the format of the content is mandated by law (ala government forms), then there is no question that PDF is the correct format. If the content is to be viewed by some unknown set of users on an unknown set of computers, then again, PDF is the correct format. BUT if the data is for computer consumption at some point, then PDF may not be proper - or at least PDF w/o the proper structure/tagging. So yes, it's clearly worth asking the question and would love to know more. FYI - on a related note, Adobe sponsored a conference last week in DC about "open government" as part of its work with the US Gov't on such initiatives. You can read more at <http://www.adobe.com/opengov/>. A big part of this is working with folks on the proper production of PDFs containing rich, extractable content. Leonard -----Original Message----- From: Mike Marchywka [mailto:marchy...@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 8:47 AM To: itext-questions@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [iText-questions] Mission-critical pdf with thousands of statement of accounts / Design considerations to be verified by the experts hoping to elicit input from Leonard but I have been fighting a bunch of bloated web sites that impede automation lately and this request sounds like it is headed down that path. Since I have accused adobe of being a big offender in this regard, let me supply some additional thoughts for comment for rebuttal. ---------------------------------------- > Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:25:52 +0100 > From: > To: itext-questions@lists.sourceforge.net > Subject: [iText-questions] Mission-critical pdf with thousands of statement > of> 1. Requirements > PDF includes up to 3'500 statement of accounts, a statement of account can > have up to 50 pages, we do not expect that the PDF has more than 20'000 > pages. A typical batch-run creates a PDF with 3'500 statement of accounts > with a maximum of 3 pages per statement of account. The parameters for the > batch job are: range So, what HUMAN will actually read this? Wouldn't you be better off publishing something machine readable, maybe some summary statistics and a zip file containing the database to let an interested reader run his own queries and analyses on the DB? When is the last time someone you knew read and understood 20,000 pages of accounting information? Have you ever tried to open a 20,000 page PDF file on your home PC, or even download one? You could probably find a free DB to give to users and write a front end rather than making a dead-end pdf file too big for anyone to read. You can convert the account info to text or xml for that matter and combine a db with a report generator. If you must generate a 20,000 page PDF, do you plan on adding information to allow users to extract the numbers in a useful format? Note: hotmail is now unusable for TEXT, I am moving to marchy...@gmail.com or also use marchy...@yahoo.com. Thanks. Mike Marchywka 586 Saint James Walk Marietta GA 30067-7165 415-264-8477 (w)<- use this 404-788-1216 (C)<- leave message 989-348-4796 (P)<- emergency only marchy...@hotmail.com Note: If I am asking for free stuff, I normally use for hobby/non-profit information but may use in investment forums, public and private. Please indicate any concerns if applicable. _________________________________________________________________ Find the right PC with Windows 7 and Windows Live. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/pc-scout/laptop-set-criteria.aspx?cbid=wl&filt=200,2400,10,19,1,3,1,7,50,650,2,12,0,1000&cat=1,2,3,4,5,6&brands=5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16&addf=4,5,9&ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_evergreen2:112009 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july _______________________________________________ iText-questions mailing list iText-questions@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions Buy the iText book: http://www.1t3xt.com/docs/book.php Check the site with examples before you ask questions: http://www.1t3xt.info/examples/ You can also search the keywords list: http://1t3xt.info/tutorials/keywords/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july _______________________________________________ iText-questions mailing list iText-questions@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions Buy the iText book: http://www.1t3xt.com/docs/book.php Check the site with examples before you ask questions: http://www.1t3xt.info/examples/ You can also search the keywords list: http://1t3xt.info/tutorials/keywords/