I downloaded a very interesting paper, and I am annoyed at how it was published.

It is a 40+ technical paper, looks like they edited the whole thing in some word processing software, with graphs, drawings, tables, etc. I bet it looked nice. Then they printed the whole paper and then they scanned it into a PDF. The graphs are tilted, text is fuzzy, there are ghost images on the background (someone's fingerprints on the scanned maybe?). In one word: IT SUCKS! (OK, 2 words)

We are in 2008 last time I checked. if this was 1998 I would understand, but in 2008???

why???

maybe because they did it on a Windows machine?

maybe they don't know how to make a PDF from a word processing program. they could just have it in their mind that the only way to make a pdf is with that scanner that they've got and the included software.

it is 2008, but there are still tons of people that don't "get" technology/computers as well as some of us.

I feel your pain, man...

don't you just want to bitch slap people like that?

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The Taoist Zhuangzi said, "Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone".
The sociologist, and historian, Adam Ferguson described the phenomenon of spontaneous order in society as the "result of human action, but not the execution of any human design".

Maybe because the person who distributed it as a PDF wasn't the one who created the original, so all they had was a hard copy.

Maybe because then the file couldn't be easily distributed without it being apparent it wasn't the original.

Maybe because they used one of those fancy fax machines that will convert to PDF and email if the recipient has an email address in the database instead of a fax number.

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Possibility #C: They wanted to prevent anyone (the average user) from (easily) editing the content, and either don't know about or don't trust the password feature.

Obviously not a bulletproof strategy if you're dealing with anyone with any computer skills at all, but one that might be used in some circumstances.

yeah, I can think of maybe other 10 reasons, but that doesn't mean it sucks less or makes reading this any easier

Reason number 11: The document is made up of many different Word, Excel, Illustrator, Photoshop bits and nobody ever made a pdf. In that case it is much easier to just jam your consolidated paper copy in the machine. This is very common in my industry (environmental cleanup)...makes it a royal PITA to copy large analytical data sets

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan

Quote
Monster
don't you just want to bitch slap people like that?

Yes.

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*We are just a quarantined people under an evil sun.*
--- Richard S. Shaver

Maybe they don't want people to OCR it and steal their IP.

Why in 2008? I still get papers and emails using spaces to center and indent!!!

Quote
Rolando
Why in 2008? I still get papers and emails using spaces to center and indent!!!

Or putting double spaces after a period.

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Quote
M A V I C
Or putting double spaces after a period.

That's purely personal preference. True that it originated in the days of typesetting machines, but there's mucho discussion on the web and the verdict is...some people feel the extra space helps improve readability and others feel that the computer should be deciding the distance and that everyone should force themselves to change decades-ingrained habits and bend to the will of the computer. There are mouth-frothers on both sides of the equation. My opinion...not a subject to waste fretting time over, It's of absolutely no real importance to anyone.

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan

Quote
davester

Quote
M A V I C
Or putting double spaces after a period.

That's purely personal preference. True that it originated in the days of typesetting machines, but there's mucho discussion on the web and the verdict is...some people feel the extra space helps improve readability and others feel that the computer should be deciding the distance and that everyone should force themselves to change decades-ingrained habits and bend to the will of the computer. There are mouth-frothers on both sides of the equation. My opinion...not a subject to waste fretting time over, It's of absolutely no real importance to anyone.

The amount of space needed after a period is built into the font (if it's a good font.) It's not a matter of personal preference... it's already built in. It tends to cause problems in pro layout software and with professional fonts.

People who think it needs more space have much less experience with fonts than the pros that design them.

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The double space does not come from typesetting machines, but from typewriters and fixed space type font design. Since they do not have two different spaces, which in a variable pitch typeset font would be en-space and em-space, the practice of placing two spaces at the end of a sentence came about to improve readability. Software can handle the automatic insertion of the extra space, i.e. the correct space character, as long as it detects an end of sentence,

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