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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jmucchiello" data-source="post: 4641467" data-attributes="member: 813">Jeff, the reason it is hard to view PDFs on a handheld device is most handheld devices lack the computing power. I'm sure in 5 years the new iPhone (I'm betting on something like iWork, iCompanion or iComm as the primary purpose will not longer be telephone connectivity) will be able to view any off the shelf PDF flawlessly.Internally, PDFs are postscript files divided into weird chunks. Postscript is a powerful programming language designed to put ink on paper. Over the last 5 years Adobe has been moving away from the ink on paper paradigm. And they won't be sitting around the next 5 years with their thumbs in places no one wants a thumb. No, they will add more and more features to the PDF format to make it more friendly for small screens. PDF 7 (or was it 6) introduced the article format. Not many PDFs take enough advantage of this format. It is designed to be an alternative to the book format. When integration of that format in the readers is more common, PDF makers will make better use of it.The funny thing about changing times is that change cuts two ways. Most people who complain about change bemoan its speed and don't want to be left behind. And others complain change is too slow. Electronic document delivery is only slightly younger than computer networking, say 40 years old. Document systems in the 70s involved low-res paper scans stored in TIFF format costing millions of dollars and email. The 80s brought us TeX, troff, ps and bookman format (SGML). The 90s brought HTML (a bastard child of bookman format), Windows help file, and eventually PDF (an amalgam of postscript and file streaming). Next? Unless Kindles start jumping out of Cracker Jack boxes, PDF is not going anywhere.Tangent: Anyone want to release a <a href="http://www.tiddlywiki.com/" target="_blank">TiddlyWiki book</a>? You could easily get it to print only exactly what you want and it reflows automatically. But I don't know if I'd want try reading such a document. For a book like Magic Item Companion, it would probably be perfect. But I don't think I'd want the PHB in that format.</blockquote>

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