I disagree for a number of reasons. First, I think the reason most people release files as PDF documents is because they have a need for precise formatting which HTML doesn't give. This includes much better print control. Second, PDF doesn't protect text at all; you can select text in even Adobe's PDF viewers for copying. The only viewers out there really designed for such protection are e-book readers. Lastly, I don't think it's the domain of Monks to judge someone's intentions with a project. I'd say that if you don't feel comfortable giving advice to someone, just don't give it. I especially think it's inappropriate to come down condemning someone without any knowledge of how the project will be used. I'd be inclined to think the OP intends to write an engine for searching through PDFs on an intranet, given the insanity of indexing anything more (in Perl, no less). All the above just MHO.

In reply to RE: RE: Reading PDF Files? by athomason
in thread Reading PDF Files? by Melvin

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.