Re: Encrypted Japanese PDF GREAT!!

[Frank Bennett <bennett@example.com>]

On Wed, Jul 19, 2000 at 12:36:01PM +0900, Dave Grummer wrote:

> What are you using to create the Japanese PDF files. Are you doing it 
> dynamically. What libraries are you using in the code. I would like to 
> create dynamic japanese pdf files but have been unsuccessful in finding 
> libraries that support TrueType font and vertical writing. Do you know of 
> any?

Oops.  Touched a nerve.  :-)

<RANT>

I've been working at the PDF problem from the other end, extracting useful
data from the PDF bogon matrix, rather than the other way around.

The Japanese government publishes its official gazette in a journal called
Kanpo.  The page images are made available on a government-run Web site in
encrypted PDF format only.  Each set lives on the site for five days,
after which it is pulled.

By distributing in crippled PDF format only and for a short time only, the
government presumably is trying to secure the subscription base for its
official gazette.  That's fine for the government, but for the ordinary
citizen it is a bit like publishing the law on the inside of a cow.  You
can't search a collection of such files, and you're meant to be unable to
print or to copy the text.

PDF is a sophisticated means of making information widely unavailable. 
Its use should be limited to documents that the general public can safely
ignore.

</RANT>

If I had information on how to run the process the other way, I would pass
it on, though; sorry I can't help.

Cheers,
----
-x80
Frank G Bennett, Jr         @@
Faculty of Law, Nagoya Univ () email: bennett@example.com
Tel: +81[(0)52]789-2239     ()