PDF is an open standard, except when it's not [LWN.net]

PDF is an open standard, except when it's not

Posted Jun 7, 2025 18:24 UTC (Sat) by marcH (subscriber, #57642)
In reply to: PDF is an open standard, except when it's not by marcH
Parent article: The importance of free software to science

To be more precise: it sounds possible to read static XFA with Adobe software, even on Linux.

Dynamic XFA is the "real deal" https://kbdeveloper.qoppa.com/livecycle-dynamic-xfa-forms/
> There are very few PDF viewers that support XFA Dynamic Forms, one can count them on the fingers of one hand.

Both static and dynamic XFA have been deprecated in PDF 2.0?

(That entire confusion and lack of standardization is the problem)

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PDF is an open standard, except when it's not

Posted Jun 9, 2025 5:07 UTC (Mon) by DemiMarie (subscriber, #164188) [Link] (3 responses)

PDF.is can handle XFA just fine.

PDF is an open standard, except when it's not

Posted Jun 9, 2025 14:05 UTC (Mon) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link] (2 responses)

I tried opening a dynamic XFA form on pdf.is and it went much further than everything I tried before, thanks for the recommendation! I can at least see and fill the form, that's great progress. However the form also shows:

> JavaScript has been disabled, the form requires JavaScript to validate properly.
>
> Please enable JavaScript through Preferences under the Edit menu and reopen the form.

The "Validate" and "Clear Form" have no effect.

Maybe it would work better with a higher subscription tiers? But even if it does, we're straying away from "open", "portable" and "reproducible"...

I also tried to convert it to PDF/A and the output still shows "Please Wait..."

I admit dynamic XFA is unlikely to be used by a scientist. But 1. you never know 2. there could be other proprietary extensions.

tl;dr: beware proprietary extensions.

PDF is an open standard, except when it's not

Posted Jun 9, 2025 14:10 UTC (Mon) by DemiMarie (subscriber, #164188) [Link] (1 responses)

Try opening the PDF in Firefox’s or Tor Browser’s built-in PDF viewer. Those might have JavaScript enabled.

PDF is an open standard, except when it's not

Posted Jun 9, 2025 16:18 UTC (Mon) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link]

No difference in Firefox, I'm curious why you expected some?