PDF's was Many things

[Randy McLaughlin]

From: "Jim Battle" <frustum at pacbell.net>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 8:14 AM
> Jim Leonard wrote:
>> Eric Smith wrote:
>>
>>> By default, DjVu uses lossy compression, which is
>>> significantly smaller.  But for archival purposes, I *much* prefer the
>>> lossless coding.  Should I decide to OCR the documents at a later date,
>
> I have a comment on that below.
>
>>
>> To be fair, DjVu lossy-encodes the graphics, not the text.  One of the 
>> "selling points" of the format is that B&W text is kept on its own 
>> lossless layer.
>
> On my Wang site, I've put up all of my documents as both djvu (because 
> they are much smaller -- often 1/3 the size) and as PDFs because almost 
> nobody has djvu.
<snip>

For me I looked into DjVu but like Jim I decided it is not practical to only 
post DjVu.

I started with a simple goal to post the manuals of greatest interest to me. 
I found a site that had similar goals (Howard Harte's manual site) and 
decided to send my manuals to him and mirror his site.  I also mirror other 
sites I consider important such as Jim's SOL-20 Archive and post other files 
not part of my mirrors.  After some thought I signed up for a 3gb site with 
a 25gb/mo band width.  Before I knew it Howard's site exploded to over 
3.5gb.

I faced with the choice of going to DjVu or putting out more cash to keep 
the files as PDF's.

I ended up purchasing another 4gb site with 75gb/mo bandwidth that I 
hyperlink to transparently giving me 7gb, I just hope it is good enough to 
last a year.

I use PDF's simply because it works and it is the defacto-standard.  It is 
not a perfect answer but it is the "best" answer, it gives access to the 
majority.

Anyone unable to handle either the large file sizes or PDF formats have 
other options:  They can talk a friend into downloading it and converting to 
PS or printing, pay a office supply/cyber-cafe to do it, check with Herb 
Johnson.

I provide the PDF's for free but if someone has to pay someone to print them 
they are at least available.


Randy
www.s100-manuals.com