Re: Saving PDF File With Xywrite

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Brian Henderson"  on Sat, 5
Feb 2005 15:51:13 -0800


> Yes, I agree that what you see when you open a PDF what you see is
> gobbledy-gook, and most of it LOOKS like binary.

Is binary. The glyphs are compiled. That's the definition of binary.

> But the sections like the
> one below (this is the kind of markup that Patricia refers to) ARE EDITABLE!

I said, "except for the embedded Postscript control info". That's more or less
plain text. But the glyphs, the content, the text, can't be edited. Sure, you
can patch these files. That's what you're doing. Even EXEs generally contain
plenty of plain text. But that doesn't mean you can edit them with a word
processor.

> That's what is so strange about PDFs

Not strange. One look at these files, and you know. You can't edit them with
XyWrite. Period. You need a byte editor.

Therefore this is not the place to discuss it. But to be pointful, if you are
simply patching byte for byte, use DEBUG. If you are enlarging or contracting
the file, but replacing fixed text at a known file location, it is extremely
easy to do that if you have the right tool. Are the edits you're making always
the same, or are they different for each file? Be specific.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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