To be fair, PDFs have always been complete and utter cockshit to deal with and how you deal with it has changed over time.
For awhile there, you used the Print dialog. Because the PDF authoring software was implemented like a printer driver. Because if you know the history of PDF, it makes a certain kind of sense to do it that way because the bones of PDF is PostScript. Except it’s a dogshit way of implementing the UI, because the user is trained to create a file, you click Save. To create a physical sheet of paper, you click Print. Now you’re asking to create a file, by clicking Print. Makes as much sense as the FCC’s website.
Some programs now implement it through the Save dialog, others have a “Save as PDF…” option in the File menu, and others have an “Export” and/or “Export As…” which I bet a lot of folks who know what that means and would know to look there would struggle to turn it into words.
My favorite was when an update would change, hide, or remove a feature I had never heard of that was absolutely critical to one person’s workflow for an essential task that affected everyone, like payroll.
To be fair, PDFs have always been complete and utter cockshit to deal with and how you deal with it has changed over time.
For awhile there, you used the Print dialog. Because the PDF authoring software was implemented like a printer driver. Because if you know the history of PDF, it makes a certain kind of sense to do it that way because the bones of PDF is PostScript. Except it’s a dogshit way of implementing the UI, because the user is trained to create a file, you click Save. To create a physical sheet of paper, you click Print. Now you’re asking to create a file, by clicking Print. Makes as much sense as the FCC’s website.
Some programs now implement it through the Save dialog, others have a “Save as PDF…” option in the File menu, and others have an “Export” and/or “Export As…” which I bet a lot of folks who know what that means and would know to look there would struggle to turn it into words.
My favorite was when an update would change, hide, or remove a feature I had never heard of that was absolutely critical to one person’s workflow for an essential task that affected everyone, like payroll.