Slashdot Mirror


Unipage - A PDF Alternative?

A reader writes: "Unipage recently released a beta version of its Unipage Unifier. The Unipage encoding is a way to encode a full page with its images, CSS, Javascript, Flash, and whatnot, into just one HTML file. The 'Unipage Unifier' program instantly turns any online or local page into a 'Unipage' that can be viewed directly in a browser. It saves the mess of files when you normally save a complete web page, but maybe the bigger scoop is that now people can use 'Unipages' to send content rich documents instead of PDF. But Unipages are superior to PDF in their ability to hold functionality (Javascript), Flash animations and practically anything normally possible in a web page. Together with any program that can export into HTML you can get fully styled, dynamic, portable documents instantly. And it's free." Good luck taking down the installed base of PDF.

7 of 375 comments (clear)

  1. Functionality by nagora · · Score: 5, Funny

    But Unipages are superior to PDF in their ability to hold functionality (Viruses)

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  2. Re:HUH by wplinge · · Score: 2, Funny

    If it's based on HTML it can do horrendously-ugly-maths much better than LaTeX.

  3. Re:Why it can kill pdf by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 4, Funny

    You're so wrong on this that I printed your comment as a PDF in OS X just to spite you.

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."
  4. Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along. by borgboy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Except that MHTML isn't Internet Explorer's format, it is an RFC (2110 IIRC) that the collective monetized^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H extinguished^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H implemented.

    --
    meh.
  5. Re:No Mac version. Less functions than Acrobat. La by ChadAmberg · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow, does that mean that it will hang my browser less than Acrobat does? Or crash less? Not just on one system, but on my home boxes, work systems, etc.

  6. Re:*Not* a PDF Killer by legirons · · Score: 4, Funny

    You forgot some requirements:
      - must require zooming in lots of times to be readable, until the page doesn't fit on your screen
      - must support two-column text, so you read down, up/across, and down again
      - must behave differently near pagebreaks, so the scrollwheel suddenly skips 3 pages while the down-cursor stops responding
      - should ideally make your browser crash or stop responding
      - support DRM and ebook features, such as "being viewable only in a browser which displays adverts constantly", "requires connecting to the internet for no good reason", and "uses all your bandwidth downloading lists of people that it shouldn't show the book to"

    Other than that, yeah, I agree that we should ignore it on the assumption that it doesn't support vector graphics, and even if it did, PDF would be better than either it or SVG, because it's written by Adobe, and as we all know, professionals only use Adobe software, and anything free is for losers

    Sorry, couldn't resist. The pro-Adobe guys on slashdot are becoming a bit of a standing joke nowadays. Get back to your powerful, enterprise-level industry-standard bitmap editor you slackers, stop reading slashdot when you're being paid $450,000 per hour for your elite photography skills!

  7. Unnecessary? by Schraegstrichpunkt · · Score: 2, Funny
    From the site: Unipage is a way to store a complete web page as just one file.

    ZIP FILES are a way to store a complete web page as just one file!