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Unipage - A PDF Alternative?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the uphill-battle dept.

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.

3 of 375 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing for you to see here. Please move along. by luder · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nothing really new and has nothing to do with PDF...

    In Firefox, you can use Mozilla Archive Format extension, which can also save pages in Internet Explorer's MHTML format, to do the same thing.

    Besides, as it is said in Wikipedia, the reason for PDF is to render exactly the same regardless of its origin or destination and they are most appropriately used to encode the exact look of a document in a device-independent way. Unipage suffers from the common problem of webpages rendering differently in different browsers.

  2. Re:Why it can kill pdf by Tet · · Score: 5, Informative
    if you want to use any generating PDF or reading PDF programs you need to pay adobe the big money

    Now, I know this is Slashdot, but even here I'd expect a better effort than this FUD. I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but anyway, you can both read and create PDFs using free (speech and beer) software, the very existence of which is possible because Adobe has kindly released the specs for PDF that are available to all without charge. Nor does Adobe charge for their own reader, although they do keep the source to themselves.

    --
    "The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
  3. Re:Why it can kill pdf by Lehk228 · · Score: 5, Informative

    don't forget the openoffice PDF export and the PDF Creator virtual printer.

    pdf creator is great when dealing with coputers loaded with different software than the location you need to print at.

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.