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Making a PDF that’s larger than Germany (alexwlchan.net)

submitted 9 months ago by Ninjazzon@infosec.pub to c/technology@lemmy.world

29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Some version of this has been floating around the Internet since 2007, probably earlier. This tweet is pretty emblematic of posts about this claim: it’s stated as pure fact, with no supporting evidence or explanation. We’re meant to just accept that a single PDF can only cover about half the area of Germany, and we’re not given any reason why 381 kilometres is the magic limit.

I started wondering: has anybody made a PDF this big? How hard would it be? Can you make a PDF that’s even bigger?

A few years ago I did some silly noodling into PostScript, the precursor to PDF, and it was a lot of fun. I’ve never actually dived into the internals of PDF, and this seems like a good opportunity.

Let’s dig in.

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[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Isn't PDF vector (with pixel drop-in elements)? Those should be scaleable to the word size (e.g. 128 bit) But the problem with these like some open world games is a lot of empty space with few exciting features.

1200DPI the size of Germany, or even enough text to fill Germany with 12 point fot would be impressive.

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Your aspirations are too tame.

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

It's a niche hobby now, but next year we'll be a dozen of us! Wait and see! Buahaha