1333
Save as PDF (thelemmy.club)
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[-] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 179 points 5 days ago

You're not lying. You are printing it as a PDF. Your electronic buddy doesn't see a difference.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 66 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Beyond that, also, what's so hard about clicking on "File > Export As... > PDF" which is literally in the file menu on LibreOffice at the very least. I don't know about MS Office, but I would assume it's the same.

[-] Zwiebel@feddit.org 66 points 5 days ago

It can produce different results than print to pdf unfortunately

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 5 days ago

Could you expand on that, I'm curious because export to PDF has always worked flawlessly for me.

[-] Triumph@fedia.io 54 points 5 days ago

Depends on the application. Print to PDF always produces the output as seen on screen, though without things like fillable fields.

[-] autriyo@feddit.org 12 points 5 days ago

Unless you change print options of course, depending on what you're trying to accomplish it can get really weird.

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[-] Zwiebel@feddit.org 15 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I was helping someone and both export and print to pdf each messed up different minute aspects of the design/layout. I don't remember what exactly it was tho sorrx

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[-] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 19 points 5 days ago

I'm going to assume you're on the younger side. That's a relatively recent thing. For many many years we had to install PDF printers.

Also the PDF printer is generic, but the export has to implemented for each application individually.

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[-] TheRealKuni@piefed.social 29 points 5 days ago

Kids today don’t realize how much “printing” to files your computer does.

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[-] rainwall@piefed.social 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

This is as much linguistic tomfoolery for humans as it is a con for computers.

I dont know the history, but the most likely case is some microsoft engineer implemented the "print as pdf" option to get around an adobe restriction in the far past, and now we have this weird convention where you can "print" to only 1 filetype to "save" it.

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[-] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago

Postscript (not the P in PDF, even though I think it should have been) is how Portable Document Format is made.

PostScript’s original purpose was for formatting documents to print with laser printers, but to also interpret font hinting and display features for lower resolution printing. But it required printers to process them before rasterization.

It was so good at this that it made sense to also use it for the much lower resolution of computer screens once computers were powerful enough to do the rasterization themselves. Hence the PDF replacing most .PS (PostScript) files, unless you were a graphic design student in the late 90s.

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[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 126 points 5 days ago

Until you realize that a PDF is literally just a format based around a standard set of instructions used to print documents.

[-] tomiant@piefed.social 170 points 5 days ago

It stands for Print Da File.

[-] ramjambamalam@lemmy.ca 21 points 5 days ago

Reminds me of Arnold's guide to tar:

[-] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 24 points 5 days ago

Print Deeznuts Fuckyou

[-] rmuk@feddit.uk 16 points 5 days ago

Potable Document Format. Retains formatting and safe to consume.

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[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 26 points 5 days ago

Yeah, if you print to a printer what you're most often doing is saving it as an Adobe PostScript file and sending that to the printer. PDF is similar, just with extra bells and whistles.

[-] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

It was like that back in the eighties, until the manufacturers decided to save on the chips by moving functionality into the drivers. Which was basically the start of everyone's problems with printers.

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[-] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 67 points 5 days ago

"Print to file" to create a PDF, but it's Microsoft's stupid alternative format. Can't even remember its name, nobody used it.

[-] NotSafeForWorld@lemmy.dbzer0.com 68 points 5 days ago

Fucking xps format. Like almost everything Microslop had touched, it can burn in software hell

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago

Agreed! I remember back in the day when they first created the docx format. Such bloated garbage. I think an empty file was like 100-200 KB. And PowerPoint files are unreasonably huge too

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

I remember seeing an article about how the xlsx format description was several hundred pages in length.

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

OOXML is over 600 pages, yes. With lots of contradictions and filler words btw. And a "standard" (with scandals abound) that has most of the format as proprietary extensions. And MS Office/365 doesn't even keep to it, so other office suites never have as good support of the format as MS itself.

Use ODF to save your documents. MS started their "standard" because of it anyway, fearing losses in their customer base (that bound them to Windows).

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[-] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 6 points 4 days ago

The best part is Word for example now by default just outputs a PDF file if you tell it to export an XPS file, which gets extra funny if you have a licensed version of Acrobat installed because Acrobat installs an extension to also export as a PDF except it works worse!

[-] sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works 55 points 5 days ago

exports are subject to tariffs, only religious people can be saved. So printing is the secular, free trade choice.

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[-] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 38 points 5 days ago
[-] JustAPenguin@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago
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[-] BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 5 days ago

I see you too are a person of culture.

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[-] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 22 points 5 days ago

What a great shitpost. Fueled a strong comment section. Well done!

[-] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 39 points 5 days ago

Similarly, Android has distinct "share" and "open with" menus but I mostly use the former as the latter.

[-] tomiant@piefed.social 31 points 5 days ago

I think it's worse that it's quicker to take a screenshot of an image online than going through the trouble of saving it.

[-] portuga@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

I can think of several ways I can print a word file to pdf. In the rare occasions I might need a pdf to share. But what I mean is pdf sucks and shouldn’t be allowed on the internet

[-] unmagical@lemmy.ml 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

It's a fine format for what it's intended for, exact preservation of content, format, and layout. Once you start looking at a the immutable archivist/distribution format and start thinking to yourself "I'd rather like to edit that" then you've messed up.

[-] OriginEnergySux@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Boomers made me hate PDF files

[-] bunchberry@lemmy.world 33 points 5 days ago

the world is run by PDF files

[-] OriginEnergySux@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days ago

And the people who can't open them

[-] capuccino@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago

people will call you dumbass because you don't use AI but they can't open a pdf file

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

From my time in tech support I know there are two kinds of cases where people can't open a PDF. In one group, the PDF is broken, usually an interrupted download or otherwise corrupted file. The other group, well, one wonders how this kind of people can walk and talk at the same time.

[-] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 9 points 5 days ago

one wonders how this kind of people can walk and talk at the same time

They can't. These are the people who have a family reunion in the middle of aisle 6 in the grocery store because the haven't seen little Breighlynne since she was this big! We need to get together sometime so all the--

You need to get the hell away from the tortilla chips before I justifiably crash out!

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[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 7 points 5 days ago

Adobe made me hate pdf files.

[-] Spezi@feddit.org 7 points 5 days ago

Most boomers I known would happily send you a docx to sign digitally. So I have to open word to save their crap to PDF to open it in Acrobat to sign it and send it back. They probably wouldnt even notice if I changed the terms in the meantime.

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[-] village604@adultswim.fan 13 points 5 days ago

But it's not anymore. All of the main browsers let you save it directly.

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[-] sheridan@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago

I discovered on Macs, you can unlock a "protected" PDF this way. Just open the PDF in Safari, File > Print > Save as PDF. It outputs a PDF that's identical, except it's unlocked (it doesn't get converted to a bunch of raster images).

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[-] BanMe@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

Who remembers printing to a Postscript file and then running that through Acrobat to get a PDF? Back in the 90s when PDFs had to be explained.

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this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
1333 points (98.6% liked)

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