This is very interesting. We could easily ask for a different format, but we do want to preserve the format of the document, and we do want a format that can be readily used by contractors. How would we / contractors save documents in SGML? It's not a format I'm familiar with at all. John ---------------------------------------------------------- John Wood Senior Archaeologist Planning and Development Service The Highland Council Glenurquhart Road Inverness IV3 5NX Tel: 01463 702502 Fax: 01463 702298 Email: [log in to unmask] Web: <http://www.higharch.demon.co.uk> This Email (and any attachment) is intended for the exclusive use of the addressee(s) only. You should not disclose its contents to any other person. If you receive this message in error, please contact the sender and delete the message. Thank you Opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. -----Original Message----- From: afa2 [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 22 January 2001 10:40 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: pdf Ed, It worries me to see you recommending the pdf format for data storage. Use of pdf raises problems in terms of long term preservation. At the ADS we already have problems in dealing with data in once popular formats that are no longer current. It is clear that pdf is difficult to update or migrate and hence to maintain in the long term. Far better to recommend established standards such as HTML, plain text or even RTF which we will still be able to read in a 100 years time. Unless the formatting of a document is as important as its content (as in a manuscript perhaps) there seems little justification for using pdf. Even here SGML might be a better option as pdf output is fairly low quality (blurry). Moan over. Tony -- ______________________________________________________ Tony Austin http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/staff.html Computing Officer Archaeology Data Service The King's Manor York YO1 7EP UK phone +44 (0)1904-433975 fax +44(0)1904-433939 http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/ ______________________________________________________