[pdftex] linearization, again?

[Heiko Oberdiek]

On Sat, Aug 23, 2003 at 08:17:19AM -0400, ivo welch wrote:

> given that gs is not reliably capable of linearizing pdf produced by 
> pdflatex, does han now plan to add it as a feature?

This approach is not very reliable. Look at the pdf specification
what has to be done for linearizing. The contents of \pdfobj and
other commands has to be examined. Currently this is only written
to the pdf file. The objects of a linearized file have a fixed order.
During writing the pdf file, pdfTeX does not know all objects, thus
the step of linearization can only be done after writing the pdf
file. But then a standalone tool would be easier and more reliable
to implement, and can then also be used for other pdf files.

If gs or other already available tools contain bugs, then
write bug reports and try to fix them. Or reinvent the wheel
and write such a standalone tool.

Yours sincerely
  Heiko <oberdiek at uni-freiburg.de>
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