[pdftex] [tex-live] PDF 1.5 by default in TL 2010

[Élie Roux]

2010/1/13 Philip TAYLOR <P.Taylor at rhul.ac.uk>:
>
>  Thus unless there is clear and indisputable evidence
> that (say) 98,5% of TL users can handle compressed PDF 1.5 w/out
> any difficulty,

I've been looking for statistics on PDF viewers, but I don't think
such a thing can exist, as I don't see any method to produce them...
It looks obvious to me that noone uses AA 5.05 anymore, but I must say
the TeX world is full of surprises!

> I argue that we should continue to (a) supply TL
> documentation in PDF 1.4, and (b) that TL should be installable &
> subsequently configurable to generate (at least) PDF 1.4, uncompressed
> PDF 1.5 and compressed PDF 1.5 at the user's choice.

I don't think uncompressed PDF 1.5 is useful: most PDF readers don't
even read the version of the PDF, they just try to read it as well as
they can, so practically, uncompressed PDF 1.5 is equivalent to PDF
1.4. But I'm in favor of the option in tlmgr too.

Thank you,
-- 
Elie