CODEWITHSUNDEEP
macospdf
Zelong
Zelong

Reputation: 2556

What is the proper approach of annotation and highlight in PDF file?

First thing first, I have just lost all my annotations and notes in PDF files.

After a restoration by Time Machine, I found all annotations and notes generated by Skim gone. I find a similar case here: http://osdir.com/ml/macosx.skim.user/2008-03/msg00013.html

The Time Machine restoration does not involve Dropbox, i.e. after a restoration, all files sync by Dropbox were downloaded from Dropbox instead of restored from Time Machine. But the Skim notes still disappeared.

I have lost half a year notes and I don't know whether there is a chance to find them. Now I am more concerned about the approach of making notes in a PDF file. I will definitely stop using Skim due to its proprietary note format. But I am worried if the "Preview.app" has a risk of losing notes.

The questions are:

  1. Is it safe to make notes in a PDF file?
    • i.e. The notes may be lost due to different implementations of notes, or during sync among iOS and Mac OS
    • I think the PDF format is designed for reading instead of editing, annotations may be an unwanted action to PDF file.
  2. Is there a common standard of PDF notes?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 954

Answers (1)

Max Wyss
Max Wyss

Reputation: 3605

Annotations are part of PDF (see ISO 32000), and have been so since about PDF version 1.1 or so, which corresponds to what Acrobat 2 could do. If done right, they become part of the PDF document when saving it.

Because dealing with annotations in PDF is not that a simple task, some vendors store the annotations outside of the PDF in a proprietary format, as Skim seems to do. Not knowing how Skim works, I can not say where the annotations are stored. Maybe the makers of Skim can help here.

"PDF is designed for reading" is an urban legend, and should be forgotten about. As stated, annotations are a fundamental part of PDF, and definitely not "unwanted". The way annotations are to be implemented is specified in ISO 32000 (that should answer question 2).

Now, about the tools to use… Considering the shortcomings of Preview.app (improperly writing PDFs), it is strongly suggested to NOT use Preview.app when files have to be written back (as it had to happen when you add annotations).

For OSX and Windows, the "gold standard" PDF viewer is Adobe Reader XI. For iOS, Adobe Reader for iOS is usable as long as it is for annotating documents; for forms and interactive documents, PDFExpert by Readdle is the current leader of the pack.

Upvotes: 2

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