Re: [oiic-formation-discuss] The importance to users of documentslooking the same

[Radoslav Dejanović <radoslav.dejanovic@opsus.hr>]

robert_weir@us.ibm.com wrote:

> Putting aside the question of achievability (or not) of "pixel
> perfection", is there anyone here that doubts the proposition that the
> proposed TC can and should improve the interoperability of rendered
> output of ODF applications?
> 
> Put differently, is there anyone who would refuse improvement if it is
> not perfection?
> 
> If not, let's include a goal of improving that area in the charter.  The
> fact that perfection is not possible should not prevent us from doing
> what is doable.

I might be wrong here, but I suppose that interoperability is about
having information sent from point A to point B in such a way that it
does not degrade in the process?

In that case, and this is about something called Open Document Format,
I'd say that while retaining perfect rendering is crucial for things
like images, I do not think that it does matter for, say, a spreadsheet
or a letter to retain perfect alignment or flawless table boundaries, as
long as important data - text, numbers, formula, etc. If I get a letter
from my bank, I do want to be sure that the numbers are correct, I don't
really care whether my office program would render it slightly more to
the left than the original document written on other software.

Rendering documents should be of primary concern to software developers,
and let them handle that, it's their job.

What I really care is, as I said - to get information from A to B -
intact. If the printed documents do not visually match perfectly...
well, I couldn't care less. Pixel perfection should be the goal of
software developers, if they want their product to succeed.

I am not against the pixel perfection goal, but I do think there are
more important issues to be solved before that. And, if you really,
really have to have pixel perfection, use PDF/X.