NumberlessUsername2 t1_iwjtty2 wrote
Reply to comment by AtraMikaDelia in Digital Books wear out faster than Physical Books - Internet Archive Blogs by koavf
I would say there are no situations where a program can't read plain text, but there are some, albeit few, situations where PDF can't be read. I have definitely opened PDFs that didn't work, or been on a device that didn't have an installed PDF reader (although that latter part was years ago). It's rare, but it happens. Just saying, plain text has always worked because it's basically universal.
AtraMikaDelia t1_iwjvxql wrote
There can be issues with pdfs saving improperly and being corrupted, but the same thing can happen to a text file, or to literally any other file type.
Additionally, every modern web browser is capable of opening a pdf natively, so you don't even need a dedicated pdf reader. And if you have a computer without a web browser, then I'm curious how you're getting the books on it in the first place.
Lastly, even if you absolutely cannot open a PDF because a bandit has appeared behind you and threatened to shoot you if you open a pdf, there are still free ways to convert a pdf file to a .txt, so you could simply convert it into a text file and then read that if you absolutely needed to.
The only reason you'd run into problems with not being able to read a pdf is if you were technologically illiterate, but it would be much simpler for you to simply learn how to open a pdf than it would be for you to try to read an entire book in .txt format.
NumberlessUsername2 t1_iwl4ngh wrote
The fact that the backup if it doesn't work is to convert to text kinda proves the point.
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