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PDF is the 3rd most popular file-format on the web

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
September 16, 2021
4 replies
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PDF is the 3rd most popular file-format on the web (behind HTML and XHTML); more popular than JPEG, PNG or GIF files.

https://www.pdfa.org/pdfs-popularity-online

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jane-e

Community Expert

PDF is the 3rd most popular file-format on the web (behind HTML and XHTML); more popular than JPEG, PNG or GIF files.

https://www.pdfa.org/pdfs-popularity-online
By @JR Boulay

Duff Johnson, CEO of the PDF Association, never said that PDF is more popular than image formats.

Abambo

Community Expert

PDF is the 3rd most popular file-format on the web (behind HTML and XHTML); more popular than JPEG, PNG or GIF files.

https://www.pdfa.org/pdfs-popularity-online
By @JR Boulay

Duff Johnson, CEO of the PDF Association, never said that PDF is more popular than image formats.

By @jane-e

You can also compare apples with pears and draw clever conclusions.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

I wonder why this 2021 topic was resurrected. It made no sense in 2021 and it makes even less sense today.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

JR Boulay

Author

Community Expert

What are the Pandora Papers?

"More than 4 million PDFs"

Thank you @TheTimesofMalta for saying their name!

https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/what-are-the-pandora-papers.905212

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

W

Wim5F94

Participating Frequently

If you have a look at the referenced Mime-types statistics:

https://commoncrawl.github.io/cc-crawl-statistics/plots/mimetypes

you would understand that this is referring to browsers accessing files directly. OBVIOUSLY by far most JPG, PNG, and GIF files are part of web pages (HTML), and therefore are not listed in that table. The percentages listed for image formats refer to users accessing images directly via the URL bar.

Since PDF files are generally directly linked to (rather than images, which are part of web pages, mostly) it is rather expected to see that PDF files are encountered more often in stats like these.

The linked page actually tells us how PDF is more popular than Word documents, epub, PPT, or other document formats for sharing with others. Which makes total sense. This said, anyone downloading books from book stores such as Amazon will tell you that those stats are reversed, and Kindle, epub, and even audio books are the popular document formats. 😉

Anyway, you misunderstood the intent and meaning of the article(s): PDF is not more popular than the commonly used image formats on the web: merely more often directly linked to.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

...you would understand that this is referring to browsers accessing files directly. OBVIOUSLY by far most JPG, PNG, and GIF files are part of web pages (HTML), and therefore are not listed in that table. The percentages listed for image formats refer to users accessing images directly via the URL bar.

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@Wim5F94,

I do understand that. Hence my reference to PDF as a media file type more akin to video and audio which is accessed directly.

PDF is used for more than just images and text (eBooks) though. For example, PDF is widely used for interactive forms and data gathering, all of which can be accomplished more efficiently with web technology that is readily supported by all browsers.

PDF was born out of the early computer days when researchers in one hemisphere needed to share scientific papers created on early Win based WordStar & WordPrefect (remember those?) with colleagues on incompatible Apple computers in another hemisphere. PDF was a boon to the scientific & business communities who craved a truly cross-platform compatible file type. Later, governments, schools & publishers adopted PDF for their own uses.

Don't get me wrong. We still use PDF for some things out of necessity. But as years go by, our reliance on it is waning.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

I can't help but wonder how neutral the PDF Association is. Just because there's a lot of PDF still floating around doesn't make it statistically relevant. PDF is just a media file like video and audio but without the browser support.

Currently, PDF has only 53% browser support globally.

https://caniuse.com/pdf-viewer

Meanwhile, MP4 video & MP3 audio have 98% global reach.

https://caniuse.com/?search=MP4

https://caniuse.com/?search=MP3

And semantic HTML5 and (EC6) JavaScript have 99% & 93% browser support respectively.

https://caniuse.com/?search=HTML5

https://caniuse.com/?search=JavaScript

If govt agencies & academia hadn't invested in it so heavily, PDF would be a distant memory now.

Just my 2 cents.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert