We’re gonna need a bigger printer.

Some version of this has been floating around the Internet since 2007, probably earlier. This tweet is pretty emblematic of posts about this claim: it’s stated as pure fact, with no supporting evidence or explanation. We’re meant to just accept that a single PDF can only cover about half the area of Germany, and we’re not given any reason why 381 kilometres is the magic limit.

I started wondering: has anybody made a PDF this big? How hard would it be? Can you make a PDF that’s even bigger?

A few years ago I did some silly noodling into PostScript, the precursor to PDF, and it was a lot of fun. I’ve never actually dived into the internals of PDF, and this seems like a good opportunity.

Let’s dig in.

  • Buddahriffic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    10 months ago

    I’m not sure what you’re referring to. Augustus’ legion might have painted a map like that but they were trying to escape their quest for more space and didn’t really have the time to make any maps about it what with all of the arrow and axe dodging they needed to do.