1.2 Metadata and page parameters

Before we take a look at the contens of the PDF file, we should give a few thoughts to the document metadata. Unlike HTML, the file is not centered around contents, but around presentation. This presentation should be the same no matter what medium you display a PDF with - which is why we need to give exact information about how we want to display the document.

As an absolute minimum we have to set the page size. This page size in inherited to sub-pages, so you can structure your PDF either in a way that minimized file size or flexibility (and set the page size on each page). For this purpose, we have to toake a look at the coordinate system of a PDF.

Since a lot of times you'll also want to display text in a PDF, we'll also take a look at the font system. Usually you'll want to know the document title, author, etc. - which is saved in the info dictionary.

Next up: Metadata