Peter Meyer, 06/04/2018 14:59:
Could we distill these issues online on a wiki page somewhere? Or is it already done? (1) what are the significant differences between pdf and djvu (or some new version of djvu that we could imagine coming up with)
I agree this is important to outline. For instance, is there some Wikisource where PDF files are actively discouraged in favour of DjVu, and for what reasons?
Which DjVu features we dream of using within 5 years, which PDF doesn't provide? Do we want a system where libraries can feed us with DjVu files, the proofread text gets ingested back to the DjVu file and libraries can reuse it? Do we want to use some of the low level features of the text layer to widely deploy some dark magic, such as the captcha-based proofreading we talked about many times or some other interaction between MediaWiki and the scans? What "market" is there for such features?
DjVu became our favourite format back at the time when the upload size limit was around 10 MiB, if I remember correctly, and compression was the most important factor. I often find myself explaining why it's such a useful format, but in the end if someone asks me "so, is it fine to just upload a PDF at Wikisource?" I have a hard time giving an answer other than "sure, don't worry, it will be the same".
Federico