PDFDatatype 1.0 -- 15.8.2026
WHAT IT IS
Three AmigaOS datatypes that teach the system to open PDF files. Install
them once and a .pdf is an ordinary file: double-click it on Workbench, or
open it in MultiView, and the page appears -- with buttons to turn pages
and zoom, and text you can mark with the mouse and copy to the clipboard.
Nothing else has to change. Any program that already shows a picture or a
text file through the datatypes system now shows a PDF too.
pdf.datatype plain text pages (a text.datatype subclass)
pdfpic.datatype a page that is one image (a picture.datatype subclass)
pdfdoc.datatype everything else (the general viewer)
You do not choose between them; the file does. Each descriptor carries its
own recognition code, reads the first page, and claims the file or declines
it.
WHAT IT READS
Measured against real documents -- journal papers, slide decks, a hardware
manual, contracts, a 290-page scanned book, work paperwork -- and not
guessed from the specification.
Yes PDF 1.0 to 1.7, from Acrobat, Word, LaTeX, OpenOffice, TCPDF,
scanners, and from the Amiga's own PDFPrinter driver
Yes compressed files (FlateDecode, RunLengthDecode), cross-reference
streams, object streams, linearized files, page trees of any depth
Yes positioned multi-font text, in colour, sideways, with umlauts and
accents -- marked with the mouse and copied to the clipboard
Yes scanned pages in black & white, grey and colour, JPEG included
(handed to the system's own JPEG datatype)
Yes figures placed on a text page
Yes lines, boxes, rules, curves and filled shapes -- a schematic of a
hundred thousand line segments draws in full
No encrypted or password-protected files: they will not open at all
No fillable forms and XFA, annotations, transparency, gradients and
pattern fills, and re-usable drawing groups (Form XObjects) -- a
page built entirely out of one comes up blank
No CCITT G3/G4, JBIG2 and JPEG 2000 scans
No embedded fonts: text is drawn in the nearest Amiga font at the
nearest available size, spaced by the document's own measurements
No non-Latin writing; no text search, no links, no editing
The manual says all of this again, at length, in a form written for
readers rather than for programmers.
WHAT IT IS NOT
A READING tool, not a proofing tool. It exists so a PDF can be read on a
640x256 screen, in sixteen colours, on a 68000 with two megabytes.
It is NOT suitable for print production -- for judging, checking or
approving anything going to a printing press. The typefaces are not the
document's, the colours are the nearest your screen can manage, fine
hairlines round to whole pixels, and some page content is not drawn at all
and does not announce that it is missing. Use a real prepress application
for that, on a machine built for it.
For reading what a document says, what a drawing shows and what a table
contains, this is exactly what it is for.
WHAT YOU NEED
AmigaOS 3.0 (V39) or newer -- that is when datatypes.library appeared.
Developed and tested on AmigaOS 3.2. A 68000 with 2 MB is enough; big
scans and dense drawings want more, and a page that will not fit is shown
a zoom step smaller rather than refused.
Pages that are pictures are decoded here and displayed by the system's own
jpeg.datatype and bmp.datatype, both of which ship with AmigaOS. Text-only
pages need neither.
Four builds are supplied, one per processor family -- 68000, 68020, 68040
and 68060 -- and the Installer picks the one your machine has. About 400 KB
installed.
WHAT IS IN THE ARCHIVE
Install the Installer script: processor, manual, languages, done
Files/ four builds of the three classes and their descriptors
Docs/ the manual, in English and German, as AmigaGuide
Tools/ DTInfo and DTLoad, Shell diagnostics for when a PDF opens as
plain text
INSTALLATION
Double-click the Install icon. It asks which processor you have (already
detected and pre-selected), whether to install the manual, and in which
languages -- then copies the classes into SYS:Classes/DataTypes, the
descriptors into DEVS:DataTypes, and registers them. No reboot.
Then open a PDF.
LICENCE
Copyright (C) 2026 Marcus Gerards. All rights reserved.
This covers the datatype classes, their descriptors, the diagnostic
programs and their documentation, icons and other supplied files.
You may download, install and use the Software free of charge for your own
private and personal purposes.
It may NOT be sold or otherwise distributed commercially, in whole or in
part. It may NOT be bundled or combined with any other software, hardware,
magazine, cover disk, collection or product. It may NOT otherwise be
published, redistributed or mirrored, in any form, whether modified or
unmodified. Each of these requires the author's prior written permission --
please ask first:
Marcus Gerards
marcus.gerards@googlemail.com
The Software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or
implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability,
fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement. In no event shall the
author be liable for any claim, damages or other liability arising from, out
of or in connection with the Software or its use.
All rights not expressly granted above are reserved by the author. The full
text is in the manual, under "License".
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