pshock13/pdfcraft
1
0 Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/storytold/pdfcraft.git synced 2026-10-14 19:27:04 -04:00
Code Issues Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity
Files
ee1ee704639738edaade7fdb71609b77f87ecaac
pdfcraft/docs/gaps.md
T
Mawfyy 33c14e07cf Print: Windows lists its printers and spools jobs (#847) 
* Print: Windows lists its printers and spools jobs (#756)

The Print dialog's printer list comes from Win32_Printer through PowerShell's
CIM (wmic is gone from Windows 11), and jobs are spooled by the embedded
windows_print.ps1: the in-box Windows.Data.Pdf renders each sheet at the
printer's own resolution and System.Drawing.Printing carries copies,
collation, duplex and colour as the job's settings. Both run through
powershell, so the Rust code touches no Win32 API. Fixes #756, with the
printer-not-showing duplicates #160, #244, #293, #465 and #644; CIM approach
from #452. On CI a paused Generic / Text Only test printer catches the job in
its queue; a parser test keeps the script valid PowerShell.

* Print: fix the Windows await helper and render the job on CI (dry run)

Real-machine testing found [System.WindowsRuntimeSystemExtensions]::GetMethods()
failing with 'does not contain a method named GetMethods': GetMethods is an
instance method of [Type], so it is called with '.', the form the canonical
WinRT-await snippets use, not '::'. The first CI run missed it because the
end-to-end test skipped silently when the runner refused the test printer, so
the script had never actually run.

The script now honours PDFCRAFT_PRINT_DRYRUN=1: render every sheet with
Windows.Data.Pdf to PNGs in the temporary folder and print nothing. The test
runs that half unconditionally, so CI exercises the whole WinRT path —
projection, await helpers, render — on any machine, while the paused-printer
half stays best-effort and prints why it skipped. Win32_Printer enumeration
asks only for Name and Default, so a machine with nine printers waits less.

* Tests: the find-options wait in the viewer test is a deadline too

4280f83 converted the frame-count waits in this test to deadlines after the
same 12-of-15 race under a full workspace test run, but left the first wait —
the one for the 'page' matches — on the old 60-frame loop, and it flaked the
same way on PR #847's CI. Same fix: wait up to 20 s for the 15 matches, then
assert.
2026-10-11 00:23:35 -04:00

20 KiB
Raw Blame History

Where PdfCraft falls short of Acrobat Pro

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-10 · Change: minor (alpha markers removed after the gate was re-judged: no gap blocks alpha) · Target: Adobe Acrobat Pro (Acrobat DC, continuous track 26.002.21931, macOS)

Every known shortfall, one entry each, ranked by what it costs users. This is the work list: agents choose from the top unless the owner says otherwise, and prefer these over new P2/P3 checklist features. The numbers behind it are in target-app-parity.md; the per-feature detail is in parity/acrobat-features.toml (cargo xtask parity --partial lists what each partial feature lacks).

No gap blocks the alpha gate; gaps 1 and 8 hold the convert-and-share workflow's partial sub-cases and are the first beta items.

Hours are Opus 5.5 agent wall-clock hours. "Doc" names the parity document the gap belongs to. When a gap closes, delete its entry, note it in the ROADMAP.md progress log and update the numbers.

Summary

# Gap Kind Hours Doc
1 Encrypted files we write don't open in Acrobat file format 8–15 file-format-parity.md
2 Rendering is borrowed and its fidelity unmeasured feature, spec 110–190 pdf-spec-parity.md
3 Editing existing text is fragile on real files feature 100–180 target-app-parity.md
4 No printing on the web feature, platform 15–30 hardware-parity.md
5 Chinese UI shows missing-glyph boxes in releases localization 6–12 localization-parity.md
6 Open-issue backlog of wrong results in shipped features stability 45–80 this file
7 OCR reads only unaccented Latin feature 40–75 file-format-parity.md
8 Office export weak, Office import absent file format 55–100 file-format-parity.md
9 No Preflight; PDF/A partial; PDF/X and PDF/UA absent standards 65–115 pdf-spec-parity.md
10 Signatures: no PKCS #11, timestamp servers or online revocation feature, hardware 40–70 pdf-spec-parity.md
11 Accessibility: checker only, no tagging tools feature 40–70 target-app-parity.md
12 No measured fidelity harness against Acrobat quality (in 2) target-app-parity.md
13 Performance budgets and lazy loading of very large files performance 25–45 this file
14 Arabic not mirrored; no Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Vietnamese localization 30–50 localization-parity.md
15 Forms: JavaScript object model, actions, submit, XFA depth feature 40–75 pdf-spec-parity.md
16 UI precision gaps (multi-select move, rulers, accelerators, windows) UI/UX 30–60 ui-parity.md
17 Certificate security and other protect gaps feature, spec 15–30 pdf-spec-parity.md
18 Print production tools absent feature 25–45 target-app-parity.md
19 Preferences mostly missing UI/UX 15–25 ui-parity.md
20 Scanners, GPU page rendering, pen pressure, Read Out Loud hardware 25–50 hardware-parity.md
21 Compare: no side-by-side view or filters feature 10–20 target-app-parity.md
22 PDF 2.0 extras, linearization, Arlington validation spec 20–35 pdf-spec-parity.md
23 Local AI provider (summarize, ask, alt text, redaction suggestions) AI 20–40 target-app-parity.md
24 Checklist not diffed against Acrobat's own menus measurement 4–8 target-app-parity.md

The gaps

1. Encrypted files we write don't open in Acrobat

  • Missing: interoperable encryption output. A document protected with a password in PdfCraft opens in PdfCraft, SumatraPDF, PDF24 and LibreOffice, but Adobe Reader, Acrobat and PDF-XChange report it as damaged.
  • Evidence: #774 (2026-10-10, confirmed by a second user). Our encryption tests round-trip through our own reader and qpdf --check, which is more lenient than Acrobat.
  • Impact: blocking. Passwords are the most common reason to touch security; a file a recipient can't open is data loss in practice. Partial sub-case of the convert-and-share gate row (unencrypted sharing works), so not an alpha blocker; the first beta item.
  • Fix: find the divergence (likely /Encrypt dictionary or R6 /Perms//OE//UE details, or a string/stream encrypted that must not be), then add an interop suite that opens every kind of output we write in other readers (pdf.js, MuPDF and Poppler as oracle processes; Acrobat by hand on the owner's Mac).
  • Estimate: 8–15 h. Doc: file-format-parity.md.

2. Rendering is borrowed and its fidelity unmeasured

  • Missing: our own renderer (M2: model crate, font engine, DisplayList devices, ADR-0004), or an owner decision to adopt another engine; and any measurement of rendering against Acrobat.
  • Evidence: pages are drawn by vendored hayro 0.7 with 22 local patches to hayro-interpret, 9 to hayro, 3 to hayro-jbig2 and 13 to hayro-syntax (vendor/README.md); lopdf still backs document inspection. All 7 rendering P0 features are partial. User reports: TikZ pattern fills drawn wrong (#794), blurry text at 1080p/1440p (#730), fixed zoom sizes differ from Acrobat (#739). An outside author proposes his MIT/Apache renderer as the bridge (#841).
  • Impact: every page a user sees. Wrong glyphs, shadings or blend modes erode trust faster than any missing feature.
  • Fix: first a fidelity harness (gap 12), then the renderer: own devices (150–250 h in the old plan) or an adopted engine plus our own font and text layers.
  • Estimate: 110–190 h (includes the harness). Owner decision needed on #841 vs M2. Doc: pdf-spec-parity.md.

3. Editing existing text is fragile on real files

  • Missing: robust in-place editing of text PdfCraft didn't write: subset fonts without the needed glyphs, CJK and right-to-left text, rotated text, lists, superscript/subscript, keeping structure tags, find and replace in edit mode; vector and object editing; arrange and align.
  • Evidence: edit.text-edit is partial (font reused or Helvetica substituted); edit.rtl-cjk-editing, edit.rotated-text-editing, edit.keep-tags-on-edit, edit.vector-edit, edit.edit-object-tool are planned. Users: #766 (editing Arabic text), #844 (can't move several elements), #787 (move images between pages), #791.
  • Impact: "Edit PDF" is one of Acrobat Pro's top reasons to buy. Substituting Helvetica changes how a document looks.
  • Estimate: 100–180 h (the longest feature pole, M7). Doc: target-app-parity.md.

4. No printing on the web

  • Missing: browser printing.
  • Evidence: the web build has no spooler: off Windows and unix, spool::submit reports that printing to a printer isn't available and only the print-ready PDF can be saved. crates/print/README.md: "Not yet: the web spooler".
  • Impact: the web build cannot send a job to a printer; printing is a P0 workflow. Printing on Windows shipped with #756.
  • Estimate: 15–30 h. Doc: hardware-parity.md.

5. Chinese UI shows missing-glyph boxes in releases

  • Missing: a Simplified Chinese (Hans) UI face in release builds and a working fallback.
  • Evidence: #826, #688, #728, #758, #689 (Flatpak). AGENTS.md §1.1 bars Noto CJK (Source Han rebranded), so craft-fonts needs another openly licensed Hans face.
  • Impact: the second-largest language group sees a broken interface although the catalog is 97% translated.
  • Estimate: 6–12 h (font sourcing in craft-fonts plus the fallback chain). Doc: localization-parity.md.

6. Open-issue backlog of wrong results in shipped features

  • Missing: fixes for ≈ 25 filed reports of features marked shipped that give wrong results, plus triage of ≈ 220 other open issues.
  • Evidence: 245 open issues on 2026-10-10, e.g. XFDF exchange loses polygon vertices and turns callouts into text boxes (#809, #819), page deletion leaves null destinations (#817, #821), automatic URL linking panics on Unicode text (#816), autosave skips new unsaved PDFs (#815), saving ignores typing in an open paragraph (#811), automation reports success after replacing an earlier result (#799, #800), Shift-Cmd-G goes forward (#810).
  • Impact: every one is a user who lost trust. #816 is a crash, which outranks feature work (AGENTS.md §4).
  • Estimate: 45–80 h (≈ 0.2–0.4 h per issue). Doc: this file.

7. OCR reads only unaccented Latin

  • Missing: every other script and accented Latin; editable-text output; deskew, rotation, despeckle, background and camera clean-up; MRC compression; pluggable engines; OCR in the browser; scanner input.
  • Evidence: ocr.ocr-languages partial ("the models read only the Latin alphabet without accents"); 19 of 26 OCR features planned; #744 (Dutch). Acrobat ships on-device recognition for dozens of languages.
  • Impact: scanned documents are a core Pro workflow outside English.
  • Estimate: 40–75 h, partly blocked on openly licensed models. Doc: file-format-parity.md.

8. Office export weak, Office import absent

  • Missing: Word export that keeps layout; Excel and PowerPoint export; creating PDFs from Office, HTML, web pages and PostScript; SVG/XML/EPS/PS/JPEG 2000 export.
  • Evidence: create.export-docx partial; #773 (an invoice converted to Word loses its layout, gains table borders and duplicates pages); create.export-xlsx, create.export-pptx, create.from-office, create.from-html planned.
  • Impact: "Export PDF" and "Create PDF" are two of Acrobat's most used tools.
  • Gate: lossy or missing sub-cases of the convert-and-share workflow (partial, not blocking). First beta items: Create PDF from Office (LibreOffice sidecar, 10–20 h) and a Word export that keeps layout (20–35 h).
  • Estimate: 55–100 h. Doc: file-format-parity.md.

9. No Preflight; PDF/A partial; PDF/X and PDF/UA absent

  • Missing: Preflight (profiles, single checks and fixups, results tree, reports, droplets); PDF/A-1, PDF/A-4 and conformance levels a/u; PDF/X verify and convert; PDF/UA-1/2 verify; PDF/E, PDF/VT; output-intent choice; transparency flattening.
  • Evidence: 12 Preflight features and 9 standards features planned; optimize.pdfa-validate, optimize.pdfa-convert partial (2b/3b structural rules; CMYK documents get no output intent). Acrobat ships hundreds of built-in Preflight profiles.
  • Impact: blocks print shops, archives and accessibility compliance work.
  • Estimate: 65–115 h. Doc: pdf-spec-parity.md.

10. Signatures: no PKCS #11, timestamp servers or online revocation

  • Missing: PKCS #11 tokens and smart cards on macOS and Linux; timestamp-server preferences; fetching OCSP/CRL online for LTV; FieldMDP and locking fields on signing; the OS trust store; EU Trusted Lists; signature graphics and saved appearances; compare signed version; signing in the browser.
  • Evidence: sign.pkcs11, sign.timestamp-servers, sign.field-mdp, sign.os-trust, sign.eutl planned; sign.pades-bt, sign.ltv, sign.ocsp-crl partial (caller-supplied evidence). Users ask for Acrobat-like validation (#824, #775, #718).
  • Impact: government and legal users sign with tokens and need B-LT/B-LTA.
  • Estimate: 40–70 h; tokens need hardware to test. Doc: pdf-spec-parity.md.

11. Accessibility: checker only, no tagging tools

  • Missing: autotag (document and fields), Tags, Order and Content panels, tag properties, Reading Order tool, artifact marking, table editor, role map, Make Accessible action, Read Out Loud; full keyboard operation of PdfCraft itself and a screen-reader audit.
  • Evidence: all 32 checker rules shipped, but 21 tagging and reading features planned; a11y.keyboard-only (P0) planned, a11y.app-screen-reader partial.
  • Impact: remediation work is impossible; PdfCraft itself is not yet usable without a mouse.
  • Estimate: 40–70 h. Doc: target-app-parity.md.

12. No measured fidelity harness against Acrobat

  • Missing: side-by-side comparison of rendering, text extraction, form calculation and signature validation against Acrobat on synthetic fixtures.
  • Evidence: none exists; only text extraction has an oracle (word-F1 0.98 against pdftotext). Acrobat captures must stay local in plan/acrobat/ (clean-room, AGENTS.md §1.1).
  • Impact: until it exists, every quality number here is a judgement.
  • Estimate: counted in gap 2 (≈ 20–30 h of it). Doc: target-app-parity.md.

13. Performance budgets and lazy loading of very large files

  • Missing: misc.performance-budgets (P0) and core.lazy-loading (P0): open GB files within a memory budget, with budgets checked on Tier-1 platforms.
  • Evidence: #307 brought a 9,156-page file from > 10 GiB to ≈ 500 MiB inspection, but file-backed input and global memory budgets remain open; blurry fonts at common resolutions (#730).
  • Estimate: 25–45 h. Doc: this file.

14. Arabic not mirrored; no Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Vietnamese

  • Missing: a right-to-left layout (panels, menus, alignment), bidirectional text in the text layout itself (wrapping, typed text); catalogs for Hindi, Indonesian, Korean and Vietnamese (Acrobat ships Korean; it ships Arabic in its Middle East edition; it ships none of the other three).
  • Evidence: localization.md §Arabic; misc.rtl-ui planned.
  • Estimate: 30–50 h (Arabic RTL 20–35, four catalogs 10–15 plus review). Doc: localization-parity.md.

15. Forms: JavaScript object model, actions, submit, XFA depth

  • Missing: the wider Acrobat JavaScript object model (annotations, layers, dialogs), document actions, the Actions tab triggers that run JavaScript, form submission, the debugger, barcode fields, rich-text values; XFA flattening and complete dynamic-form fidelity.
  • Evidence: form.js-host partial, form.document-actions, form.submit-form, edit.action-javascript, form.js-debugger, form.xfa-flatten planned; XFA layout, FormCalc and data partial.
  • Estimate: 40–75 h. Doc: pdf-spec-parity.md.

16. UI precision gaps

  • Missing: moving several selected objects together (#844), nudging with arrow keys, single-key tool accelerators, rulers, grids and guides, loupe and dynamic zoom, multiple windows and split view, comment pop-ups that can be moved, connector lines, customisable quick tools, column text selection (#740); shortcut display and touchpad scrolling bugs (#746, #759, #721), macOS window controls (#789).
  • Estimate: 30–60 h. Doc: ui-parity.md.

17. Certificate security and other protect gaps

  • Missing: encrypting for certificate recipients (and opening such files), security policies, attachment-only encryption, redaction pattern locales and partial-word redaction, folder redaction, protected view, URL and attachment trust.
  • Estimate: 15–30 h. Doc: pdf-spec-parity.md.

18. Print production tools absent

  • Missing: Output Preview, separations, total area coverage, overprint preview, ink manager, colour conversion, printer marks, fix hairlines, flattener preview, colour management settings; print as image; PostScript output.
  • Evidence: 18 print-production features planned (L area).
  • Estimate: 25–45 h (part of the L area's 30–55). Doc: target-app-parity.md.

19. Preferences mostly missing

  • Missing: most of Acrobat's twenty or so preference pages (General, Documents, Commenting, Forms, Identity, Signatures, Security, Measuring, Units and guides, Convert, …). Today: Interface language, Documents and view, Identity, Fill & Sign, JavaScript.
  • Estimate: 15–25 h. Doc: ui-parity.md.

20. Scanners, GPU page rendering, pen pressure, Read Out Loud

  • Missing: TWAIN/WIA/ICA/SANE scanning; GPU-accelerated page rendering (pages are rasterized on the CPU and uploaded); pressure-sensitive ink; platform text-to-speech.
  • Estimate: 25–50 h; scanners need hardware. Doc: hardware-parity.md.

21. Compare: no side-by-side view or filters

  • Missing: synchronised side-by-side view, filters by change type, page ranges, scanned documents.
  • Estimate: 10–20 h. Doc: target-app-parity.md.

22. PDF 2.0 extras, linearization, Arlington validation

  • Missing: UTF-8 text strings, associated files (/AF), document parts, structure namespaces; linearized save (Fast Web View); deterministic save; structural validation against the Arlington model.
  • Estimate: 20–35 h. Doc: pdf-spec-parity.md.

23. Local AI provider

  • Missing: the opt-in provider interface (local model or the user's own endpoint) and the features on it: summarize, ask with page citations, alternate-text and redaction suggestions. Acrobat's AI Assistant is a cloud service and out of scope.
  • Estimate: 20–40 h. Doc: target-app-parity.md.

24. Checklist not diffed against Acrobat's own menus

  • Missing: a menu and tool listing captured from Acrobat (names only, plan/acrobat/, never committed) diffed against the checklist, so that features the checklist never listed show up. Also correct misc.localization and misc.installers, which are still planned though both ship.
  • Estimate: 4–8 h. Doc: target-app-parity.md.

Revision history

Date Change Summary
2026-10-10 minor Removed the alpha markers: with the cross-app gate rule, gaps 1 and 8 are partial sub-cases, not blockers; stage alpha
2026-10-10 minor Marked the alpha blockers (gap 1 and the Office part of gap 8) after the core-workflow gate put the stage at pre-alpha
2026-10-10 major Created. Ranked 24 gaps from the 2026-10-10 re-measure, the open GitHub issues and the former ROADMAP.md §Where we're lacking and where we're going (renderer, hardening, fidelity, editing, Pro workflows, 1.0 polish), which this file replaces
Reference in new issue View Git Blame Copy Permalink