14 replies to this topic

[Nick Springer]

We now have the ability to embed a PDF document in a low overhead Flash component called Scribd. This is a very cool service that lets you upload any PDF, Word, or other document and it is converted into their format with unlimited storage.

I think this will be great for the Map Gallery. I have set up a private CartoTalk account so your documents will not be accessible outside of Cartotalk. As long as your PDF is on the web somewhere you can embed it in a post by using the PDF tag. Eventually I will add a way to embed Scribd documents that you may have already uploaded.

By using the PDF tag there is no limit (other than upload times) to the size of a document you can post.

[pdf]Url to a PDF[/pdf]

Here is an example of a file I uploaded.

Scribd

[Adam Wilbert]

wow nick. That look pretty cool. I'm looking forward to using it! Do these load from Scribd's servers, thereby relieving CartoTalk of some bandwidth usage?

Thats a nice looking map of Orcas by the way!

[Nick Springer]

Well, the PDF is still stored wherever you put it but once it has been converted by Scribd, it is on there server, so you are right that it doesn't "cost" CartoTalk anything. In fact once it is converted by Scridb, you can take the PDF down from wherever.

I think I will be using Scribd for lots of things

[frax]

Sounds like the YouTube of PDF.

For CartoTalk it is good, it saves the hassle of having pdf attachments, but in general I don't see such a big point with it, you can embed adobe reader as well.

[Hans van der Maarel]

Looks nifty!

[Nick Springer]

Sounds like the YouTube of PDF.

For CartoTalk it is good, it saves the hassle of having pdf attachments, but in general I don't see such a big point with it, you can embed adobe reader as well.

My experience with Acrobat Reader stability and speed has been less then stellar (especially embedded). This loads way faster and only relys on people having Flash which is way more prevalent than Reader. Not to mention free storage at Scribd.

[Matthew Hampton]

Are there any forgoing of any sort of "rights" to the distribution of this imagery once Scribd gets their mitts on it? Does it become "public domain," such that anyone can distribute and link to it?

[Nick Springer]

Are there any forgoing of any sort of "rights" to the distribution of this imagery once Scribd gets their mitts on it? Does it become "public domain," such that anyone can distribute and link to it?

If you use Sribd for your own purposes you can mark documents as public or private and you can set various rights such as normal copyright, creative commons, etc. You can also set a document to be non-printable.

Documents uploaded through CartoTalk are marked as private som no one can view them other than through CartoTalk.

I just discovered the service yesterday, so I am certainly not a spokesperson for them. There may be other issues I haven't come accross yet.

[frax]

I'd be curious on aspects on using iPaper/Scribd for search engine marketing, not so relevant for discussions on cartotalk, but more in general (for my own site).

Found some stuff when googling, so I need to look more into it!

(my main concern would be that pdf's are indexed by google)

[frax]

Is this feature in place? I have been playing with Scribd lately, and I find the pdf > iPaper engine very shaky - I find it hard to pinpoint what a pdf can have/do to be compatible, most of the time the conversion just fails, and one has to resort to rasterising the pdf and uploading that - which loses part of the point...

[Nick Springer]

Is this feature in place? I have been playing with Scribd lately, and I find the pdf > iPaper engine very shaky - I find it hard to pinpoint what a pdf can have/do to be compatible, most of the time the conversion just fails, and one has to resort to rasterising the pdf and uploading that - which loses part of the point...

It doesn't seem to handle complex PDFs very well. It looks like the sample I posted originally is broken, which is weird, because you'd think that once it was in their DB it would work forever. Seems like they have some work to do still on this service.

[Kartograph]

Thread Necromancy:

Has scribd resolved it´s issues these days? Or is it still "unsafe" to use, as highlighted by the example?

[frax]

Give it a try? I posted some stuff there lately, and it worked, but it wasn't overly complex. I have some other things posted previously, but had problems, and I rasterized all the artwork.

[Kartograph]

Thanks for your experiences! I take that as a "no".

[razornole]

I'm not getting anything on my end except an "Error, Failed to Convert" message. What program am I missing?

kru