reillyeon
commented
8 months ago Client-side PDF generation would be a useful feature as well but is opposite to the goals of this proposal, which is to better support scenarios where the generation of PDFs is happening on the server.
The second most significant use case for opening the print dialog, apart from sending something to an actual printer, is the PDF export. I’d suggest exploring this possibility to cater to this use case, too. Possible options:
Digital export. Explore adjusting the printing settings in a way that would benefit digital PDF export, not printing. For example, colors and backgrounds are on by default, slight picture compression is on by default, etc.
Compression settings. Add a method for setting the compression level for embedded pictures so that exported files would take less space. There’s often a limit set for uploading documents. All kinds of PDF compressors are always on top of the AppStore ratings since there’s no simple way of compressing a PDF using OS’s tools.
Password protection. Add a password protection feature so government websites can generate PDFs with private access without setting up expensive back-end solutions for generating such documents.
These are just a few examples from the top of my head. I’m sure there are more use cases that might help future-proofing this API for the fully digital era that’s hopefully coming ahead.