I was checking the current submissions for pdf on the rare formats battle and rly liked them. but I also noticed it's something completely different from what I expected, since pdf gives you writist points and these submissions are more on the gfxist side of things.
I was wondering if it wld make more sense to classify pdf as a gfx format. even tho that wld result in a 1-format only class and I don't want plaintext to feel left alone, that poor thing

Because pdf is so flexible, I think the way people will approach it will be influenced in part by how it is classified -- if it's described as a Writist format, people will be more likely (though obviously not guaranteed) to treat it as a Writist format by creating bitpacks and entries accordingly, and if it's described as a Graphxicist format people will treat it as a Graphixicist format.

The Very Rare Formats battle might not be representative, because it doesn't have a bitpack. Lacking any prompt that would incentivize focusing on writing, many folks are just trying to push the limits of the format in whichever way they find interesting, which in the case of pdf involves a lot of graphics.

I think that pdf fills an important niche if it's viewed as a Writist format (as a sort of "fully-featured" Writist format relative to plaintext, kind of like allgear is relative to Chipist formats). On the other hand, if it's viewed as a Graphixicist fomat, it's very similar to svg.

So I think pdf adds more to the site if it's framed as a Writist format, even though the line between Writist and Graphxicist may be hazy.

It's like WordArt, it could be either

Well, pdf itself is an abbreviation for Portable Document Format. So it's still a document, even though many people use it for images.

Anyway, moving pdf from Writist to Graphixicist is weird tho

i think it generally skews towards writist - overall, i'd be much more likely to expect to Read Some Text in this format vs a visuall, pixel, draw etc... and, the format is basically totally accessible to people who don't do graphix things (specific bitpacks aside).

definitely do agree the lines can be blurred though, and i like the other arguments in favor of writist classification...

you can also draw using text, e.g. in my submission for the very rare formats there are more than 1300 words.

I have a dumb solution. When you get more than 1 point in the format, you get BOTH grafixist and writist, split as evenly as possible

we should implement multiclassing anyway, there are a lot of formats that are kinda two or more things

botb multiclassing, coming right after clan battles, pit fights and tournaments

implementing multiclass wld be so exciting cuz it means botb becomes more a strategy game...!!!

technically isnt that whats happening with xhb entries already anyway...?

Here's an alternative thought: plaintext (in the sense of "a .txt file that is experienced simply by viewing it as text") can also be viewed as either a Writist or Graphxicist format, and the site deals with this by having two different formats: plaintext and ascii.

Does this mean there should be two pdf formats: pdf-writing and pdf-graphics?

(I would say no, though I have more of a lumping rather than splitting

attitude towards formats, and this seemed worth bringing up.)

just wanna say I'm also very fine if nothing changes. it just felt like an interesting discussion to start/an interesting point to bring up

if pdf were a very popular and often used format, there might be a bigger incentive to do that split, but as it is now i think it's just fine

Sounds like a matter of playing by the rules. Both ascii and plaintxt formats exist and use the same underlying filetype/format but are intended to be used for different purposes. Same deal here, pdf is supposed to be used for writings/text or at least have that be the main focus but is allowed to have some graphics here and there.