Is a 390-page plain text PDF really 39MB?
Asked by
CuriousReader93
I was trying to download a free book on pandas from a Chinese university website, and I noticed that the PDF file size was 39MB for about 390 pages. This made me a bit nervous about possible malicious content hidden in the file, so I cancelled the download. Is it common for a plain text PDF of that length to be 39MB, and can executable code be hidden in PDFs?
Answers
True, the size doesn't tell you about hidden threats like malicious code; those can be tiny. A rough estimate is around 100KB per page for high-quality scans. If that file is text with no images, it shouldn't be that big, but it's possible with added security features.
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Yeah, a 390-page PDF can definitely hit 39MB, especially if it includes embedded fonts for Chinese characters. PDFs can pack in quite a bit of info, and sizes can vary a lot depending on what's included.
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If you're wary about the source, don't stress too much about file size as an indicator of safety. A file can be small and still harmful. Trust your gut about where you're downloading from!
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FoodyFanatic: Exactly! And if it's mostly images, it could balloon in size fast. Always good to double-check what you're downloading.
ConcernedUser86: Right, and sometimes the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) isn't perfect, which can also affect the file size.