<p>You download it often to read academic paper, research note, even a profile of your favourite candidate on your smart phone or tablet.<br /><br /></p>.<p>But according to a World Bank study, most of pdfs are left buried unread on the servers.<br />Of the 1,611 pdf reports the study looked at, only 25 were downloaded more than 1,000 times in the five-year period between 2008 and 2012.<br /><br />Over 31 percent of the reports the group looked at - 517 separate research papers - were not downloaded a single time.<br /><br />The reason for this is because "pdfs often give up machine readability in favour of human readability". <br /><br />"The basic format does not include any requirement that text be selectable or searchable," said a Guardian report.<br /><br />Data presented as charts and tables is often impossible to export in any useable way.<br /><br />Despite efforts to create 'pdf to html' converters, they still need human oversight to check for errors of interpretation.<br /><br />According to the study, "more expensive and complex reports on middle-income countries with larger populations tend to be downloaded more frequently".<br /></p>
<p>You download it often to read academic paper, research note, even a profile of your favourite candidate on your smart phone or tablet.<br /><br /></p>.<p>But according to a World Bank study, most of pdfs are left buried unread on the servers.<br />Of the 1,611 pdf reports the study looked at, only 25 were downloaded more than 1,000 times in the five-year period between 2008 and 2012.<br /><br />Over 31 percent of the reports the group looked at - 517 separate research papers - were not downloaded a single time.<br /><br />The reason for this is because "pdfs often give up machine readability in favour of human readability". <br /><br />"The basic format does not include any requirement that text be selectable or searchable," said a Guardian report.<br /><br />Data presented as charts and tables is often impossible to export in any useable way.<br /><br />Despite efforts to create 'pdf to html' converters, they still need human oversight to check for errors of interpretation.<br /><br />According to the study, "more expensive and complex reports on middle-income countries with larger populations tend to be downloaded more frequently".<br /></p>