PDF versus K2F
PDF is a finished drawing. K2F is an editable semantic tree with a compiled, pixel-stable lock. They overlap on “pages look the same,” and they diverge on who can edit what.
K2F is not a lossless superset of PDF. Do not convert a PDF into K2F.
At a glance
| Topic | K2F | |
|---|---|---|
| What the file is | A drawing of pages | Semantic tree (State A) + geometry lock (State C) in a ZIP |
| Pixel-stable pages | Yes | Yes — viewers paint document.K2F.lock |
| Agent-stable node ids | No | Yes — dotted ids in the semantic tree |
| Integrity banner | No | Required (SIGNED, UNSIGNED, SIGNED_BUT_BROKEN, BROKEN_INTEGRITY, UNLOCKED) |
| PDF as editable source | It is the file | No — PDF_IS_NOT_A_SOURCE; export is a drawing of the lock |
| Arbitrary vector art in source | Yes | No in State A (a real loss versus PDF) |
What PDF is good at
PDF is the right choice when the deliverable is a drawing: print, archival pages, and documents whose authors never need to edit meaning by node id.
It already has pixel-stable pages. K2F matches that property on the lock, not by re-running a layout engine in the viewer.
What K2F adds
Agents edit the semantic tree — headings, tables, amounts — by stable dotted ids. They do not scrape glyph positions out of a PDF.
Official viewers paint the published lock. They do not layout body text in the browser. Integrity banners are required; PDF has no equivalent in the format itself.
Honest losses versus PDF
- No PDF import.
PDF_IS_NOT_A_SOURCE. Treat a PDF export as a read-only rendering of the lock. - No arbitrary vector art in State A. Illustration-heavy PDFs are a real gap. K2F v0.1 is paged documents with a semantic tree, not a drawing app.
- Not a viewer-format clone. PDF reader differences still exist in the PDF world; K2F reports
ENGINE_MISMATCHas hash provenance while viewers stay UNSIGNED or SIGNED.
When to pick which
- Stay on PDF when the document is already a drawing and nobody needs agent-stable ids.
- Use K2F when agents must edit meaning and humans still need a pixel-stable page.
- Export PDF from K2F when a counterparty only accepts PDF. That export is not the source of truth.
See the full matrix on Compare, or why K2F exists.