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A programmer from the UK, Alexan Chan, has created the largest in history the PDF file measures 37 trillion light years squared, which is much larger than the size of even the known Universe.
It is noted that it all started with a single tweet, when information spread on social media that the maximum size the greatest creature ever made PDF files has reached 381 square kilometers, which is comparable in size to half the territory of Germany or the state of Iowa. For years, this statement has been floating around the web as a kind of digital folklore. Recently, Alexan Chan decided to verify this fact. As a result, he managed to create incredibly large is a PDF file that is larger than the size of the known universe.
The traditional Portable Document Format (PDF) format was developed in 1993 by John Warnock of Adobe. The developer was frustrated by computers that distorted the graphic design of different files from different systems at that time. Warnock wanted to make sure that all files looked the same whether they were printed or displayed on a monitor. On a napkin in a restaurant in Silicon Valley, he sketched out his idea, giving the project the name «Camelot». Two years later, users were introduced to the PDF format and the Adobe Acrobat application.
At first, the use of PDF files faced difficulties because they were cumbersome and too slow to upload and download. In 1996, the US Internal Revenue Service began using PDF files as a format for filing tax returns, which was a significant breakthrough. In 2008, PDFs became public domain and open to everyone.
The PDF format remains incredibly popular to this day. It is used both by people in creative professions to create and present their portfolios and by astronauts studying manuals on board the ISS. In 2023 alone, about 2.3 trillion PDF files were created worldwide.
Most PDFs are regular, conforming to common sizes, such as A4 or the North American Letter standard. However, Alexan Chan found out that the PDF format itself imposes few limitations when trying to edit it manually.
The Adobe Acrobat application limits the size of a PDF file to the same 381 square kilometers. You’d think who would need more. Chan explains that the limitations are related to the Adobe Acrobat program, not the PDF format itself.
After careful analysis, the researcher found that PDF files store internal page sizes in units of — by default 1/72 inch each. Starting with version 1.6, released around 2007, these units can grow significantly larger.
In his experiments, Alexan Chan went far beyond Acrobat’s limitations by editing PDFs manually, which proved to be a painstaking task. As expected, Adobe Acrobat refused to support files larger than 15 million inches on each side. However, the programmer found out that these restrictions could be circumvented by using another popular application, Apple Preview, which does not impose similar restrictions on file sizes.
Preview seamlessly allows you to open and display files larger than 15 million inches per side. The programmer gradually increased the size of his own PDF file until it reached a trillion units in width, or 352,778 km, which is roughly the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
However, the programmer decided not to stop there. Later, he created a PDF file with a size of 37 trillion square light years.
«True, it is mostly empty space, but the Universe is also», — Chan comments on the results of his experiment.
To understand, it is necessary to point out that the size of the Universe we observe is approximately 93 billion light-years away. Chan also jokingly warns against trying to print the PDF he created, suggesting that there may not be enough ink in the world to do so. In the end, anyone who wants to verify the real existence of a PDF file that is larger than the known universe can do so at the link.
Source: ZME Science
