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10 Years of HexaPDF
A look at the last 10 years of implementing HexaPDF and creating a business around it
It all started due to missing features in an existing library (like with kramdown and so many other things) and an odd desire to implement a largish specification from scratch. This functionality is self-contained and only about 50 pages of the specification, is fundamental for the rest, needs careful thinking about the data structures, can be implemented incrementally, and provides instant gratification. And it turns out that HexaPDF creates the smallest files in nearly all cases while being in the same ballbark performance-wise (i.e. only about 1.5x to 2x slower with current Ruby plus YJIT) as the C++ tool.
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