pdf reader powered by LENS

[nejaz1]

The LENS browser is amazing for consuming papers. Any chance you guys are considering developing a stand alone pdf reader powered by the same engine?

[gnott]

Lens is reading XML as its input data now, which is easily parsed by the web browser. Converting a PDF to the same output format would be challenging and it is not in the Lens project roadmap at this time.

On a separate track eLife will experiment trying to convert PDF to XML, and if that yields good results, then it might be possible to display the result of that in Lens.

[blahah]

we are working on PDF -> XML over at sciencefair, and also looking at build a good web-native PDF reading experience that essentially dissolves the PDF into something as semantic as possible

see e.g. sciencefair-land/datasource-requests#18 for PDF -> XML

if eLife are working on anything similar, please drop a line and we can collaborate