> They do if your want to fill them out in the browser coupled with an authenticated context, which is usually pretty important for forms. Usually you don't just want random users filling out any data within your enterprise.
> Usually people want onboarding to be as frictionless as possible. Downloading the PDF and using some editor outside the website then coming back to upload it counts as friction.
Wait, are you saying there's a workflow for which the most frictionless solution is to have the user fill out a PDF, on an authenticated website and submit the PDF in the browser? As opposed to, say, <form>? Can you elaborate?
I once had the displeasure of submitting a Form W-9 on an authenticated website. It was an unmitigated disaster involving one time codes distributed over email via a team of apparent actual people outsourced outside the US, a website, PDFs POSTed to said website, and marked-up copies of said PDFs emailed back by said outsourced team asking inane questions. And, presumably since the whole mess wasn’t actually machine-readable, the form still got entered wrong and incorrect tax forms were issued.
It would have worked much better as an emailed PDF, or a simpler form. Or an ordinary non-PDF form that would generate a filled-in PDF that the user could then sign.
> I'm going to discontinue this conversation though.
Sometimes the PDF itself has to be signed. No conversion from forms. Also, tons of people would rather not have to download the PDF and email it, especially if they are on mobile. There's almost 0 usability advantage to doing that, because Adobe acrobat or whatever other pdf reader that users have and lets them sign stuff is often worse than even a JavaScript implementation. I'd much rather just sign on the browser than send an email back and then... wait or not have an immediate confirmation, or just having to deal with anything else than just pressing next.
I'm sure a lot of people here will disagree but most websites don't target the minority that prefers an email based workflow.
> Usually people want onboarding to be as frictionless as possible. Downloading the PDF and using some editor outside the website then coming back to upload it counts as friction.
Wait, are you saying there's a workflow for which the most frictionless solution is to have the user fill out a PDF, on an authenticated website and submit the PDF in the browser? As opposed to, say, <form>? Can you elaborate?