Yes, there are tradeoffs. But for archival PDF has one major advantage: it is actual, widespread standard widely considered being suitable for archival. Fast-forward 50 years, which one do you think is more likely: finding a PDF reader or a MAFF reader?
How do MHT creation tools handle dynamic pages? Another major win for PDFs are that you are essentially requesting a static version of the content if you use the "print to PDF" method, so it works nicely for archiving even if some fidelity is lost.
> it is actual, widespread standard widely considered being suitable for archival.
For archival of webpages? Who recommends that?
> Fast-forward 50 years, which one do you think is more likely: finding a PDF reader or a MAFF reader?
If I can't find a MAFF reader, I can unzip the MAFF and deal with the files directly, as I have already done in automating some editing some of the SR MAFFs to remove my username. It was much easier than the last time I wanted to edit a PDF, where it took me several hours to figure out how to do just one edit by hand.
> How do MHT creation tools handle dynamic pages?
They don't, but I haven't seen any 'print to PDF' mechanism which handled dynamic pages either. So I'm not sure how this is a 'major win' for PDFs compared to MHT/MAFF.
Doing this can be handy with Creative Commons licensed items, so that you have proof of it. I started doing this when I noticed that some people will change the license to something that is non-CC.
How do MHT creation tools handle dynamic pages? Another major win for PDFs are that you are essentially requesting a static version of the content if you use the "print to PDF" method, so it works nicely for archiving even if some fidelity is lost.