PDF files are clearly capable of containing png figures in their native resolution. I’m an avid LaTeX user, and the includegraphics command does exactly that.
So why is it that, at least in older versions of Microsoft word and powerpoint, conversion to pdf by default introduces severe loss of image quality? This sort of thing happens even with pdf-printers.
I’m not asking how to solve this problem, there’s a hundred links on google for that, I’m wondering why this is/was ever a problem to begin with, given pdf’s ability to just contain the original image. Why did someone chose to introduce a superfluous conversion-to-lossy-JPEG step?
