Compare the Computable Document Format (CDF) to Other Technologies

Supported

Partially supported

	CDF	PDF	Flash	JS	HTML5	Java	TeX	EPUB™ 2.01	MS Office™
General Usability
Desktop application functionality CDF files can be deployed as complete standalone applications, including all executable code and required resources contained within.
Embedding on a web page CDF content can be easily and seamlessly embedded into web pages or blogs. The CDF Plugin supports all popular browsers on major operating systems.
Full page within a browser Full page content delivery is possible through browser plugin support.
Dynamic document hierarchy Readers can dynamically open and close chapters and sections in CDF documents. CDF also supports hierarchical, tab, slide, flip, opener, and other document organizations.
Interactivity	CDF	PDF	Flash	JS	HTML5	Java	TeX	EPUB™ 2.01	MS Office™
Dynamically interactive charts and diagrams Instead of relying on pre-computed results, charts and diagrams in CDF can be driven by real-time computation or prompt live computation for new results.
Interactive coding with free-form input With free-form linguistic input support, creating interactive content with CDF can be as easy as entering plain English.
Automatic interface construction With the help of intelligent automation, interface building with CDF requires as little as one line of additional code compared to static content.
Customizable user interfaces CDF standard provides a powerful interface language for sophisticated controls.
Graphics	CDF	PDF	Flash	JS	HTML5	Java	TeX	EPUB™ 2.01	MS Office™
GPU-accelerated 2D and 3D graphics CDF provides GPU-accelerated 2D and 3D graphics for all supported platforms. Unlike many web technologies, it is fully mature and ready to use.
Integration of 3D graphics within a document 3D graphics and other types of content are treated equally and integrated seamlessly within CDF.
Built-in plots and charts for a broad range of subjects CDF provides the most comprehensive visualization capabilities thanks to its included Mathematica engine. The CDF standard provides field-specific plots and charts for finance, statistics, and other areas.
Automated visualization aesthetics CDF automates graphics-detailing with algorithmic methods to provide publication-quality visual material.
Computation	CDF	PDF	Flash	JS	HTML5	Java	TeX	EPUB™ 2.01	MS Office™
Comprehensive computational algorithms Thanks to its Mathematica engine, CDF has access to the world's largest set of mathematical capabilities and algorithms—fully integrated and without the need for additional tools.
Fully integrated specialist functionality CDF includes built-in specialized functions for a wide range of areas, such as image processing, graphs and networks, or statistics.
Built-in finance and data analysis functions CDF includes comprehensive functionality in finance and data analysis—from time-value calculation and derivative computation to the most advanced data fitting.
Publication	CDF	PDF	Flash	JS	HTML5	Java	TeX	EPUB™ 2.01	MS Office™
Mathematical and scientific typesetting CDF standard provides one of the most powerful mathematical typesetting systems available—the very system also used to typeset the math fomulas in all U.S. patents.
Live math typesetting A mathematical formula can be input in a fully typeset form and then immediately evaluated to produce typeset output that can be edited and reevaluated.
Retargetable documents A single CDF document can transform into many different forms—an article, presentation, report, infographic, and application—without much effort.
MathML support Not only does CDF support import and export of the MathML standard, its semantic-faithful approach delivers unprecedented typesetting quality. It is no wonder that Wolfram Research was a major force behind the MathML standard.

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How Does CDF Compare to Other Technologies?

General Usability

Interactivity

Graphics

Computation

Publication