This only matters if the pdf has a simple square in it. When it’s an actual scale map, with 1cm detail, it will still be a huge pdf even if it’s vectors.
Sure. It’s all about the level of detail. An 8-1/2x11" pdf with lots of very small detail that you have to zoom way in to see would also be a very big file.
It would be small file size and automatically scaled to fit on your screen, just like normal. If you zoom in an insane amount, you’d have huge scroll bars, just like normal.
Is there even a computer that can load such a PDF
Yes, it’s all vector graphics. It doesn’t matter how big the scale is.
This only matters if the pdf has a simple square in it. When it’s an actual scale map, with 1cm detail, it will still be a huge pdf even if it’s vectors.
Sure. It’s all about the level of detail. An 8-1/2x11" pdf with lots of very small detail that you have to zoom way in to see would also be a very big file.
PDFs routinely contain bitmaps - most commonly in the form of JPEG.
True, but that’s independent of the pdf page size. If there’s a 1e12x1e12 complex jpeg image even on a small pdf page, it would still be a huge file.
oh, so it would be small filesize, just the scroll bar would be very tiny and take a long time to move
It would be small file size and automatically scaled to fit on your screen, just like normal. If you zoom in an insane amount, you’d have huge scroll bars, just like normal.
in what sense is the page dimension that big then, is it just an arbitrary unit, or something to determine print size?
Yup, exactly that. To determine print size.