Interactive visualization of three-dimensional maxillofacial prosthetic data in portable document format: A potential new approach for scientific publications

Rendering three-dimensional (3D) structures of maxillofacial prosthetics within a single two-dimensional (2D) document offers great opportunities for the readers of scientific publications to interactively visualize these structures with in-depth 3D perception. The capabilities of Portable document format (PDF) have not yet been fully utilized in maxillofacial prosthetics publications especially when considering that PDF is the most common file format for publishing articles. This article briefly reviews the application of PDF in the visualization of 3D data within scientific publications. It also introduces an effective interactive visualization approach by embedding 3D data into PDF file for journal publications and discuss its impact on maxillofacial prosthetic publications. It emphasizes on the usage of this electronic document, when used to its full potential, could be used to illustrate embedded 3D interactive maxillofacial prosthetic data, which can be viewed and manipulated by the reader without the need for specific 3D viewing softwares. Thus, this article compiles the capabilities of PDF which is beyond just an electronic documentation exchange and viewing static 2D structures in scientific publications. (Int J Maxillofac Prosthetics 2019;1:2-8)