On Jan 12, 2009, at 4:18 AM, Ian Lynch wrote:
The snag is that if they want to print the document it is safer to use
pdf otherwise there is a risk of formatting anomalies that are
difficult
to predict and most likely with HTML.
Ian,
I probably wasn't completely clear. First I think what is important
needs to be defined and understood. For example someone mentioned
legal pleadings recently. Clearly the format is almost as important as
content to judges and lawyers who really don't have real jobs anyway.
<grin> PDF will ensure the document 'looks' to those who get it pretty
much the same way it did to the person who created the PDF. I'm not
sure that the changes between an HTML document I create and what you
see are so substantial as to warrant discarding and open standard for
a proprietary one.
The reason I did not suggest PDF and did suggest HTML, RTF, and DOC in
that order was of the following considerations.
As regards content: There is the physical text and images that make up
the content. They are what matter most to me.
Documents have parts. On the first page there is often a TITLE,
SUBTITLE, AUTHOR'S NAME, PUBLICATION DATE. On the reverse one would
find COPYRIGHT, PUBLISHER, ... [NOTE most people consider all of these
parts as just part of the text to which they will arbitrarily assign a
typeface and font size. In other words they only consider the
appearance of the document. While I admit appearance is important I
give more thought to substance. When creating html tags of word
processor styles consider what part of the document you are 'tagging'
and then later assign the typeface and font size.]
Some formats are proprietary specifically doc and pdf. Rich Text
Format (RTF) is reasonably open as is ghostscript so if you are anal
about looks then either of them would be a better choice. IMHO
I found the rationale for choosing Quark over Pagemaker an interesting
one that was IMHO without substance. With Quark you can set up
templates that are very very precise. Probably more precise than with
Pagemaker. Pagemaker was much faster to use when creating a newsletter
than Quark and always will be. Neither of them was much good for big
documents or sets of books. However, there are people called 'magazine
designers' who get paid big bucks to design magazines. They decide how
many columns, column width, paragraph styles (ragged left, right,
justified, etc) as well as typefaces and font sizes. They get really
really anal about appearance and continue to sell their customers on
how important it is. Well honest to goodness I'll be darned if I can
tell when a column width is off half a point. (i.e. 1/144 of an inch)
and I'll bet the goth teen standing in the grocery line reading the
magazine won't notice either.
--
St. Doug, Tigger and Puppy in our memory.
Tir na nOg
Wilton, NH USA
