I agree - Responsive HTML would be the ideal solution since it is designed to be viewable on many platforms and formats.
That would address part of the issue - the multiple columns and having articles that are non-contiguous are another part of the challenge. Authors, publishers, vendors should fix this. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lionel B. Dyck Mainframe Systems Programmer - TRA -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Andrew Rowley Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2017 1:00 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Sales PDFs - a rant I have to disagree. PDFs should be formatted for printing - if screen is your primary aim, PDF is the wrong format. PDF is typically laid out with an intended page size and shape. Screens on the other hand vary from phones and tablets (portrait or landscape) through to large screen monitors. Responsive HTML is supposed to be the solution across all the different screen shapes and sizes. On 5/10/2017 6:22 AM, Dyck, Lionel B. (TRA) wrote: > I've received a number of PDF's from different sales organizations and > publishers - each one is formatted for a printing. > > 1. I am not going to print the file to read it > 2. I am going to read it on my workstation monitor > 3. My workstation monitor is NOT in vertical page format but is > landscape orientation > 4. That means I have to scroll down and then back up for a multi-column > page > 5. Adobe Acrobat, and most/all PDF readers, will faithfully present the > supplied PDF I whatever format it receives them and thus does not reflow the > text/images for easy reading based on the platform > 6. Epub files are nice but not easily read - same for mobi (which can > only be read by a kindle or kindle app) > 7. PDF's that are intended to be read on a workstation monitor should be > formatted for easy reading that way > a. Don't have multiple columns that cross a page boundary > b. Don't split an article among non-contiguous pages > c. Keep the pages to something that can be easily read on a horizontal > display (think 17" display for most sitting around me or smaller if reading > on a laptop) > 8. Develop a pervasive file format that flows based on the display and > is easy to read and replace PDF's by 2020 (or sooner) > -- Andrew Rowley Black Hill Software +61 413 302 386 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
