News Group Posts

pdf files dumb

I certainly aggree with this. PDF is great if you really need it, but I see far too much PDF used where HTML would have been a better choice because there was no need to control the display. PDF requires another program (even if it is configured to run as part of your browser, it is still another program) and is harder to edit and search.

I think you also need to consider the importance and urgency of the information. If the document in question contains information on the sonnets of some obscure French poet, it may not be a burden to require extra software to read it. Where I get really teed off is when technical articles are presented in pdf or other formats that require third party software. If your Mac is barely running, and is crashing at the slightest provocation, the last thing you need is to have to run Acrobat to read about what might be causing your problem. Straight HTML can be read (not prettily, but certainly accurately) with nothing more than telnet working- no IE, no Netscape, and certainly no Acrobat.

There is also the issue of speed. I may not care how long it takes to download the French Poets page, but when I'm stuck with a 14.4 modem because it's the only working piece of junk available at 9:00 PM at a broken customer's site, and I need information from your technical site, I will not be happy to see pdf as my only choice.

Another good general rule is that people shouldn't have to download anything to view your site. They may not have space, they may not have time, or (again) there just may not be a version that runs on their OS.

I had a funny (!) conversation recently with someone who designs web pages. He was showing off his home page, and I noted that he made heavy use of Java. I questioned that, noting that people with 56K dialups would be frustrated by the slowness. He said that was exactly his intention, because his company also sells DSL! So the concept is that his customers will be convinced to get a high speed connection to properly view the pages this guy designs for him. I pointed out that this attitude doesn't do much for the ultimate readers of his customer's pages, but he didn't care..

So, it does depend on what kind of documents you are presenting and whether you care if some people can't read them or have difficulty. I have no idea what kind of documents you are putting out there or for what purposes, but a "it's their problem" attitude may be appropriate- or then again, it may not. I certainly know it is not appropriate for technical sites (yet it is done) and it's probably not wise for any site trying to maximize their exposure.

Subject: Re: dumb pdf files
> 
> I'm reading your Corel Linux Deluxe review and was surprised by the
> "those dumb pdf files that web morons put up on their sites"
> statement.  We've started using pdf with increasing frequency to
> distribute documents.  I'm curious as to how moronic we are.


The problem is that pdf's requre a separate viewer- Acrobat
Reader.  If the documents really need to be pdf, that's
fine, but if not it is harmful in several ways:

o It requires that extra reader that isn't necessarily
available on the platform the user has, either because Adobe
chooses not to compile for that platform (they won't compile
a SCO vesrion, for example) or because the reader is using a
strictly text based browser such as Lynx or one of the teeny
browsers starting to be built into cell phones and PDA's. 
There *are* other programs that can sometimes do a
half-assed job of reading pdf's, but because Adobe keeps
changing it, those programs have marginal use.

o That extra reader of course requires more computer
resources, and on marginal equipment owned by the less
wealthy parts of the populace, may run horribly or not at
all.

o Search engines index text.  Anything withing PDF's is not
going to be indexed by any engine I'm currently aware of,
and therefore remains effectively invisible to web searches.

o Visually handicapped people can easily find programs to
read straight html, but pdf's present a greater challenge. 
I'm not sure anything is available, and if it is, I bet it's
only for Windows (a platform that more and more of us choose
not to run except when absolutely necessary).


Of course, there are advantages to pdf's, and if you really
need that precise formatting, then you should continue to
use them.  However, I'd still recommend am alternate
straight HTML/GIF version be produced for the reasons given
above.
 

1 comment

More Articles by Tony Lawrence

Jump to Comments

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them. I resell or can earn commissions from the sale of some of these items. Links within these pages may be affiliate links that pay me for referring you to them. That's mostly insignificant amounts of money; whenever it is not I have made my relationship plain. I also may own stock in companies mentioned here. If you have any question, please do feel free to contact me.

Specific links that take you to pages that allow you to purchase the item I reviewed are very likely to pay me a commission. Many of the books I review were given to me by the publishers specifically for the purpose of writing a review. These gifts and referral fees do not affect my opinions; I often give bad reviews anyway.

We use Google third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.