Web writing seminar... PDFs and print publications
Here is another question from last week's web writing seminar for Academic Impressions.
If you've ever been to one of my web writing sessions, you know that I'm on a crusade to eliminate the practice of posting view books, alumni magazines, and annual reports on websites as PDFs if you have any expectation that a sane person is goint to read them in that format.
Take the test for yourself. If you want to see a full page, you have to view the image at about 50 percent of the full PDF size. If you want to read the text, you have to increase the size to 100 percent or more. And you have to keep doing this as you move through the view book or magazine. That's just nuts.
To top it all off, you probably paid good $$$ for the photography in the publication. In a PDF file, you usually can't see the full photograph as you are trying to read the text, or if you view the page small enough to show the full photo, you most likely can't see the detail in it.
The bottom line: just don't do it. If you are creating archives for posterity, OK. But don't post them in public where they become frustration points for someone who might be interested. Instead, repurpose the publication in a web-friendly format.
"Q: Is there merit in making pdf viewbooks available for those who want to print them and read later?"
Not in my mind. That's an incredible use of ink and only on the very best printers will the quality, especially of the photos, even be close to the quaiity in the original print version. If you want the view book to make the impression it was designed to make, send one in the mail. I just can't imagine that very many people, for instance, would want to print the Boston University view book from a website rather than have one in the mail."
For a good example of a publication done right for the web, see the Carleton University magazine at http://magazine.carleton.ca