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Web site design philosophy: .html and . pdf John Morgan 05-24-2005
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Posted by John Morgan on May 24, 2005, 9:11 pm
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Though I have designed and implemented a number of large reasonably
well received web sites I do not consider myself a graphics designer

I am now for the first time going to work with a graphics designer. I
notice that in the draft design the idea will be that many 'pages'
will in fact be pdf files. I suppose I exaggerate slightly but the
site could turn out to be a series of 'contents'pages comprising links
to pdf files which are for downloading and reading with Acrobat
Reader.

I am inclined to the view that this approach conflicts with what I
have regarded as the fundamental idea of the World Wide Web as
originally designed, namely the use of hypertext/hyperlinks to get
deeper and deeper into a topic or to depart to some other linked site
to pursue another avenue of knowledge on a topic.

My designer friend says that it is good by using pdf to keep a
document's original design after time and effort has been spent on
designing it in the first place. It takes a lot more time to re-create
every page of a supplied document into html with the pages having less
visual impact than with a pdf file. Security of content - a lot less
people will be able to steal text from documents.. Broadband use: slow
dial up is dying and therefore so are slower downloads.

I would be interested to hear any views on the pdf v. html approach to
web site design which might help clarify my thoughts on this matter,

Best wishes, John Morgan

Posted by Chuck on May 24, 2005, 10:11 pm
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"John Morgan"

> I would be interested to hear any views on the pdf v. html approach to
> web site design which might help clarify my thoughts on this matter,

Your friend is talking out of his nether regions.

Take his advice at your professional peril.

The only reasons to go the way he is describing are:

1) Laziness
2) Arrogance
3) Ignorance



Posted by C A Upsdell on May 24, 2005, 10:33 pm
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John Morgan wrote:
> Though I have designed and implemented a number of large reasonably
> well received web sites I do not consider myself a graphics designer
>
> I am now for the first time going to work with a graphics designer. I
> notice that in the draft design the idea will be that many 'pages'
> will in fact be pdf files. I suppose I exaggerate slightly but the
> site could turn out to be a series of 'contents'pages comprising links
> to pdf files which are for downloading and reading with Acrobat
> Reader.

There are surely SOME times when this is the right approach.

There are surely RARE times when this is the right approach.





Posted by AES on May 24, 2005, 9:34 pm
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> > site could turn out to be a series of 'contents'pages comprising links
> > to pdf files which are for downloading and reading with Acrobat
> > Reader.
>
> There are surely SOME times when this is the right approach.
>
> There are surely RARE times when this is the right approach.


As a frequent (even if amateur-level) both user and supplier of web
content I agree strongly with those comments -- but can there not be
some way to solve this problem with technology?

PDF format is just so useful for storing files on your HD -- so easy to
read PDF files on screen from your HD -- so easy to create from
essentially any other application -- so widely used by journals,
vendors, etc, as a distribution medium for all kinds of material -- so
easy to email -- so nearly free from cross-platform problems (as
compared to Word, PowerPoint, etc) -- so good as a seminar presentation
medium -- just so competent overall that it's my standard format for
storing, sending and presenting information.

(And of course Reader is as universal as it is free.)

So, nearly all the electronically stored stuff on my HD is created or
acquired and saved in PDF. In fact, when I encounter an HTML site on
the web that I want to capture for future offline reading or reference,
I don't download the HTML and read it offline using a browser; I use
Acrobat's Web Capture to download and capture it as a PDF document.

And even though I have adequate beginner's competence in HTML and tools
for creating it if need be, I want to share my stuff or make my stuff
available on the web primarily in PDF, or at least straight from PDF by
a one-click route.

So, let's get the tools to make PDF "a right approach" -- or at least an
OK approach -- for the web, by either:

1) Getting browsers that are much faster and more competent in
downloading PDF from the web, or

2) Making it really easy to autoconvert PDF documents straight into
HTML pages for putting stuff on a web site. (Acrobat can apparently do
something like this -- but Acrobat's online Help is not at all helpful
in saying how.)


Posted by Blinky the Shark on May 25, 2005, 4:47 am
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AES wrote:

> So, nearly all the electronically stored stuff on my HD is created or
> acquired and saved in PDF. In fact, when I encounter an HTML site on
> the web that I want to capture for future offline reading or reference,
> I don't download the HTML and read it offline using a browser; I use
> Acrobat's Web Capture to download and capture it as a PDF document.

> And even though I have adequate beginner's competence in HTML and tools
> for creating it if need be, I want to share my stuff or make my stuff
> available on the web primarily in PDF, or at least straight from PDF by
> a one-click route.

Let me get back to you, will you? I'm trying to find you a 12-step
program for recovery. ;)

--
Blinky Linux Registered User 297263
Killing all Usenet posts from Google Groups
Info: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html

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