Comments on: No PDF Press Releases, Please! (Online Media Outreach, Part 7)

By: Nicholas Whyte

Nicholas Whyte — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 12:10:30 +0000

There are no cases when using PDF files makes sense. It is perfectly possible to send non-English characters in HTML - look at my language quiz, for instance. Non-Latin alphabets may be a bit tricky but almost all browsers and emails will show á, æ, ç, é, ú, and þ correctly, and most will also cope with ą, ē, �?, ğ, ľ, ń, ş, and even ů, or even Cyrillic (банани) and Greek (μπανάνες). And if you’re sending emails in a non-Latin alphabet, it’s a fair bet that any recipient whose browsers can’t read them wouldn’t be able to read them anyway!

Also, there’s nothing more annoying than receiving an email which contains all the information but has an attachment, and then opening that attachment to find exactly the same information again - whatever the programme, Word, PDF or whatever.

By: Corina

Corina — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 10:09:50 +0000

In principle, I’d agree with everything you said. However, there are cases in which using pdf files makes sense, for example, if you are not writing in English. HTML doesn’t display a lot of characters that are essential for other languages, and therefore PDFs are needed to make sure the text is readable.

By: Stephen Allen

Stephen Allen — Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:52:13 +0000

I disagree — PDFs are properly formatted and thats the way they should be presented to the public. PDFs also make it easy to have a printable document, with minimum effort. The whole idea is to present the information, and there really is no need to duplicate it by providing HTML, unless one has a pretty nifty CMS, then one can do both. Another objective is to use Flashpaper to present the copy, which is what I usually do. Everybody (well almost everybody, except the luddites) has Flash installed. Besides Flashpaper makes small files, either as PDF or Flash.

OF course the real slick way of presenting data, is to have it in muliple formats. I did this for one of my more recent clients — HTML, Flash, PDF, MSFT Word and Plain Text formats.

By: Larry Blakeley

Larry Blakeley — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 20:15:42 +0000

I’m sorry - the previous post by me contained an erroneous link.

Ms. Gahran - I agree.

I hate PDF’s when they are not necessary. Also, I convert PDF’s posted on my web sites to DjVu most of the time - http://www.larryblakeley.com and http://www.royblakeley.name - the difference in bandwidth usage is very significant.

Larry Blakeley
Dallas, Texas

http://www.larryblakeley.com/Articles/monthly_articles/recent_articles_of_interest.htm

- “No ‘Stinkin’ PDF’s,” Larry Blakeley

Directory: http://www.larryblakeley.com/Articles/

Abstract: http://www.larryblakeley.com/Articles/leonard_nakamura20040915_abstract.htm

File Name: leonard_nakamura20040915.htm

Post Date: September 15, 2004 at 10:30 PM CDT; September 16, 2003 at 0330 G

By: Larry Blakeley

Larry Blakeley — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 20:11:05 +0000

Ms. Gahran - I agree.

Larry Blakeley
Dallas, Texas

- “No ‘Stinkin’ PDF’s,” Larry Blakeley

Directory: http://www.larryblakeley.com/Articles/

Abstract: http://www.larryblakeley.com/Articles/leonard_nakamura20040915_abstract.htm

File Name: leonard_nakamura20040915.htm

Post Date: September 15, 2004 at 10:30 PM CDT; September 16, 2003 at 0330 G

By: Larry Blakeley

Larry Blakeley — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 19:38:43 +0000

Ms. Gahran - I agree.

Larry Blakeley
Dallas, Texas

- “The Calculation of Easter Day, and the Origin and Use of the Word ‘Computer’ ,” Mario Aloisio, University of Malta, as published in the July-September 2004 issue of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE Computer Society.

Directory: http://www.larryblakeley.com/Articles/monthly_articles/

Abstract: http://www.larryblakeley.com/Articles/monthly_articles/mario_aloisio200409_abstract.htm

File Name: mario_aloisio200409 (6,424 words)

Post Date: September 11, 2004 2:45 PM CDT; 1945 GMT