Adobe Acrobat and HTML

[Bob Long]

At 09:15 AM 10/22/96 -0700, David G. Risner wrote:

>This is exactly correct.  HTML was created for the express purpose of
>allowing the client to adjust their settings to make the information
>readable to them on whatever computer they were using.  Acrobat has the
>opposite philosophy.  If forces the page to look exactly the way the author
>wants it to which in the computer world means you will force it to be
>unreadable to some people.

Point taken. But I see this as a hinderance rather than an asset.
        I WANT my HTML pages to look exactly the way I intend them. Who
wouldn't? I strive to control every pixel on the screen, (not always an easy
task with things like browser offset to contend with).
        It is 25% more difficult read text on a computer screen than it is
in printed form. That's a limitation we have to live with. But in light of
that, we have all the more reason to apply the same principals of design to
a web document that we would to any other doucment we are creating.
Indenting and good use of white space go a long way toward relieving some of
that 25% handicap.
        Form and function can work together. You just have to be willing to
work at it.
        Read Jan Tschichold's (yan chick-old), "The Form of the Book"
(Hartley & Marks, 1991) for more on good page design. Also try Edward R.
Tufte's, "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" (Graphic Press,
1983). Not as "techy" as it sounds. :)

Bob Long
Eastern Shore Regional Library, Inc.
http://www.esrl.lib.md.us/