[WEB4LIB] Re: PDF versus HTML

[Andrew Darby]

One other thing to keep in mind is where and how your audience will read 
the document.  PDF is great for printing out and reading, where you want 
your document to look <em>just so</em>, but is a real pain to read 
online (imho) because of the jerky scrolling, lack of that comforting 
cursor, the excruciating wait while the doc loads, the possibility your 
user won't have acrobat installed (or their browser will conk out part 
way through), etc., etc.

But it sure is easy to convert a word doc to pdf . . . .

Andrew Darby
Web Services Librarian
Ithaca College Library
http://www.ithaca.edu/library/

> 
>>Hi,
>>
>>We have a number of print documents which we wish to make available on
>>the web. My boss is very keen on saving these documents as PDF files and
>>making them available on the web in this format.
>>
>>I think it would be better to convert the documents to HTML but am
>>finding it difficult to marshal my arguments. Many newspapers eschew PDF
>>in favor of HTML; they must have their reasons. Newspapers are
>>essentially a print medium and it would seem that PDF is tailor made for
>>putting print media on the web.
>>
>>When should PDF be used and when should HTML be used?
>>
>>Regards
>>John 
>>
>>John Fitzgibbon
>>
>>Galway Public Library
>>Island House
>>Cathedral Square
>>Galway
>>Ireland
>>
>>p: 00 353 91 562471
>>f: 00 353 91 565039
>>w: http://www.galwaylibrary.ie 
>>
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