Re: PDF vs HTML

[Cas Tuyn <Cas.Tuyn@xxxxxxx>]

Hi,

My EUR 0.02 regarding Dan's mail (clipped slightly):

> What Utter Nonsense!
> 1. Experimental results have established that .....
> 2. Experimental results show that .....
> 3. ..... people understand more when the
> screen looks like a well-designed printed book.
> 4. Real-world experience ..... Most people who browse through 
> long HTML documents adopt the print-before-reading habit

IF 
   you see online publishing as onscreen viewing of information
   layed out such that it requires an A4 monitor with a 600 dpi 
   resolution, 
AND 
   you do not have that monitor,
THEN
   everything Dan said makes perfect sense.

OTOH, when you take the limitations of your reader and his/her
screen and environment into consideration when you design the 
new layout, HTML may approach the readability of the paper 
publication. 

In industry/business environments with 800x600 screen laptops 
and paperless environments the typical multicolumn, side-headed 
A4 PDF (with print resolution graphics) is a scrolling exercise, 
and a memory/diskspace hog too. Furthermore, when you change a 
few words in a PDF file, the whole file needs to be replaced, 
while HTML is normally split in many small files, so you only 
have to ship a small file.

Some realworld experience: since 1994 I used FrameViewer to 
publish our 3000 FM files and 5000 illustrations, arranged in 
small files per Frame's documentation recommendations (see 
Chapter 18, Planning online systems). 
Last year I had the choice between PDF and HTML. I chose to
create the navigation in PERL, which accesses a plaintext 
database with all files, and when you click on a link, you 
get a WWP prepared HTML file. 

To avoid an output format battle, BOTH formats may produce 
acceptable results, when designed with the end user in mind.
I thought HTML was a bit underexposed in this particular thread,
but I use it as well in addition to HTML, when people want to
print the documentation remotely.


	Kind regards,

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Cas Tuyn                                             cas.tuyn@asml.nl
Publications department	                        tel: (+31) 40 2303723
ASM Lithography	                                fax: (+31) 40 2303883
De Run 1110                                     mail:    P.O. Box 324
5503 LA  Veldhoven                                 5500 AH  Veldhoven
The Netherlands                                       The Netherlands
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-







** To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@omsys.com **
** with "unsubscribe framers" (no quotes) in the body.   **