Some more PDF haters
by noel on Aug.29, 2008, under Technical Communication, technology
Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I have been busy. I have had a short trip away and lots of work to do.
I just thought I would mention an article I read about PDFs from Charles’ website entitled, Another PhD States: Why I Hate PDFs. Included are some links to a few interesting reads about PDFs.
I have to admit I see little point in producing PDFs because:
- Research from our corporate website shows that less than 10% of readers view the PDFs
- It takes a lot of extra work to ensure that the formatting is correct for PDFs
- We don’t automatically provide hard copies of our manuals anymore
- The time it takes to generate 200-300 page PDFs with images etc., really destroys my timing. Then when you spot a minor mistake you have to correct it and start generating it all over again.
However, the saving grace of PDFs is that they are portable and I think Adobe should start investing time and money in helping organisations make portable PDF e-book readers. They need to provide some sort of incentive. Because there has been plenty of times where I have been on holiday or traveling and pulling out my laptop to read something just isn’t feasible. Now if there was an abundance of cheap, easy to use e-book readers that gave a similar feel to a book i think the popularity of PDFs would shoot through the roof. But until that day happens I am still going to hate them. Unfortunately you would be hard pressed to find one for under $300. Here are some examples:
Anyone know of a cheap and cheerful e-book reader that costs around about $200 and is available in the UK?
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August 31st, 2008 on 12:41 am
The funny thing about PDFs is, as I packed my apartment up to move this week I realized that content has become commoditized. I mean, the majority of weight that I’m moving is not furniture. It’s not clothes.
It’s books. I have bookcases and bookcases of books. I have books and paperwork in storage. I have business receipts in binders of books.
All of this is scannable content. It’s all something that could easily, given the time and effort, be placed into a searchable and indexable PDF file.
With the Netflix / XBox 360 deal, my XBox 360 now has access to about 10,000 titles of movies. My four year old son asked me twice this past week about why I was reading a book at naptime. I told him that it told a story, and reading before bedtime helped me to relax.
Then I thought about the hundreds of pounds of books that I have to carry downstairs, pack into a truck, and unload and sort through at the new place.
Content deliverable through an eBook is really the future. Too bad Adobe is bent on providing yet more media-driven content instead of core, solid readable material. I just don’t think they get it over there. PDFs are great for eBook content, I would love it if I could access cheap content through a plentiful or disposable eBook reader.
Of course Adobe will just bang their head against the wall and fight Microsoft for the Media Player (like, it’s free to users) market would they try to corner the global market in something useful and recharge their PDF empire…
September 2nd, 2008 on 2:48 pm
I can’t agree more Charles. I hate PDFs from the point of view of someone that produces them and I am unhappy with the direction Adobe has chosen to persue. Acrobat has become more bloatware than is necessary and the functions they have added recently probably won’t be used by 90% of the people that use.
The idea of the eBook is something I have been looking forward to for a longtime. I’ve even just stumped up the cash for an eBook Reader.