Subject: Re: [baidarka] Aleutian Kayak out of print
From: cholst@bitstream.net
Date: Fri Jul 11 2003 - 10:24:37 EDT
It is true that a PDF version of the book could be quite large. I'm currently
working on a 175-page manual that converts to an 8 MB PDF file; however, a
large part of that is due to a multitude of screen captures, about one for
every two pages. If it had fewer graphics, I'm sure it would be much smaller.
Despite large file sizes, PDF has some distinct advantages over HTML. I
mentioned the single download file advantage. But also, a PDF version would
allow the whole book to be searched at once. HTML is also searchable, but only
a page at a time. A PDF version could also be fairly easily created with table
of contents and index links to the content, depending on the source application
(Word doesn't do index links, but PageMaker and FrameMaker do).
It would not be necessary for anyone to print out the entire book. Acrobat
quite happily prints single pages and ranges of pages. But for those who did
want to print the whole book, it would be much simpler from a PDF file than
from multiple HTML pages.
Of course, there is no reason -- aside from time and effort -- why it could not
be published as both PDF and HTML, with the latter perhaps being the more
current one. The manual I am working on now will have both PDF and HTML
versions (the latter for online help) in addition to print.
Finally, I am willing to help with the PDF side of this project if you are
interested. I am a technical writer with all the tools, including Acrobat 6.0
Professional -- and I have both editions of the book in my library.
Chuck Holst
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