[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On Wednesday 10 October 2007 10:13, Neil Williams wrote: > On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:46:31 +0100 > > James Fidell <james@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Tom Potts wrote: > > > I agree - for Paper Documents - its lousy on a screen*. > > Depends how the PDF is created. It is certainly possible to create PDF > files that are not based on paper sizes. Typically, I produce those > from presentation-type software so there is a gap in the formatting > tools, not the format. > > I'd like to be able to create screen-shape PDFs from DocBook but right > now creating paper-shape PDFs from DocBook is hard enough when using > the formatting tools rather than OOo. DONT! My screen is not your screen! Unless your just trying to print the screen? > > Probably the best viewer for DocBook is actually yelp. I need to find > the XSL that they use at runtime so that I can create yelp HTML files > that others can view outside yelp itself. > > > > However if, as someone else said, you want your paragraph in a certain > > > font then you have to embed all the fonts in your document - that ends > > > up with a severely bloated document. > > Or you could use LaTeX and get a severely bloated package installation > but a smaller (less portable) file. ;-) I nearly used LateX for formulae once until I discovered it was 1000 times faster to knock up a jpg (now it would be a png) of the formula. > > > My recollection of a "seminar" I attended many many years ago, certainly > > before most people had heard of PDF and probably before a lot of people > > had heard of HTML, was that the entire point of PDF was that it should > > render exactly the same way as the originator intended irrespective of > > the medium. > > If memory serves, LaTeX predates PDF, HTML and RTF. > > > That's why it's necessary to embed fonts etc. It's as much > > concerned with presentation as content (in fact, I think I'd probably > > argue that it's *more* concerned with presentation than content). > > Indeed - with a predisposition for US-letter or A4. > > > A corollary of this is that there are a whole range of display devices > > which are wholly unsuited to displaying PDF because they just don't > > provide the necessary functionality. > > They would be fine if the PDF wasn't inherently paper sized. IMHO what > PDF needs is a remapping from paper view to screen view but the problem > with PDF is that despite the verbosity of the format, it doesn't > include *enough* data to remap to a different size because it loses > track of all the page numbers, internal links and document sections. > > > Some authors actually don't care > > about that because it's more important to them that the document should > > render exactly the way they require it to and their attitude is that if > > you can't view it by some method that allows it to do so, tough. > > Sadly, most PDF authors *do not* require that the PDF renders exactly > as they intended - they simply assume that PDF is what everyone wants > because their only other option (as they see it) is a Word document. If > MS actually retained a compatible Word format, most PDF documents on > the WWW would actually be Word documents > > > I think that may be a personal preference thing. I have a 1280x1024 > > display, not large by any standards, and read a lot of PDF documentation > > on-screen. > > I have to read quite a lot on a 1074x768 and the "split-screen" > mentality drives me nuts. These are PDFs inherently designed to be > viewed on the computer as e-learning support but because the originals > also exist in paper form, the PDF is the A4 export of the original. They're obviously not designed to be viewed on a computer then - perhaps copied? Progress on all sides of the computer revolution seems to have progressed inversely proportionately to screen size * disk size * cpu size. > > I much prefer to read DocBook - especially if I can download the > complete docbook and view it in yelp. I think we need a little more meta-data, a lot more cross referencing, a smidgen of automation (re the meta-data), and a lot less formatting (other than style sheets) in our documentation..... Tom te tom te tom -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html