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While I'm sure both Mr. Emory and Mr. Nielsen make some salient points, I
haven't got enough time or energy to address them all. But here's a basic
point that someone recently made to me about PDFs: The Internet is not an
8.5 x 11 medium.
Furthermore, it's worth mentioning that standards tend to last longer and be
more respected if they're open source. Adobe's, clearly, is not.
That's all I got at the moment. DB.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Emory [mailto:danemory -at- primenet -dot- com]
> Sent: 21 June 2001 20:14
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Nielsen's Rating
>
>
> Jacob Nielsen's polemic on PDF as an on-line medium reveals
> his lack of
> even a basic understanding of PDF's capabilities and
> advantages. His claim
> that PDF produces a 300% reduction in readability is not only
> absurd, its
> outrageous. Moreover, strictly speaking, there is no such
> thing as a 300%
> reduction in anything. Nevertheless, after making that
> assertion, he twirls
> 180 degrees (I suppose Nielsen would say 180%) and suggests
> that PDF is
> probably the best solution for anything over five pages! Common sense
> informs me that the longer a document is, the more important
> readability
> becomes, thus he appears to be admitting that PDF has
> superior readability.
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