Re: Designing docs for PDF

[Dick Margulis <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net>]

Rowena,

A big, fat "IT DEPENDS," of course ;-)

A few thoughts:

For a document that will be read as a document--such as a résumé or a 
journal article or a technical report--I'd start with the premise that 
the page size should be full screen (i.e., having an aspect ratio of 
4:3).  On the other hand, for something like a Help system, I'd want a 
little bitty page that I could scootch over to the side of the screen. 
I'm not sure I'd go with something as odd-looking as the Acrobat Help 
format, but the size isn't too bad.

For type, I'd go with fewer words per page than if I were designing for 
paper. That way, I could use larger fonts and feel somewhat more 
comfortable about using distinctive, perhaps even elegant, serif fonts 
rather than just defaulting everything to Arial (as I would in a 
small-format, low-resolution environment). I wouldn't go to the extreme 
sizes typical of a PowerPoint presentation, though, unless that was the 
sort of thing I was aiming for.

I'd keep line length to something under 65 characters or so, either 
through the liberal use of white space or by going to two columns. 
However, two columns is problematical if you think people might want to 
enlarge the page to read it (resulting in the need to scroll down to the 
bottom of column one and then up to the top of column two). Maybe it's 
best to avoid multiple columns of text, come to think of it.

I'd take advantage of the availability of free color to color-code 
different heading levels. I think this can be done in a way that 
enlivens the page without being garish. Just use a fairly muted palette. 
It's usually best to keep the body text black on white, though.

HTH,

Dick

Hart, Rowena wrote: