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11 x 17 drawings in PDF files (WAS: Relative Costs of Print and Online Documents)
Subject:11 x 17 drawings in PDF files (WAS: Relative Costs of Print and Online Documents) From:"Metzger, Lucinda" <cmetzger -at- DUKANE -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 23 Jan 1998 09:58:32 -0600
Richard wrote:
>
>One approach is to put all your editing and production work into a "print"
>version, then eliminate most printing and shipping costs by distributing it
>in PDF format via the Web. CDs can provide archival versions. ...RM
>
A perfect lead-in for the question I've been meaning to ask. Right now,
all our docs are still printed and shipped, but we plan to implement
Richard's suggested method very soon. The problem is this: many of our
manuals contain schematics and wiring diagrams that, in order to be
legible, must be laid out on 11 x 17 pages. This brings up a plethora of
problems:
1) How do I handle the PDF file(s) for such a manual? My understanding
is that a PDF file can only have one paper size -- you can't mix 8.5 x
11 with 11 x 17. Should I create one PDF file with the 8.5 x 11 portion
of the manual, with links to another PDF file that contains all the 11 x
17 pages? If these two PDF files are then placed on a website and a
customer downloads both of them, are the links maintained?
2) The presence of 11 x 17 pages would also pose a problem to our
customers. These manuals are designed to be printed out, and due to the
nature of the manuals, our customers would prefer to print them out,
rather than try to view them on-line. Unfortunately, most of them
probably don't have printers that can handle 11 x 17 paper. Depending on
their printer and setup, they might be able to print portions of the 11
x 17 drawing onto 8.5 x 11 sheets, but that introduces readability
problems when trying to follow wiring connections across multiple sheets
of paper. We've discussed splitting the larger drawings into discrete
chunks that can fit onto 8.5 x 11 pages, but it's just not feasible with
some of them. Not to mention the fact that we don't have enough time and
>resources to redo all the drawings that would be affected. How have others
>handled this problem?
