PDFs on the Web: Use with Caution!

Have you ever been frustrated when downloading large PDF documents from web sites?

PDF files are a useful tool on the web however they should be used with care. Be conscious of accessibility issues when creating PDF documents:

• PDFs are often large files which can take a long time to download.

• Many PDFs are not accessible to users with disabilities.

• PDFs created in later versions of Acrobat may not be viewable by users with earlier versions of Acrobat.

When you do need to create a PDF document, optimize your document so that it can be read by screen readers. Adobe has published information on their web site on how to achieve this - see http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_booklet.html

It is also important to minimize the size of PDF files to allow easy download:

• avoid the need to embed fonts in your document by using standard fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman, and Verdana as much as possible. Each additional fully embedded font can easily add an additional 40K or more to the size of your PDF.

• minimize the number and complexity of forms in your PDF document

• avoid the use of multimedia such as audio and video

• when writing your document, try and minimize the number of fonts and bitmapped images used in your original document.

• choose "Save As" when saving the document rather than "Save". "Save As" linearizes the file for fast web viewing, and removes unused objects from your document.

• PDF files can be saved as either a "Print" file or a "Screen" file and the size of the files are markedly different. For example a PDF "Print" file of 2.2MB can reduce to only 133KB once resaved as a "Screen" file. The PDF can still be printed with good text quality. (If you are using Adobe Acrobat Distiller, you can do this by clicking on Properties in the print dialog box and in the Adobe PDF settings tab change the conversions settings to "Screen".)