On Wed, 15 Mar 2006 16:54:15 -0000, "Martin Underwood" <a@b> wrote in
<441846b9$1$6980$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net>:

As has been pointed out, if you want the kind of layout control you seem
to favour, there is PDF. It is not limited to 'paper' sized pages, you
could generate 'screen' sized pages at your assumed resolution.

If at this point you are thinking "but HTML is more popular than PDF"
then there is a message there.

I believe that you can also get that kind of control with Flash, but I
have no personal experience of it - I have never created any, and my
usual browser does not have the appropriate renderer installed (and that
is my explicit choice).

To all those who think the web ought to have been different I would
point out that there were a lot of alternatives around at the same time.
If it had been what you think it ought to have been perhaps we would now
be using someting else that had whatever it was that made the web so
successful.

--
Owen Rees
[one of] my preferred email address[es] and more stuff can be
found at <http://www.users.waitrose.com/~owenrees/index.html>

In uk.net.web.authoring Martin Underwood <news@isp.com> wrote:
How? Other than embedding typefaces in documents since all computers
do not have the set installed.

And when someone wants to view such pages through lynx or other text
based browser...?

Axel

In uk.net.web.authoring Simon Brooke <simon@jasmine.org.uk> wrote:
I do. There are many documents I prefer to download as PDF files
and save and read at my leisure. Most of these being technical
documents which correspond to to their printed equivalent.

Or forms which need to be printed and filled out.

But then I could just as well use FTP to receive them except the
web allows suitable indices and means to find these documents.

Axel

"Martin Underwood" <news@isp.com> wrote in
news:44174d66$0$3609$ed2e19e4@ptn-nntp-reader04.plus.net:


The problem with this suggestion is that Acrobat is probably one of the
worst methods for displaying documents on-screen ever devised. Its complete
inflexibility has me cursing almost every time I have open a PDF document.


--
__________________________________________________ ____

Distress, n.:
A disease incurred by exposure to the prosperity of a friend.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
__________________________________________________ ____

With neither quill nor qualm, if quothed:

Many people disagree with this but I, for one, concur wholeheartedly.
I'd much rather peruse a document via html (-decent html that is.)

--
Neredbojias
Contrary to popular belief, it is believable.

On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 14:53:36 -0700, Neredbojias put finger to keyboard
and typed:

PDF has its place. It's particularly good for viewing detailed
technical drawings, plans, etc, as the user can zoom in and out within
the document itself rather than needing to have multiple copies at
different resolutions. It's also good for on screen proofing of a
document that will be published in print, such as the layout of a
magazine. It's also useful for electronically transmitting print
documents from one site to another, such as from a designer to a
printer. What it doesn't do very well is act as an alternative to HTML
for text-based documents that are created primarily for reading
online.

Mark
--
Visit: http://www.GoogleFun.info - fun and games with Google!
Listen: http://www.goodge.co.uk/files/dweeb.mp3 - you'll love it!

Harlan Messinger wrote:

Actually, TBL has said that when he first conceived the web, he imagined
that most of the information would be available in formats like Postscript
and so forth; with a handful of HTML "index" type documents to help you
find them.

He was pleasantly surprised that HTML caught on as the primary document
format for the Web.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact

Simon Brooke wrote:
Clearly Martin Underwood seems to.

Nonsense.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact

With neither quill nor qualm, Mark Goodge quothed:

Perhaps, but overall pdf is a poor alternative to html for text-based
documents that are created to be read period. For "proofs" or something
of that nature, pdf may indeed be useful.

--
Neredbojias
Contrary to popular belief, it is believable.

Pondering the eternal question of "Hobnobs or Rich Tea?", Simon Brooke
finally proclaimed:

Try giving your documents to a professional printer in something other
than PDF or another Postscript format. It's highly likely that they'll
throw it back at you.

--
Dylan Parry
http://electricfreedom.org -- Where the Music Progressively Rocks!