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PDFs should be in landscape

by rhinocl
14 replies
If you are selling or giving away pdfs please build them in landscape view. I just purchased an electronic book from a major publisher and for some reason they don't know this. With landscape view you have short pages that fit the screen and one click takes you to the next page without scrolling or skipping text.
#landscape #pdfs
  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    Thanks for dropping your links.
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  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    Well, your comment made no sense so I assume you are just talking nonsense to drop the links in your signature.

    Saying a PDF should be landscape is like saying a JPG should be landscape- it depends entirely on the original document/image.

    If it is a Power Point presentation designed in landscape then the PDF created should also probably be (and would likely default to) landscape.

    But if the original document was a long vertical InfoGraphic created in Photoshop then making it into a landscape PDF makes no sense.

    If it is a book designed to be read on the Kindle. Then again landscape makes no sense since that would not fit the screen format for a Kindle.

    So you see, your blanket statement makes no sense. You didn't provide any discussion of substance other than your preference for not wanting to scroll on whatever device you choose to use to view PDFs.

    Therefore the only conclusion was that you were either a misguided ranter or were trying to say something vaguely coherent to in order to expose your signature.

    I, of course, apologize if I was wrong and welcome your response to the how the documents I mentioned would be preferable in landscape....
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    • Profile picture of the author rhinocl
      Most of the pdfs I see are in portrait format rather than landscape. Most computer screens are wider than they are tall. Other devices like phones and tablets often have the capabilty to easily rotate their view. Thus if you are not offering pdfs in both landscape and portrait format, I feel that landscape should be the default (yet strangely it is not).

      Very little seo use in getting more links from the same domain. (which you would have realized I knew if you'd looked at my post count and the fact that one of the links in my signature is to an seo site).
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      • Profile picture of the author BizMath
        Originally Posted by rhinocl View Post

        Very little seo use in getting more links from the same domain. (which you would have realized I knew if you'd looked at my post count and the fact that one of the links in my signature is to an seo site).
        More links form different domains are more beneficial for SEO than more links form the same domain. So, your post count is worthless.

        (P.S, What I said was not against you. But, I felt that it makes a wrong image on SEO beginners' heads)
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        • Profile picture of the author rhinocl
          I'm surprised by Alexa's response. I can't see why some one would prefer to scroll (which takes continous action) rather than just leave the mouse over the 'down page link' and click it when ready for a new page. I think it depends on what you are used to and also how the content is organized. If you are creating landscape pdfs from scratch obviously it's helpful to structure your points so that each page contains a single point or a group of points. Of course this applies to letterbox formatting also. One of the most difficult tasks in formatting is making sure that images appear on the same page as related text for as many different possible user viewing devices as possible. Of course if you are selling a $5 product you may feel it's up to the viewer to scroll back and forth.
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  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    But usually you do not create documents in PDF. You create them in another program and convert to PDF for cross platform compatibility.

    So the layout of the PDF should reflect the original document not arbitrarily be set to landscape.

    A Kindle is not a landscape layout. Neither is a smartphone. And if you rotate a smart phone there is still no way it displays a legible landscape page without scrolling.

    Who said anything about SEO?

    What does post count have to do with anything?
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    • Profile picture of the author rhinocl
      Most of the pdfs you see on this forum were probably made in Word which tends to default to portrait. That's why they are in portrait when they should be in landscape.
      No it shouldn't reflect the original document. It should be optimized to make reading it easy.
      After a certain amount of posts with a signature, more posts on the same forum give diminishing returns in terms of seo, yet seo is the main reason people spam forums (surely they don't think people will click on the links below a spam post).
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by rhinocl View Post

        surely they don't think people will click on the links below a spam post
        Try telling that to the 50-100 or so per day of people whose posts the members and moderators here have to delete.

        I prefer PDF's in "portrait" format, myself: I think probably about 99% of mine are, and I like it that way. I've had a few which were as you describe (a click to move to the next page, rather than scrolling, like Kindle books) and didn't appreciate that at all (partly because you can't get the bottom part of the page in your eye-line simply by scrolling). It's also one of the things I dislike about Kindle-for-PC.

        .
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  • Profile picture of the author HelpingYouBeAnExpert
    Most PDF's are portrait, only a few are landscape, I have opened 1000+ and 99% where not landscape. Just my observation.
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  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    Yes, I am no longer accusing you of promoting your sig as you seem quite passionate about this landscape PDF thing.

    All I'm saying is that PDF is a format used for converting other document types for cross platform compatibility.

    PDF does not have a "default layout". Since it is converted from another document it takes the layout from the original document.

    If you save a Word document as PDF it will be portrait. If you save a PowerPoint presentation as a PDF it will be landscape.

    Your argument isn't really that PDFs default to Landscape; it's that Word should default to landscape since it seems to be Word documents that you are concerned about.

    Anyway- to each his own. I just think you are painting with much to broad a brush because you had an annoying personal experience with an ebook.

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  • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
    Originally Posted by rhinocl View Post

    If you are selling or giving away pdfs please build them in landscape view. I just purchased an electronic book from a major publisher and for some reason they don't know this. With landscape view you have short pages that fit the screen and one click takes you to the next page without scrolling or skipping text.
    I hesitated to even respond, as I think all of the responses to date should have convinced you that you're in the minority. Just because YOU prefer landscape orientation, doesn't mean that everyone else does, nor that it should be the default.

    PDF documents can be viewed page at a time, regardless of page orientation. The whole page can be viewed at once, you'll just get a lot of empty "sidebar" space. In addition, creating a PDF document in landscape mode does NOT guarantee that you can (without adjusting the zoom) view a full page on your computer monitor without scrolling.

    PDF documents are often physically printed, and most creators of PDF documents will create them in portrait mode in order to most readily accommodate the typical print media.
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    • Profile picture of the author donhx
      Sorry, rhinocl, I don't think your landscape idea makes much sense either. The lines of text are too long for most people to comfortably read. You could do two columns in landscape, I suppose, to enhance readability, but more work for no gain. No matter what, people need to turn pages in a book or in a PDF, so landscape is not better.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Whisonant
    I'll stick to creating PDFs in portrait. No way am I going to swing my head from left to right and then back again to read a wide landscape document.

    Besides getting a crick in my neck, people would think I was imitating an old style typewriter.

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