Acknowledging the medium

Writers and designers who learned to optimize their work for the printed page sometimes struggle with designing documents that work well onscreen. Many find the differences to be frustrating and sometimes feel like their "settling" for an inferior presentation of their work. But another approach is to embrace the additional capabilities that onscreen presentation provides, and find ways to allow it to perform in ways that surpass printed matter. Well-designed web sites are one example, but there's also an interesting idea demonstrated in the PDF-based "application map" for Mind Burn. (PDF Link) While the design isn't particularly striking, in my opinion, it's refreshing to see a PDF that avoids a paper-centric layout and invites you to use the inherent high-quality zoom tools to focus on the information you're interested in seeing. How else might PDF break free of its paper-based roots and become truly useful for onscreen documentation?

Posted: March 12, 2008 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item