

Format PDF docs as 5X7 landscape for on-screen reading, not letter-sized paper - dctoedt
http://www.ontechnologylaw.com/2010/07/format-your-pdf-docs-as-5x7-landscape-for-on-screen-reading-not-as-letter-sized-paper/

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anigbrowl
Disagree. I use a widescreen monitor; although it can swivel from portrait to
landscape (which is very cool), I rarely use this, because having it
horizontal lets me view 2 pages at once. Of course, this is predicated on the
assumption that the lawyers you address are trying to reach other lawyers,
rather than a general audience.

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm working on it so I do read a lot of dense text. When
studying a complex subject, it's important to me to be able to jump back
several paragraphs - perhaps because I didn't fully understand something, or
to reconnect with a dangling open clause, or whatever. So I prefer to have
about the same amount of text on display as I would with a textbook or
reference work - otherwise I am doing a lot of paging back and forth with the
mouse or keyboard. This gets old fast - indeed, I find that I much prefer
sitting in the library with books for studying the fundamentals, and then
using the computer for specific targeted inquiries, such as the most current
regulation or a recently published opinion.

I find the same thing with web pages. So I reduced the text in your (very
interesting) notebook articles twice, in order to be be able to see more of it
at once. At the 20 point size you suggest I can't see more than about 150
words at once, and I feel like I'm looking at a Powerpoint slide. I look
forward to seeing your e-book, but hope you'll also make it available in a
more conventional layout for reactionary paginators like myself.

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dctoedt
[From OP:] Thanks for the feedback. I definitely understand your point of view
when it comes to dense text.

I just edited the blog posting to specify that a reader can use Adobe Reader's
two-up page display so as to see two pages at once.

