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lbro
02-09-2009, 12:45 PM
Hey everyone, go to the February Newsletter, Tell me if you like this method better. It should make printing out the articles easier. I will convert all the Archives if you like this better.

Thanks
Lou
deplanche
02-09-2009, 12:49 PM
I liked the old one better, but I can see the advantages to pdfs.

PS - The train link can not currently be found.
lbro
02-09-2009, 12:53 PM
PS - The train link can not currently be found.

That was still uploading....sorry it is there now, I hope.:-)

The pdf's will be nicer than those shown, I am just trying to solve some issues.

Was it the look of them you didn't like?

Thanks
Lou
lites4joy
02-09-2009, 01:10 PM
I love PDFs.

Train link is still NOT available.

~Pat
lbro
02-09-2009, 01:11 PM
I love PDFs.

Train link is still NOT available.

~Pat

I see it.
Hmm........
g2ktcf
02-09-2009, 01:48 PM
Looks good to me. A bit slow but i like being able to print it out.

Chris
deplanche
02-09-2009, 01:52 PM
That was still uploading....sorry it is there now, I hope.:-)

The pdf's will be nicer than those shown, I am just trying to solve some issues.

Was it the look of them you didn't like?

Thanks
Lou

No, the look is fine. I just don't like having to download PDFs in order to view what is on each page. Before, you could click, start reading while it downloaded pictures and see if you were interested at all or not and determine if you wanted to let it all load or go back and move on to something else. With PDFs you have to download the entire file before it will show, and you can skim to see if you are interested or not. Maybe I am just impatient, or don't have a good internet connection, but I get bored waiting for something to download like that, and I find I move on faster and don't read as much.

Like I said though, PDFs so have advantages, like printing and sharing. So go with that if others like.
lbro
02-09-2009, 01:56 PM
What if each page had a teaser line..

Click to Build a train, a page comes up and decribes what the story is about with a picture or two, and a link for more information takes you to the pdf?

Any more input from others?
lbro
02-09-2009, 01:57 PM
Looks good to me. A bit slow but i like being able to print it out.

Chris

It is slow because the train PDF is 6.5 MB. That I can not help, sorry.
rca
02-09-2009, 02:08 PM
The links do not work for me in Firefox. I think this is an issue with the program used to create the page, it seems like I had this issue before. They do work fine with Internet Explorer and the pages look great in PDF. I prefer the PDF.

Ron
lbro
02-09-2009, 02:17 PM
I am trying to avoid new software. But it looks as if I may have to give in to the pressure. I will talk with Wayne and maybe switch.
pete
02-10-2009, 01:03 PM
Lou I like the Idea of the treaser page for each article with I picture. I can see where is someone had a slow connection. The PDF could be a turn off.

Pete
kychristmas
02-10-2009, 01:31 PM
Lou I like the Idea of the treaser page for each article with I picture. I can see where is someone had a slow connection. The PDF could be a turn off.

Pete

The size should not be a huge issue. Since I can't compare the original, I'm guessing the PDF version is not much bigger than the HTML page with all of the pictures loaded. The only difference is that with HTML, the user feels like it's faster because the text loads and then the pictures start to load. That way the user starts to read before the page is actually done loading.

Lou, I have a great deal of experience in PDF optimization. I can probably assist in developing a process to minimize the PDF size. First, I'm not sure what your source is, but I the first simple optimization is to reduce all images to "Web Size" Eventhough they are small in the print, they may still contain all of the detail.

Kelly
Mudsculpter
02-13-2009, 06:54 AM
I do like this better. The origional was hard to read for me. The pages seemed unformatted with text sometimes laying on the top of pictures and over other text at other times. The articles would also be broken up by several blank pages before the article began again. This way moo-cho beddah.
lbro
02-13-2009, 11:02 AM
I think I will do the teaser on each page and link to the pdf for more information. The combination may be what will help solve many, but not all, issues
kychristmas
02-13-2009, 11:47 AM
You are never going to solve all issues and make everyone happy. I'll send you my guidelines for optimizing and reducing the size. I'm guessing we can get it reduced 60-70% of it's current size.

Thanks Lou. We all appreciate the work you do on the newsletter.
lbro
02-13-2009, 01:25 PM
You are never going to solve all issues and make everyone happy. I'll send you my guidelines for optimizing and reducing the size. I'm guessing we can get it reduced 60-70% of it's current size.

Thanks Lou. We all appreciate the work you do on the newsletter.

60-70% WOW!!! that would be great!!!!
djulien
02-13-2009, 04:26 PM
Some misc comments ...

Simply resizing or reducing the resolution of photos can help considerably. Photos tend to take up most of the space. I'm not sure which software you are using. As an example, in MS Photo Editor, you can use Image -> Resize to 50% (you don't need 300 DPI to display an image on a 72 DPI screen, but the 300 DPI can be useful when printing), and/or you can use File -> Save As and save the JPEG with higher compression and lower quality to get a lot smaller image file size.

It looks like the PDFs are being streamed. That is good, since you can start viewing the pages while the rest of the doc downloads.

don