Printed PDF fonts are hard to read

[abowsher]

Using the Tri Pane Advanced and not really changing anything so far, just filling in my content... the printed PDF font is very small and light-colored, hard to read both on the chapter summaries and inside the chapters when printed (i.e. both dark and white backgrounds). Seems like kind of an error in the template. Is there a standard adjustment most people make to that?

Also - any suggestions on handling images in PDF? They have to be so narrow (compared to a typical web application) that they are almost unreadable. Do I just have to break them up and have two vertical images, each showing half the screen? Just wondering if there's any good tips for this.

Thanks!

[paintedturtle]

Using the Tri Pane Advanced and not really changing anything so far, just filling in my content... the printed PDF font is very small and light-colored, hard to read both on the chapter summaries and inside the chapters when printed (i.e. both dark and white backgrounds). Seems like kind of an error in the template. Is there a standard adjustment most people make to that?

Also - any suggestions on handling images in PDF? They have to be so narrow (compared to a typical web application) that they are almost unreadable. Do I just have to break them up and have two vertical images, each showing half the screen? Just wondering if there's any good tips for this.

Thanks!

Hello!

I haven't used the TriPane Advanced but: Eventually you'll want your PDF CSS and output to look very different than your HTML tripane CSS/output since they're different mediums. I would edit your PDF CSS with whatever you want the PDF output to look like--probably larger and darker font.

For images in PDF, I created an image style that makes the image 98% of the container/cell it is in and 3 inches on the PDF. Then I don't have to worry about the graphic going off the page (we often have two columns so 3 in should be smaller than that column). I also have another that makes the image 98% of the container/cell it is in and 7 inches on the PDF.

You can add these to your CSS files in Notepad:

PDF CSS

/*Added Date/16:*/

img.HTML98percentPrintSize3
{
text-align: center;
vertical-align: middle;
}

@media print
{
img.HTML98percentPrintSize3
{
max-width: 3.0in;
}
}

HTML CSS

/*Added /Date16:*/

img.HTML98percentPrintSize3
{
text-align: center;
vertical-align: middle;
max-width: 98%;
}

You can just change the numbers to whatever works best for your documents.

Hope that's helpful,
~Sarah

[abowsher]

Thanks for sharing all the great info Sarah!

Do you have any recommendations for the font in PDF? I played with Courier and Verdana, neither seemed great. I guess the color is too light as well, as you noted.

[paintedturtle]

Thanks for sharing all the great info Sarah!

Do you have any recommendations for the font in PDF? I played with Courier and Verdana, neither seemed great. I guess the color is too light as well, as you noted.

You're welcome.

If you click on Content > Resources > Stylesheets and then open the CSs stylesheet for the PDF output, what are the settings for p.body and the heading you didn't like? Change them as you wish.

I would definitely change the font color to black for the fonts. I'm more of a Gill Sans / Calibri / Helvetica fan if your company has them. But font really depends on a lot of things.