Why going HTML over PDF is actually worth it

Topics:

Digital Resources

Traditionally PDFs have been great. They’re easy to make and have near global compatibility with anyone’s computer. In the end, though, particularly in terms of usability and accessibility HTML is coming out hands-down ahead of PDFs. Here’s why…

 

Let’s start with the fact that roughly 60% of web content is now viewed through mobile browsers. This brings two immediate problems:

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Mobility Issues

  • PDFs don’t change size to fit a browser
  • Navigation and orientation: PDFs mimic a standard size sheet of paper. They don’t change size to fit a browser which is critical on a small screen. This affects navigation and orientation. A lot of your users may be frustrated with opening a PDF and then pinching and scrolling through the document - remember 60% of all content is viewed with a mobile browser.
  • Broken links: If you update a PDF and change the file name in any way you break the link—assuming you make an update at all since PDFs are notorious for not getting updated. Sometimes PDFs can be impossible to update. You can update HTML without these problems—thus HTML is more “usable” from a content provider perspective.
  • Search: PDFs are simply harder to search than HTML pages
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Accessibility

PDFs are often bad for accessibility and they don’t always comply with open standards. HTML pages do comply with open standards. This means anyone with an up-to-date web browser can view them without needing any additional software.

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Changes to Make to Your Website

Use Monsido to pull an inventory of all your PDFs. If you have a PDF that is one or two pages - create HTML pages for this information. Agencies were using PDFs to issue board agendas and minutes or for one page brochures. Make those HTML documents! Talk with the support team about creating a content type for your frequent information like agendas or minutes.

Un-publish the PDFs that are old or not frequently used. Get your content updated now before you start your migration to Drupal 8.
Need more convincing? Read this blog article by the British government about HTML versus PDF.

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