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Caspian Ievers
MemberThanks for your input Anne-Marie – like I said to David your podcast is very informative and enjoyable, so thank you!
Like most things I’m sure there is some give and take and sweeping statement dismissing one approach over another are usually not that helpful. I don’t have enough knowledge on the topic to dismiss things but have to assume that someone whose job is living and breathing accessibility standards know his stuff.
What I am try to uncover are processes to design and output content that can be accessible (in all senses of the word) to the widest audience, without hamstringing the design. As many of our clients are government-based this is very important. There a so many ways to skin this cat that I’ve begun to research how best to use InDesign both in the design and output. What I’d like to avoid as much as possible is re-creating (or re-artworking) documents that initially begin as print but will also exist online. An example would be getting the description of an image from the client, as part of the content supply stage for use as alt text, rather than relying on a designer tagging it something like ‘decorative image’ which is pretty useless really.
…And using inline images — although I’m not quite sure if I can implement this in all instances, or if/when it can be ignored but it’s something I’m going to explore.
…And ensuring colour contrasts meet WCAG 2.0 level AA while planning colour palettes rather than at the end of the project.Caspian
MemberI attended a presentation by an advisor on accessibility for the NZ Government (and previously with the Canadian Government) which was very informative.
“If properly tagged and otherwise “accessible”, [PDF] semantic structures have never been available to screen reader users on Mac OS, iOS, or linux. I gather Adobe is currently taking steps to rectify the situation for OS/iOS, but that’s not complete yet, and it still leaves blind/screen reader users on linux out in the cold. They can still get to the text, but it’s just one big blob of linear, unstructured text.
The other issue with PDFs is that they don’t allow reflow, or changing fonts, font size, colour, etc. This makes them especially painful to use for everyone on mobile devices.
Epub3, on the other hand, is just HTML and CSS in a wrapper, so Epub3 readers can allow all those features, reflowing pages to the desired screen size, font/font size, etc. And since it’s all just HTML, the semantic structures in the markup are easily exposed to assistive technologies.”
Now my challenge is how to take this information and build it into a workflow for our design team.
By the way I really enjoy your InDesign podcast David. Thanks for sharing your wealth of information! (We are on CC2014… just haven’t updated our reading material, or gone to CC2015 as is incompatible with our server — long story but apparently there is a light at the end of the tunnel)
MemberHmm…Strange… I’m not sure what else to try without seeing the file. Maybe someone else has some bright ideas…?
What are you looking at your PDF in? not all PDF readers are created equally.MemberAre the links/JPGs (from the original ID file) still accessible (i.e. the files still exist on your HD)? Is you links panel looking good? Everything linked correctly?
MemberAndrew, here’s what I’d try:
Ensure your document is in the right colour space for your output (Edit > Transparency Blend Space)
A good rule of thumb if you are working with transparency is to put the elements on a separate layer (usually the text layer will be on the upper layer). That often fixes the problem.
Next up is to ensure you are creating the right type of PDF. The more recent the PDF type (i.e. 2008) the better the transparency support.
Any help?MemberPreferences / Compsition / uncheck Custom Tracking/Kerning
That should fix it!MemberI’d achieve that by using a Inline Anchored Object (place the object in the next para after the poem) which has a it’s Alignment set to Centre (option click the anchor icon), with whatever spacing before that you like. Then I’d create a new Objet Style that from that Anchored Object. All the motifs then get placed inline get that styling which, if you’ve done it correctly should then be the same.
MemberGood to know… I’ve been waiting for Adobe to sort out Acrobat for some time now (Acrobat 11 is just the pits to use — I’m constantly hunting for the tool that does the thing I’m trying to do and it’s always hiding somewhere unexpected, which in my mind is bad UI)
I was hoping for an improvement in Acrobat 12, but as it look like DC is 12 I guess I better suck it up.Member300 for a professional book design is a bargin if you ask me.
MemberYour frustration is palpable.
What version in InDesign?
To confirm: are you creating a Postscript file then using Distiller to create the PDF?Things I’d try if it I was trouble shooting it.
–Importing a single page from the pdf and printing the booklet to see if it was the pdf (not all pdfs are equal).
–Importing the PDF into Photoshop and saving out PSD of the pages.
–Remove all the frames and see if it creates it with just the text
–Trying it without any fonts (corrupt fonts are still a thing, you can always convert the font to outlines if it’s the problem)And if those don’t work then one has to get creative…
MemberG’day. whats the output? If it’s an interactive PDF you can create the form areas in inDesign and then add the input types in Acrobat pro using the Form setup menu thing. If it’s not an interactive PDF but a DPS I will let someone else answer.
MemberMy 2 cents (I’m not an expert but have had to live with a PC for my design work for a while)
PCs slow down over time to a greater extent than a Mac – so unless you want to call on your son/friend to do your system admin I’d go Mac.
If the majority of your work is publishing via InDesign there is a benefit to having a PC as I discovered recently: Acrobat X1 Standard is on;y available to PC users. For whatever reason they have decided that Mac users can afford the $400 extra to buy the Pro version.
And LiveCycle (for proper PDF form work) is only available for PCs too which is a bit lame too.
Fonts: I bet that the fonts that were worth keeping would be fine on your Mac — you might have to lose some of those freebies you collected over the years but they weren’t really any good (I know form first hand experience when I rebuilt my library)
Scripts etc will probably be fin as they are .js right?
It’s a pretty even playing field but what does it for me is the lack of having to know a thing about ‘computers’ and still my Mac is virus free, as zippy as the day I bought it and hardly ever crashes and I’ve never had to call a guy to make it work/install/delete anything.MemberThank you Justin and David. Those look like two different methods that are worth trying. If it works I might just make an inDesign flip-book tutorial as I couldn’t find anything out there, and I can’t be the only one trying to do this.
Memberhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/s…..otostream/
this is the screenshot I was trying to link so you can see what I mean, but have fained twice to add it to the post. Oops
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