Enriching PDFs for

STM content

Kaveh Bazargan @Kaveh1000

How we locate things

We remember objects by their position,

e.g. …

• Left side of desk

• Second drawer down

• Third car along

That’s why we like PDFs

• We know where we are on the page

• “PDFs have edges!” – Steve Pettifer

Problem with PDF and STM

We like a “home page”

• Hyperlinks take us away from our

home page, so not comfortable

• We need to stay on the home page,

but quickly refer to figures,

references, etc.

With print we are at home

Need equivalent on screen

e.g. interactive popups and widgets…

We are used to them in web pages,

but not in PDF

Example (PeerJ html)

Can we do similar in PDF?

Paginated content, so widgets even

more important.

Two technologies come to our aid…

1. Acrobat Layers

2. Acrobat JavaScript

Used, for example to validate forms in

PDFs, but otherwise underused

Example of layer as “pop-up”

Multiple, moving pop-ups

Checking colour figures

Example of JavaScript

Copy edit changes

Best of all…

All PDFs can be generated

automatically from XML

So XML is always the definitive archive

of content

So take a look at:

• Layers (or Optional Content Groups)

• JavaScript

Time’s Up!

About your speaker:

Name: Kaveh Bazargan

Company: River Valley Technologies

Tel: +44 7771 824 111

Email: kaveh@RiverValleyTechnologies.com

Social Media: @kaveh1000