Walls Manual Update

[cavescom]

I have updated the link http://www.cavediggers.com/walls32.pdf with a new version I just received from David McKenzie.

This PDF has hyperlinks that work.(For those hyperlinks to be most helpful, however, one needs to use the "Tools | Customize toolbars" menu option in Adobe Viewer to add "Previous View" and "Next View" buttons to the toolbar.)

Mark Passerby, InCaveDigitalSurvey.com

[steelwool]

Very cool!

Is there anyway you could produce a manual with a readable font? I would recommend an easy to read serif font. I could only read a page or two before the text became painfully unbearable to read. Thanks.

[Jeff Bartlett]

Is there anyway you could produce a manual with a readable font? I would recommend an easy to read serif font. I could only read a page or two before the text became painfully unbearable to read. Thanks.

uh, you're having trouble reading arial? they don't get much easier to read than that. in fact, isn't this message board arial?
(I used to be able to tell by sight, but I cheated and looked at the properties of Mark's PDF)

it sounds like you must have a display problem of some kind. i tried to attach a screenshot of the page at 100% zoom, but the board is giving me an error message ("it was not possible to determine the dimensions of the image") so we'll have to make do without.

[steelwool]

Yes, this board is in san serif (ie Ariel) and yes, Mark's pdf is in san serif font. I don't a problem reading san serif fonts. I do have a problem reading fonts that have crazy asymmetric characters, such as the capital and lower case letters in Mark's PDF.

First, I would like to point out that 99% of typesetters publish articles, newspapers, and books use serif font (such Times). Typesetters use serif font because the font's "feet" help the reader stay on current line. Studies have show that times is one of the fastest fonts to read.

Reference on Font:
http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usab ... S/font.htm

Second, typesetters try to keep a medium line length of 65 to 75 characters per line. Studies have shown that adults prefer 65 to 75 CPL over longer or shorter lengths.

Reference on line length:
http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usab ... length.htm

Although the document properties say the font is "Ariel" it's not. The PDF define the font inside the document and can be named anything. You can read the 1300 page specification on PDF's.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/pdf ... ce_1-7.pdf
For details look in the section:
Text -> Font Description
or
Text -> Embedded font programs

I'm sorry for beginning such an ass hat, I just want to read the manual easily.

Thanks David and Mark for all your hard work!

[Jeff Bartlett]

Perhaps reading electronic documents composed with Arial is less of a pscyhological leap for me than. For the record, here is a 100%-size screenshot of the PDF as it appears on my screen; I cannot identify any potential legibility issues.

In addition, here is a screenshot of the same paragraph in Microsoft Word, confirming that the font used is Arial. Slight differences in the anti-aliasing of characters between the Word document and the PDF are due to the conversion process.

[steelwool]

Mine looks very different. As you can see, it's not Ariel... That's weird, acroread isn't producing the same font.

[Jeff Bartlett]

Mine looks very different. As you can see, it's not Ariel... That's weird, acroread isn't producing the same font.

wow, yeah that looks awful. now I don't blame you for saying something!