Introduction
I have always had an interest in the conversion of documents from one file format to another file format. The classic conversion has to be Word to PDF. The enormous functional capabilities of the PDF format and its brilliant visual presentation can quickly enhance the boring Word document format into something special. At the press of a button you automatically change one document from one presentation style to another style of presentation.
This whole subject of converting documents from one file format to another and thereby embellishing them with the new visual presentation style offered by the new file format can offer game changer capabilities. This has very noticeably been used to change content to suit the new formats offered by different devices. The smartphone possibly being the most significant new device needing this presentation style change. Although the smartphone is focussed upon screen down sizing the principles can be just as easily applied to screen upsizing to the very large TV devices now being sold. In fact the same document contents quickly reconfigured to make the best use of the physical design of the new device.
Digital Newspapers
One customer application that makes use of this document conversion process is the Digital Times Newspaper. In reading it you are seamlessly exposed to on going dynamic document conversions. The Times seems to have evolved a two forked transitional digital strategy for its customers represented by two apps each taking the same daily news content and presenting them using different presentation styles.
Firstly the one app is badged “Times Live” on the icon with it adopting a new non physical paper looking presentation style. My assumption, because I am only guessing without any insider knowledge, is that this is purely based upon HTLM5. This strategically is the going forward solution from the Times Newspaper Group. Unfortunately it does not differentiate itself from the sites of the broadcasters like BBC and Sky who already deliver the news this way. In fact it lacks the brash imagery offered by the broadcast news channels and their use of video but it could be argued it does offer the Times editorial conservatism. Most significantly it is updated through out the day and it is not locked into just being a snap shot of the news at the go to print time of the paper newspapers. Normally about 11.00 pm the previous night.
Secondly the other app is badged “Times. e-paper” on the icon and it is based upon an exact PDF copy of the paper that goes to the printing presses to deliver the daily paper based product. Immediately this has what is often termed a legacy feel about it. It looks like the paper you can hold in your hands as a reader. It emotionally supports your allegiance to the Times branding and therefore reassuringly gains your reader trust. But in terms of news it is out of date although for many it is the analysis and comment information sections that are most appealing about the Times.
So to distinguish the two approaches I call the one the HTML5 copy and the other the PDF copy. The point to be made here is that with identical content these are potentially just different file formats with automated conversion between the two possible. But it never is quite that simple because the peripheral functionality to support you as a reader will need to be different for each of these solutions.
The PDF copy of the printed newspaper offering all the brand imagery and usage paradigms you are familiar with as a ‘paper’ newspaper reader whilst being able to link each article to a pure “vanilla” text presentation that is consistently very easy to read. A classic example of a perfect implementation of blending the old with the new. Times readers, like me, have a particular obsession with what could be termed old school standards and consistency. You can see a lot of intelligent effort has gone into protecting these Times “brand” differentiators. But what is truly show stopping is the visual detail and colouring of the photographs and advertisement imagery in the Digital Versions. These are far superior to the printed images in the printed newspapers particularly as they benefit from the illumination achieved by the back lighting capabilities of these hardware devices. This along with the very high resolution screens now available on smartphones, tablets, personal computers and televisions makes digital newspapers able to offer the highest quality in terms of visual presentation. Importantly the newspaper offers both photographic and visual imagery to the highest stands along with the incorporation of high quality video material. The newspaper is moving towards becoming a broadcaster. Whilst the broadcaster is moving towards being a newspaper. They will combine to be the same business entities in the future just being defined as being advertising and media businesses.
These phone and tablet devices have surpassed the old digital ink reading devices that were intended to capture the reading market. (eg Kindle). Although reading in bright sunlight still remains a reader issue for non ink devices. Apple has made and continues to make huge investments in the audio visual hardware and software aspects of their devices like the iPhone and the iPad. Inevitably this sets the pace such that Apple’s competitors have to make similar investments to win business from them. Apple have made significant investment into the iPad which has become the much preferred device for reading all internet digital content. The Times, like all media providers, are looking to exploit all the iPad hardware and software enhancements to give their readers the best possible experience for which they are willing to pay subscription fees. Newspapers are going to be solely dependant on these subscription fees and advertising revenue in the future.
The Times Newspaper Digital implementation then takes the whole experience one further step such that when you share an article with a colleague using a smartphone it users a very effective Third Party conversion capability, provided by PageSuite, to convert the document to a smartphone acceptable type of style presentation. More on this later.
Portable Document Format (PDF)
What is outstanding for an old geek like me is that a file format like PDF, that was designed by Adobe in 1992, should still play such a significant part in the internet workings of 2023. Derived from their PostScript Language, designed to drive laser printers , the PDF was a file format able to include complex page layout capabilities for both text and images that were independent from application software, hardware and operating systems. The PDF file format was essentially a free standing non dependant documentation standard without digital device dependencies. Just a standard in the truest sense. But it was so complicated and comprehensive in its design that it ticked all the boxes and some more in being a totally all encompassing standard.To say John Warnock, Adobe founder, and work mates were geniuses is a bit of an under statement. But the challenge for them was well defined in that they had to get a laser printer to produce anything a conventional printer, normally using lithographical chemical and mechanical processes, could produce for their customers. Essentially a sophisticated colour printed document inclusive of text and images that a commercial printer produces everyday. This includes every printed product type from flyer sheet, business card, brochure, book to large outdoor signage.
The PDF file format is just too complex to analyse here but I think a few broad insights may help you appreciate its significance. Also understanding some of the business battles surrounding its survival is worth understanding. It’s a play between Apple, Microsoft and Adobe.
A PDF file format has to support three broad areas of document content types. Firstly something to define the page(s) layout and the mapping of the component types into this layout. This was achieved using a subset of the PostScript Language. Secondly a font embedding capability to allow fonts to be locked into the file format. Thirdly to store within the file all the elements and contents needed to generate the final document.Within the file there needs to be some compression capabilities to reduce the file size to allow for the fast transmission over networks. The PDF file itself uses ASCII characters for codification and where this is not possible some pure junks of binary.
One of the real successes for the PDF format was not only was it so comprehensive but it supported some tweaks to make its use by browser plugins more efficient. These became known as “linearised” PDF files or “web optimised” PDF files. Essentially this allowed for the display of the first part of the file on screen before the whole file had made it down into the browser plugin. Remember a PDF is not HTML code so it can not be interpreted by the browser itself but by a plugin dedicated to the PDF format. PDF files themselves can be optimised by using Acrobat (the PDF editor) or by a bit of code called QPDF (converts PDF to PDF adding bits into the conversion).
Whilst not going into too much detail on the inner workings of a PDF I want to just briefly illustrate its technical complexity. It supports a Cartesian Co-ordinate System to locate everything on a grid which if fact is 2D but is capable of 3D. The PDF format is inclusive of supporting both Vector Graphics and Raster Images. It is in this area of text covering both embedded and unembedded types (fonts) that the software titans clashed each looking to gain competitive advantage. It was initially Apple verse Adobe until Microsoft started to muscle in on this WYSIWYG customer requirement. This is “What You See Is What You Get” in that what you see on the screen exactly corresponds to what gets printed out. Inevitably Adobe was the real expert in this field having been very closely involved in both the publishing and printing industries with loads of practical day to day experience.
Type Wars
Originally three competing types (fonts)
Type 1 (Adobe)
TrueType (Apple)
OpenType (Microsoft)
Apple licensed TrueType to Microsoft. Whilst Adobe gave away Type 1 to break Apple and Microsoft making market share gains for their own technologies. Microsoft worked with a partner, Monotype Imaging, to create ClearType associated with the Windows 3.1 Operating System Release. This was an attempted knockout blow by Microsoft. Microsoft also developed “Smartfont” technology and called it True Type Open (1994) which got renamed OpenType. Eventually the battles halted and an agreed approach was established taking type (fonts) out of the competitive arena.
So over time the PDF format became “open” with Adobe agreeing terms for it to be an open standard. The PDF file format was set down as an ISO 32000 (2008) Standard updated to ISO 32000-2 (2020). It is now a particularly stable standard with most software developers willing to make full use of it in their applications, This consistency is similar to that now offered by HTML5 in terms of defining the tags available and structure of the internet Hyper Text Mark Up Language. Both PDF and HTML5 remain very powerful format standards going from strength to strength in the marketplace. All the original competitors now feed off these as a standards and it has got more and more interwoven into various internet applications. The Times Newspaper using it to support their move to a solely digital distribution strategy illustrates the use of both the PDF and HTML5 standards.
PDF programming capabilities
In the development of a standard for a PDF the opportunity was taken to include in it some HTML like function and some programming capabilities. In terms of HTML capabilities the inclusion of hyperlinking both within the document and outside to a webpage extends the scope of a PDF. The functionality of forms and thereby data capture was engineered into the standard. Most significantly a link to a JavaScript programming language plug in was included to support the local implementation of document specific functional capabilities. It become a concern that the PDF was in danger of becoming an “applet” in its own right and in so doing losing its very well defined and specific document specification purpose. The consensus was it adhered to being an inert document file design leaving the processing requirements outside of this remit. Essentially this constrained Adobe commercially where by they were looking to invest heavily in Acrobat as a paid for development tool creating a sophisticated PDF file. Competitors did not want this growth of Adobe commercially into their business system marketplaces.
PageSuite
The publishers of the Times Newspaper are going through a transitionary period. They have used the PDF file format as the best way of carrying a legacy paper into a digital world. They could have gone straight to a wholly HTML5 authored digital paper but it would have lost its legacy visual imagery and maybe its customer base. Their two pronged approach of live news (HTML5) and legacy frozen (PDF) is an excellent transitional policy.
The Times has decided to make use of an American software manufacturers product called PageSuit which they have integrated into parts of their Digital Newspaper offering. It accepts input feeds of content into to its ePaper software and their sophisticated app solutions then supports the publishing of newspapers across multiple platforms. I experienced this capability when I sent a link to an article by email which I then viewed and launched on a iPhone with the document perfectly converted to the perfect style of presentation for this iPhone.
Reading the sales pitch on the PageSuite website site it appears that they look to integrate HTML5 stories into a site where the content has been created, approved and locked down into PDF’s. The HTML5 can be a late story that integrates from a reader perspective into a locked down published newspaper. Allows newspapers to have their digital content aligned more closely with the real news cycle. But the key remains having the same captured content being delivered across different devices always being converted to the best presentation style for that particular device.
PowerPoint to HTML5 Conversions
There is an unusual software development movement which started in America that uses Microsoft PowerPoint as the “engine” upon which to build extra functionality in order to create eLearning modules. These software companies spotted the potential to exploit the Microsoft PowerPoint infrastructure upon which to build their add ons which normally get delivered as Powerpoint Plug ins. It was not only technically astute but it was commercially shrewd in that you could easily sell to a very large and enthusiastic PowerPoint user base keen to extend their own development capabilities. Not sure how Microsoft missed out on developing the scope of their PowerPoint product into a fully fledged eLearning Module generator. But fortunately the world is full of focussed entrepreneurs able to spot these opportunities and capitalise on them.
So how and why did I come across them ? Well with me not being a real “techie” and certainly not much good at programme coding I am always on the look out for what I term easy to use generator tools. The opportunity to make a new piece of software without doing much difficult time consuming work appeals to me. It was at an eLearning Exhibition that I came across an oil industry training business using a product called Articulate to create eLearning Training Materials. I could not get my current employer to buy Articulate so I never used their products but as a supplier they remain on my future interests list.
This software genre, eLearning Generators, came up as a possible source of income in retirement. So me and my business partner, George Szubinski, did an evaluation of this market place. George was more technically skilled than me so evaluated more on technical capability. We decided upon an iSpring PowerPoint to HTML5 Converter for which we brought a license. I used this to write a website for a Public House in Kenilworth. Written in one day in PowerPoint it was run through the converter and produced a perfect HTML5 website. This went live on the internet and ran for 12 months before the landlord would not cover the hosting costs and it was taken down.
The iSpring Suite is a PowerPoint based authoring toolkit produced by iSpring Solutions that publish courses in HTML5. Within this tool kit was the iSpring PowerPoint to HTML5 Converter which was a technical masterpiece converting the PowerPoint source file for a presentation into HTML5 output which emulated exactly how the show ran within PowerPoint. What was significant was all the techniques coded into PowerPoint in terms of animation, transition effects and narration facilities easily transferred across into the HTML5 which then ran the “same as” the PowerPoint performed but within a browser. So truly internet enabled.
I then used iSpring for its intended purpose which was to automate the transfer of my iFlow business process maps into hosted websites. It proved to be just as accurate in this conversion from what would have been “native” PowerPoint files to HTML5.
So Microsoft Powerpoint is an excellent presentation development tool allowing for the display of excellent even animated content. An entrepreneurial set of software development companies, notably iSpring, have provide add on’s to PowerPoint which will generate an HML5 version of the presentation which can then be run independently through a web browser.
Content Creators.
I now want to bring this particular blog post to a close. But in truth I have only scratched the surface of what is an enormous and ever evolving subject. If you want to create document content there are a lot of different Content Creators. It is important to pick one that suits you and the only way to judge is by trying them out for your self.
I am going to provide you with the link below to an excellent Moodle resource presented in a Wiki style. Moodle has an amazing following in the teaching and learning communities. If you genre is anything in respect of learning and development it is a community you should either join or certainly on which you should have up to date knowledge.
