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Subject:Re: Chapter first page always recto? From:Richard Hamilton <dick -at- rlhamilton -dot- net> To:Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> Date:Wed, 11 Nov 2015 11:49:42 -0800
We've wrestled with this for the Amazon Look Inside and PDF-ebook versions of our books. Generally, since they are meant to be PDFs of the print book, I leave blank pages in, for example blank pages that push a chapter to a recto page, but I will remove blank pages when I add the cover or other extra material. That can cause a minor annoyance if someone wants to print the book, but for reading on a display, it works fine.
Regarding left/right formatting, we did create one PDF that was designed to be displayed in Acrobat's two-page mode, with the verso and recto pages laid out as though you had opened a physical book to that page. But that is rare, and in this case (The Language of Content Strategy) it was done to simulate the layout of the printed book, which had a two-page, reference-book style that started a definition on a verso page and ended it on the next page, a recto page.
All that said, if you never print your docs, then I think removing blank pages makes sense. However, to open up another can of worms, if no one is printing docs, is PDF the best format? I would think that in most cases, the primary form for delivering online docs should be based on HTML (that might mean a web page, ebook, or online help, most of which are based on HTML). BTW, that's for delivering docs, not authoring them:-). And if you author in a reasonable format (e.g., XML), then you can always generate PDF if you have customers who really want them in that form.
Richard Hamilton
-------
XML Press
XML for Technical Communicators http://xmlpress.net
hamilton -at- xmlpress -dot- net
On Nov 11, 2015, at 11:16, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> wrote:
> I did that years ago. Unless it's common for your users to print out
> whole books using duplex printers, it makes sense to get rid of all
> the book-oriented stuff. To me that generally means:
>
> - no left / right formatting
> - title page is page 1 and page numbering is strictly sequential
> - no blank pages
> - no sidebars or multiple columns
> - all paragraph styles start at the left margin
> - no chapter numbers
> - no numbered headings
> - no table and figure captions
> - no lists of tables and figures
>
> I can't even remember what they call that style where the headings
> start at the margin but the paragraph styles are all indented.
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 11, 2015 at 10:48 AM, Nancy Allison <maker -at- verizon -dot- net> wrote:
>> Hi, all.
>> Have any of you dispensed with having every chapter start on the recto
>> page?
>> I've seen a few recent books that start recto or verso, whichever.
>> My thinking is, for every "Get rid of this blank page!!!" comment from
>> in-house reviewers, there's probably an equal number of users who are
>> also puzzled. Since we no longer ship printed books, and I doubt most
>> customers print our pdfs, people are mostly seeing them on line and are
>> probably wondering why those pages are blank.
>> Has anyone taken the plunge?
>> --Nancy
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