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Re: Blank pages in PDFs

for

From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Apr 16, 2013 12:51PM

These publications are designed specifically for print/visual layout. Copies
in the 10s of thousands so we're not talking about laser printers but
professional printing presses with exact technical requirements for the
press files.

A professionally design layout file is created in Adobe InDesign, and then a
web-quality accessible PDF is exported from the layout for posting to the
website, and another press-quality PDF is exported for the print shop.

Therefore, there's one set of InDesign layout files from which both the
press-quality PDF and the accessible web-quality PDF are made. This is the
standard workflow of the professional publishing industry, which designs
primarily for print/press and only recently has begun to accommodate
accessibility in the electronic versions of their publications.

Removing the blank pages between chapters and renumbering the PDF's won't
work:

1. The actual printed page numbers can't be changed once the book is
created. Tables of Content that say "Chapter 1, page 21" must really begin
on page 21, not some other "faux" page in the PDF. Same with the index at
the back of the book and any other generated list or cross reference
citation.

2. In the US Federal government, the standard is that the PDF must match the
hard printed version. Removing pages and renumbering the remaining pages
violates this standard.

3. Sure will confuse the heck out of people when one person is referring to
"Page 9" in the printed version and someone else sees a completely different
"Page 9" in the PDF.

4. And yes, removing pages will indeed botch things up for printing,
especially professional offset printing on a "real" printing press.

5. In printed books, chapters always begin on right-hand pages which have
odd numbers. Removing blank pages botches up this convention.

So my original question still stands: Are there any guidelines or best
practices for identifying these blank pages to screen reader users? Since
the blank pages can't be removed, what tactic would help screen reader users
understand that, for example, page 8 is blank?

From previous posters, it seems that placing text such as "this page left
intentionally blank" is probably the best solution.

-Bevi Chagnon
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