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Re: Use of <H> tag in PDF

for

From: Duff Johnson
Date: Aug 30, 2013 1:03PM

> Apologies, I wasn't trying to fit a document into a webpage model, just
> trying to work out what constitutes an H1.
>
> In the context of a long document it does not seem wrong to use multiple
> H1s, but it does in web pages.

So, I'd like ask the HTML gurus a question here…

Since web pages already have Title tags why is H1 so commonly press-ganged into the role of an ersatz Title tag? Does this not make the page's true title ambiguous? What's the point / value of this practice other than to screw things up and effectively a heading level from the 6 available?

Oh, and why is multiple H1s a problem? I get the idea of custom, but what's the actual *reason*?

> To be fair, it's never been an issue for a website I've worked on, only
> PDFs, and then only big, lawery type ones.

Fair enough, but why preclude deeply structured content in HTML? What was / is the point? Why wasn't it fixed for HTML5? Etc.

> I agree, there will always be longform content in one file/location. I
> personally hope it doesn't require being a print/page oriented format
> though. (Although eBook formats aren't a replacement yet either.)
> I'd be interested to know if PDF 2.0 requires pagination?

At its core, PDF technology will remain fixed-layout for all sorts of good reasons. With tagged PDF, however, that content becomes redeployable for different readers and by AT.

Since it will always be fixed-layout at its core PDF will also - by definition - be paginated. Note that this is *not* the same thing as saying that it's print-oriented. A page that's 1 kilometer by 1 kilometer probably isn't for printing.

In PDF a "page" can be very very large or very small and a very extreme rectangular shape (if you want), but it will be a page. It need not have anything to do with "print" per se.

Duff.