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Re: Accessible PDFs from Google Doc/Presentation

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From: Chagnon | PubCom.com
Date: Jan 7, 2016 10:34AM

Printing to the virtual PDF printer that's installed with Acrobat and other Acrobat-clones (File/Print/Acrobat PDF) creates a very different document than other methods, such as an export to PDF utility.

When you select print to PDF, you are encoding the document the same way it gets physically printed on a laser printer; the architectural structure of the document that's "under the hood" is very different from what we need in a accessible or digital PDF. Visual appearance is the same, but not the coding.

So use Print to PDF as a last resort, knowing that you'll need to spend quite a bit of time to remediate it for accessibility. Instead, use the source software's export, save as, or convert to PDF, which triggers a different engine that makes the PDF than the Print to PDF method.

At this time, Adobe's products still reign supreme for PDFs, whether you need a press-quality one for sending to the print shop, or an accessible one for electronic distribution. The PDF format is in the ISO public domain, but no company has matched Adobe's commitment and expertise...regardless of how much money the others spend on advertising to convince the public otherwise.

—Bevi Chagnon

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