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Thread: PDF and Run Together Text
Number of posts in this thread: 8 (In chronological order)
From: Andrews, David B B (DEED)
Date: Thu, Jan 27 2011 7:54AM
Subject: PDF and Run Together Text
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I have a PDF that visually looks correct, I am told. The Master was done in Quark Express, and a PDF exported. Accessibility elements, (alt-text) etc. was done in Acrobat, reading order, tables etc. Everything is fine except that in speech and Braille some of the words in regular text portions are run together without spaces. I have seen this before, many times and don't know the cause, or solution.
Dave
David Andrews
Chief Technology Officer
State Services for the Blind
2200 University Ave. W.
Suite 240
St. Paul, MN 55114-1840
Telephone: 651-642-0513
Cell Phone: 612-730-7931
Fax: 651-649-5927
E-mail: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
From: Duff Johnson
Date: Thu, Jan 27 2011 1:33PM
Subject: Re: PDF and Run Together Text
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On Jan 27, 2011, at 9:54 AM, Andrews, David B B (DEED) wrote:
> I have a PDF that visually looks correct, I am told. The Master was done in Quark Express, and a PDF exported. Accessibility elements, (alt-text) etc. was done in Acrobat, reading order, tables etc. Everything is fine except that in speech and Braille some of the words in regular text portions are run together without spaces. I have seen this before, many times and don't know the cause, or solution.
This is difficult to evaluate without seeing the file itself. Feel free to send it to me directly for review.
Absent that, my first thought is: "Quark? Oh no!" Tagged PDF from a Quark source can be very tough - opening in InDesign and converting to PDF from there generally produces better results (from an accessibility point of view).
The problem: there are about 35 ways in which authoring applications can create text on a PDF page, and not all of them are conducive to accessibility.
Duff Johnson
Appligent Document Solutions
http://www.appligent.com
Blog: http://www.appligent.com/talkingpdf
Tweets: http://www.twitter.com/duffjohnson
From: Monir ElRayes
Date: Thu, Jan 27 2011 2:54PM
Subject: Re: PDF and Run Together Text
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The CommonLook tool automatically detects (and corrects) "text running
together" problems.
Monir ElRayes
President
NetCentric Technologies
From: Andrews, David B B (DEED)
Date: Fri, Jan 28 2011 8:03AM
Subject: Re: PDF and Run Together Text
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At the risk of seeming stupid -- what is the Commonlook tool? Is this something in Acrobat Pro, or something else?
Dave
From: Bevi Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Fri, Jan 28 2011 10:30AM
Subject: Re: PDF and Run Together Text
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CommonLook is a third-party tool that can be used to add accessibility to an
existing PDF.
It gets mixed reviews from users.
The best way to make an accessible PDF is to create a correctly structured
and tagged source document (such a Word or Adobe InDesign file), then export
it to PDF and add the finishing 508 touches to it.
But many people are given PDFs that they then must make accessible, and
CommonLook has some tools that make this process easier to do, such as
controlling accessibility in tables in a PDF.
I usually recommend that my clients purchase good accessibility training
rather than CommonLook. But being an accessibility trainer, I'm a bit biased
on that topic!
-Bevi Chagnon
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
: : : : : : : : : : : : :
Bevi Chagnon | PubCom | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = | 301-585-8805
Government publishing specialists, trainers, consultants | print, press,
web, Acrobat PDF & 508
Online blog: www.pubcom.com/newsletter
From: catherine
Date: Fri, Jan 28 2011 12:15PM
Subject: Re: PDF and Run Together Text
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Andrew,
Without seeing the original document, it is hard to say what the problem
is in your case but in desktop publishing tools such as QuarkXpress, if
you play with spacing between words to get a visual effect, for example
removing a space between two words in a forced line break or removing
spaces between some words to visually bring them closer together, this can
cause a screen reader to read words together.
Catherine
--
Catherine Roy
http://www.catherine-roy.net
On Thu, January 27, 2011 9:54 am, Andrews, David B B (DEED) wrote:
> I have a PDF that visually looks correct, I am told. The Master was done
> in Quark Express, and a PDF exported. Accessibility elements, (alt-text)
> etc. was done in Acrobat, reading order, tables etc. Everything is fine
> except that in speech and Braille some of the words in regular text
> portions are run together without spaces. I have seen this before, many
> times and don't know the cause, or solution.
>
>
> Dave
>
>
>
> David Andrews
> Chief Technology Officer
> State Services for the Blind
> 2200 University Ave. W.
> Suite 240
> St. Paul, MN 55114-1840
> Telephone: 651-642-0513
> Cell Phone: 612-730-7931
> Fax: 651-649-5927
> E-mail: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>
>
From: Monir ElRayes
Date: Fri, Jan 28 2011 2:15PM
Subject: Re: PDF and Run Together Text
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Bev,
I understand where you are coming from - and I don't want this post to sound
like an ad for the CommonLook or PAW tools- but the there are indeed many
instances where even a tagged MS Word - generated PDF can be extremely
difficult and tedious to make accessible without the proper tools. All it
takes, for example, is a complex table or one that has linked headers or a
form. The text running together problem is another example of an issue that
would take a user - even one with considerable experience - many hours to
remediate. While using an automated tool takes seconds. I would be glad to
demo some real life examples, if you are interested, to show how the use of
tools can save countless hours and improve the quality of the final product.
I think accessibility is best served by recognizing that training is very
important as is the use of proper tools.
Best Regards,
Monir ElRayes
NetCentric Technologies
www.net-centric.com
From: Monir ElRayes
Date: Fri, Jan 28 2011 2:27PM
Subject: Re: PDF and Run Together Text
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In keeping with the guidelines of this list - and not wanting to turn this
into a CommonLook commercial- I would be happy to share further info on
CommonLook if you contact me directly.
Best Regards,
Monir ElRayes
www.net-centric.com
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =