E-book design frustrations
More and more Guerrillas are preparing their own e-books, both for sale as a revenue source and for free downloading to promote and prove their competence and expertise.

These e-books are often distributed as Adobe Acrobat .PDF files. Acrobat compresses files for faster downloading and preserves document formatting. Typeface designs are embedded in the document, so even if the reader does not have the typeface installed on their computer the typeface will appear on their screen and when printed.

According to Roger C. Parker, www.gmarketingdesign.com, many e-books fail to take full advantage of Adobe Acrobat’s capabilities.

1) Common typefaces. Acrobat permits publishers to “brand” their e-books by using type more creatively than the typical Arial/Times New Roman combination or Verdana (which looks good on screen, but may present problems when printed). Yet, few documents are published using tried and proven typeface options like Garamond, Minion, or Palatino.
2) Line spacing. Text is easier to read when the white space between lines creates a “rail” which guides the reader’s eyes from word to word, or (more precisely) word-group to word group. Single line spacing is not enough. Double-line spacing is too much.
3) Page numbers. Most frustrating of all, many e-books, White Papers, or “special reports” appear without page numbers. When printed, this can present a major problem if the pages are dropped. It can take a long time to organize the pages of a 30 page e-book in the proper order if page numbers have not been added.

Take-way. Review the PDF documents you provide from your web site. Make sure that page numbers are always included (but, omitted from the first page!) and that you pay as much attention to design niceties as you would preparing a newsletter for a printer.