What are some good ways to post documents of different sizes, styles, and layouts online for free?

August 16, 2004 7:02 AM

What are some good examples of posting documents of varying shapes, styles, length and layouts (in this case menus) online. I'm thinking pdf -- but is there a way to do that free?
posted by TurkishGolds to computers & internet (6 comments total)

So you're saying that you don't use a Mac, because anything can be printed to PDF from the print dialog, no plug-ins required.

For Windows print to PDF, Cute PDF is free.
posted by planetkyoto at 7:14 AM on August 16, 2004

Check out Flash Paper. I haven't used it yet, but I'm pretty excited about it. My browser tends to crash when I try to view a PDF online. On the other hand, Flash files rarely cause a problem.
posted by grumblebee at 7:14 AM on August 16, 2004

I don't know if you're posting the menus for viewing by people who might want to order from them, or if they're part of a collection, but if the answer is the former rather than the latter, would you please just post the text? It's really seriously annoying having to download everything from a TIFF to a BMP to a PDF just to read a fucking menu and order some Mongolian Beef, and hey, bonus, it'll make you more Google-able.

If you're trying to put the menus on display as part of some sort of collection without practical purpose, you'll obviously want to use images of the originals rather than a PDF.

So, basically, avoid PDF and use either text with HTML layout, or an image depending on what your purpose is.
posted by majick at 8:59 AM on August 16, 2004

Perl module from CPAN.
posted by nofundy at 10:34 AM on August 16, 2004

The thing is, unless the user has a printer which will cut to shape, the shape thing seems sortof wasted. They're going to look at it on screen or print it out on 8.5x11 or A4 or something.

Unless, of course, you're the net to distribute print materials for a franchise.
posted by weston at 12:03 PM on August 16, 2004

PHP also has included support for generating PDF files, not that I'd use it for your purpose since I agree with majick.
posted by billsaysthis at 6:14 PM on August 16, 2004