What does PDF mean?
PDF stands for portable document format and refers to a file format developed by Adobe (the same people who gave us the PostScript language and Photoshop among other products). PDF files are designed to retain and display a designer's exact layout of a document—everything from the precise spacing of the words and letters, the typeface they are set in, to any photographs or graphics accompanying them. PDF files are a standard in the design and publishing industries.
Why should I care?
But what does PDF mean for you, the visitor to this site, and to us, the archive hosts? It's simple: PDF provides us as the zine designers and publishers with a way of transmitting our original zine layouts to you through electronic means. When you open one of our PDF files, you are viewing the story as it originally appeared in print two months, two years, or a dozen years ago. We're happy because you're viewing the author's words as they were intended to be seen—or at least as close as you can come by looking at an electronic display rather than a piece of paper.
Isn't this different from most archives and sites with fan fiction?
Oh, absolutely. Most fan fiction is made available as text files or HTML files. Text files are what you get when a story is posted to a mailing list or a newsgroup. And if you go to view a story on someone's website, then more times than not, you read the story in HTML. Text and HTML files are easy to produce and are viewable on all sorts of computers, operating systems, and browsers. This very page is encoded in HTML.
Well then, why not just stick to HTML?
That would be a very easy task, and you would be happy. But we wouldn't. HTML isn't meant as an absolute. The actual appearance of this page and these words varies from computer to computer. A Windows machine will display the text at a larger size than a Macintosh will. Your current screen resolution and size of browser window will cause words to appear in different places. Even the browser you're using—Netscape, Explorer, Lynx, or some lesser known one—will have an effect on what you see. And if you care enough to go into your browser's preferences or display settings, you can really modify the look of what displays on the screen. As lovers of books and good design, we feel a loss of control with HTML. PDF gives us back our control. That's why we use it.
Okay. Now please explain what I need to see your PDF files.
PDF files are device independent. You don't need a particular computer, just a free software application to view them. The most common program is Adobe Reader. It's available for all kinds of computer systems. Just click on the Adobe Reader link at the top of the page and it will take you to a download center. But wait a second. Before you go rushing off, you ought to realize that most current browsers already have PDF viewer plugins or Reader plugins that come with them Alternatively, Reader may have been provided with the software that came with your system. You may want to do a little exploring to see what you have. You can even try opening one of the PDF files here in the archives to determine if your computer and browser will automatically display it.
Umm. What about printing out some of the stories and zines?
This is possible. Many printers are capable of printing PDF files. You'll find the usual print commands in Adobe Reader. Try it. Notice that you don't even need to have the fonts that you see in the PDF file. The font information is embedded into the file and tells your printer exactly how to print it.
It's awkward trying to read a print zine onscreen.
We agree. Print zines are usually designed to fit standard paper sizes (North American 8 1/2 x 11 inches; European A4) and these sizes don't match computer screens. You'll have to scroll up and down to read an entire page. (This is one reason to consider printing out a favorite story.) For all new works that we place in the archive, we'll try to provide two versions: one in standard paper sizes for printing and one designed specifically for onscreen reading. Remember though, that the archive has (or will eventually have) a lot of older zines and stories that will never be redesigned for onscreen reading. That's just more work than we're willing to undertake.
