What About PDFs?

"PDF" (Portable Document Format) was developed in 1991-92 to allow people to share electronic versions of paper documents across platforms and applications without losing the print formatting of the original document.  Thus, it has become a standard for sharing printable documents--in fact it is the default format for any paper document that has been scanned digitally. Many people also like to convert content from other applications (such as Word or PowerPoint) into PDF because it is more difficult to edit and they want to ensure that the documents they share aren't inadverently altered by their readers.

However, the things that make PDF attractive also have downsides.  Here are a few reasons not to use PDFs for digital content:

  1. PDF is rigid: PDF is designed to lock in a print layout.  However, the ways that people consume digital content are varied--they may read it on a computer screen or on their phone.  Normal web content is optimized for many screens.  PDF is optimized only for print.
  2. PDF is hard to edit: As mentioned above, many people like PDF because it is hard to edit.  But when it is necessary to modify content, PDF is harder to change and requires expensive software.  Many of us know the frustration of re-creating a document because we've lost the original and only have the PDF.
  3. PDF is hard to remediate: PDF presents major challenges for digital accessibility, especially when the document is scanned.

For these reasons and more, we recommend that PDF only be used when the intent is to share a document that will be printed, or when there is no other option.  On this page, we will share some basic resources for working with PDFs and also demonstrate PDF remediation options available through YuJa Panorama and the DocHub.

If you do need to convert content to PDF, our short video about the Adobe Tab in Microsoft Office applications will show you the best way to ensure the PDFs you create retain the accessibility options you set up in your original document.  Below are more resources for working with PDFs using Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Use Panorama or the DocHub to Remediate PDFs

In the following sections we will demonstrate various ways to remediate types of PDF content using Panorama.  Please check back for continued updates as we document more options.  

Also, please keep in mind, these videos feature simple documents designed to show the processes and options for PDF remediation.  But every document is different and you may get slightly different results from time to time.  If you run into problems with a specific document, please contact DLI through the DLI Service Portal for assistance.  You can also always use the YuJa Support options in Panorama for 24/7 assistance.

The videos below assume that you already know how to access Panorama through D2L or the DocHub.  If you do not, please review our Panorama page if you are faculty accessing through D2L or the DocHub page if you are staff.

Panorama Tip

Many PDF remediators at KSU are used to using Equidox to manually tag content. Most PDFs that we remediate using Panorama will first need to be autotagged using Panorama's multiple tagging options, then reviewed. In many cases, this will be much faster than our old tool. In the content below, we'll try to demonstrate what the best options are for each type of PDF.

Remediate an Already Tagged PDF

This first video demonstrates working with the simplest PDF.  This type of PDF will have actual text in the document content, not just a scan or image of text that needs to be OCRd before being tagged.  It will also have tags, but may have some imperfections.  We'll show you how to use the inline and structural remedition tools.  

Understanding the Other Options

For PDFs that are not tagged already, in order to use Panorama properly, you'll need an understanding about different types of PDFs.  This first video explains the difference between a scanned PDF and a PDF with actual text content.  It then describes the first methods for scanning to create tags or content.

Working with a Simple Untagged Document

In this video, we'll demonstrate an ideal method for creating a tag structure on a simple document that was converted to PDF from another platform, but is still untagged.

Convert a Scanned PDF to HTML

Scanned PDFs present unique challenges that PDFs which were converted from another application do not.  Often a scanned PDF is basically just an image of text.  This means that the document does not contain text in its root code and assistive technology cannot view it.  These kind of PDFs typically need to go through a process called Optical Character Recognition or OCR.  OCR uses AI to look for text in the image and build the underlying code.

However, because AI can be inaccurate, it is best to use the process to convert to another format, that way you can edit the output to correct any errors.

PDFs with Math Content

Many faculty in the College of Science and Math have documents that look like the one in the video.  Many of these are created using a software called LaTeX.  We'll show you how to convert this to MathML and work with it easily in D2L.

Specialized PDFs

Certain types of PDFs may not be able to be remediated using third-party tools such as Panorama, due to the nature of the document and the state of the technology.  We'll link to resources here for those types..