Instead of inserting the Quicktime movies, we made video captures of key frames of all five footage versions provided by the client and used these as background art within the multimedia. Both of us got what we wanted. Based on the empirical experience of creating the CD mentioned in this case study, as well as many others, I would like to offer these guidelines for when to use PDFs vs. when to consider using Multimedia in the production of CD-ROMs. PDF's on-screen look and print output have the proofing industry's highest level of fidelity. Variety of source documents - PDFs are easy to create from virtually any program that can print a document.
Multimedia requires durations measured in seconds.
Ideally, a new graphic is transitioned once every 5 or so seconds. Lingo programming - a robust language for the programming of interactive navigation controls and effects upon the stage. Wedding multimedia to PDFs on informational publications greatly extends the creative range, impact, and persuasiveness of the message being communicated. Wedding PDFs to multimedia provides more options for interactivity, navigation, cross-media documents and source materials, distribution, scalability and encryption. Return to PDF Research Companion home page.