PDF is Lazy Digitalization

What's the issue here? Well, if you talk to digitalization experts about the digital transformation and Industry 4.0, you'll often find yourself having the following conversation as a technical writer: “… And then the PDF is shown on the machine display.” “Which PDF?” you ask, only to be told: “The one with the instructions on it!”

As an expert in technical documentation and smart information, you're bound to be a bit taken aback: The instructions as one single mass? Thousands of information units and the resolution of the screen is “everything”? There's something lazy about this concept; the digital information twin is no use here, for instance.

In a nutshell, PDF is a means of presenting laid-out information. PDF is not the information itself, but rather a potential information product. The advantage of PDF is that it can be used to display printed documents digitally and reliably in the exact same way across different media. The disadvantage of PDF is that it can be used to display printed documents digitally and reliably in the exact same way across different media. Emphasis on “printed documents” and “the exact same way”.

PDF is a terrible solution for many (non-print) media channels. Using PDFs on smartphones is an awful experience. PDFs are awkward to browse through in the knowledge base. And PDFs with the Hololens – I don't even want to think about it. PDFs are intended to be static and as unchangeable as possible, making them a poor solution for flexible and dynamic modes of presentation. Of course, there are options for making PDF more dynamic, but there are three problems with them: 1. They are often very complex in terms of creation and implementation. 2. They've failed to establish themselves from a technical perspective (e.g., 3D PDF). 3. Users won't accept them.

Why anyone would think of not using XML for the digital transformation is a complete mystery to me. The only possible explanation for this is that the tools for working properly aren't available in these companies and PDFs are “just what we've always done”.

There are advanced standards for digitalization and smart information such as iiRdS and eClass. Not only that, but there are also component content management systems (CCMS) that can be used to generate any presentation format from the XML data in the content pool. “Any” includes PDF, when truly necessary. This kind of PDF is no longer lazy, but useful. After all, there's nothing technically wrong with PDF – except as a basis for digitalization.