A PDF newsletter is the most versatile type of electronic publication
by David Kandler
Editor’s Note: The author of this article, David Kandler, is founder, owner and president of CompanyNewsletters.com, an Internet firm that produces newsletters for companies throughout the United States. Learn more about how his firm can help your company produce printed and electronic newsletters.
PDF newsletters are the type of e-newsletter that look most similar to a printed publication. CompanyNewsletters.com created this internal newsletter for a biotech company.
There are many types of electronic newsletters that can be posted on your website or sent by email. But none is as versatile as a PDF newsletter, which can be posted on virtually any website or employee portal, sent as an email attachment and printed in high resolution on an office printer or even at a commercial print shop.
A PDF newsletter is named for the letters used in the extension at the end of it’s file name, for example, “newsletter.pdf.” PDF stands for “portable document format,” but most people just call it by its initials. This type of file can be opened, viewed and printed using free software, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, and most people already have these PDF apps installed on their computers, tablets and cell phones.
PDF newsletters have many advantages:
• A PDF newsletter looks and prints out like a traditional, printed newsletter. The strength of a PDF newsletter is that – although it is an electronic format — it can be designed to look exactly like a traditional printed newsletter, both on screen and when printed. It prints out better and more cleanly than a website publication or email-only newsletter. That’s why it is an ideal electronic format to use when you think that a portion of your newsletter’s readers may prefer to print out the newsletter and read it offline.
• A PDF newsletter is ideal for those who want both a printed and electronic newsletter. A PDF newsletter is also a perfect format when you want to distribute both a commercially printed and electronic version of your newsletter. In fact, when clients hire CompanyNewsletters.com to create printed newsletters for them, we also provide them with a PDF version of their newsletter for no extra charge. Our printed-newsletter customers love also having an electronic version of their newsletter available to email out advance copies, or even to place current and back issues of their newsletter on their website or employee intranet. That way readers have unlimited, easy access to download the current issue, as well as archived issues.
Unlike other electronic newsletter formats, PDF newsletters can easily be uploaded to virtually all types of websites, without any compatibility issues.
• A PDF newsletter is compatible with virtually all types of websites and easy to upload and download. Unlike other electronic newsletter formats, PDF newsletters can easily be uploaded to virtually all types of websites, without any compatibility issues. For instance, whether your company has an HTML, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or other type of website, they all should allow you to easily upload PDF files to your website. Then all you have to do is place a link to the PDF file on your website or in an email. When people click on your link to the newsletter, they can easily download, view and print the publication using their PDF app.
Pro tip: A disadvantage of a PDF newsletter is that, for complex designs, the large file size of the publication — which could easily be 2 megabytes or more if the newsletter contains lots of graphics and photos — can make it cumbersome for emailing. That is why, instead of emailing it out as an attachment, we recommend putting the PDF file on your website, and then emailing your readers a link to the file for them to download directly from your website. That way your email does not contain a large attachment, and it’s still easy for readers to click on the link in an email and download the newsletter.
Because of all these benefits of a PDF newsletter, and its versatility, it is the most popular type of electronic publication that CompanyNewsletters.com creates for its clients.
Read more newsletter ideas, tips and “how to” articles from CompanyNewsletters.com.
To learn more about the author’s firm and how it can produce printed or online newsletters for your company, see https://CompanyNewsletters.com or call 952/892-6943.