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Stop Struggling with Animation in PDFs: Discover the InDesign Alternatives

Animation can add a dynamic and engaging element to your designs, but can animation be used in PDFs? Unfortunately, the short answer is no. While it may seem like a convenient option, using animation in PDFs can be problematic due to inconsistent support across different applications, the death of the Flash Player, and the fact that PDF was never built to support animation (e.g., animation from InDesign, or formats like animated GIFs)…all of which can cause playback issues and visual holes in your documents.

In the past, PDFs were primarily opened with Adobe software, which included the Flash Player bundled right inside it. This allowed for some use of animation in PDFs through the use of Flash Player content (though only by embedding SWFs, not using InDesign’s native Animation panel). However, with the demise of Flash, this option is no longer available. So, what are the alternatives?

The answer is HTML5. This browser-native format is capable of replicating the capabilities of Flash and it does not require coding to create content visually in InDesign and export it to multiple HTML-based formats. In this article, we will explore three formats that support animation: fixed layout ePub, Publish Online, and in5 (InDesign to HTML5). All three formats support animation that you can easily create with InDesign’s native Animation panel.

Say Goodbye to Video in PDFs: Why You Should Avoid It at All Costs

Justin

When working with multimedia in design projects, it’s natural to want to include video content in your PDFs. However, it’s important to understand that the use of video in PDFs can be problematic in a number of ways and may not provide the consistent support and playback that you desire.

How to Create a Skip Link for Screen Readers with InDesign & in5

Justin

A Skip Link lets disabled users easily skip over purely visual content and jump ahead to substantial content (e.g., skip over a cover page to the main story).

To create a Skip Link with InDesign & in5:

Create a Button or Hyperlink from the element that you would like to use as a Skip Link.
Point that link to the page with the main content.
Use the Accessibility panel* to designate a text frame on your target page as a <main> element using the Custom Tag drop-down (optional).
In the Accessibility panel, select Treat as Skip Link.
In the Accessibility panel, choose Show ONLY to Screen Reader under the Screen Reader Visibility (optional).

* The Accessibility panel is only available to Elite and Enterprise plans.

Treating the element as a Skip Link means that in5 will move it off the page and into the top of the reading order in the output, ensuring that a screen reader sees it immediately.

You can see in the video below why I suggest that you create the Hyperlink or Button first.

Accessible PDFs from InDesign vs. Accessible HTML from InDesign

Justin

The article is written as a parallel to Adobe’s article on Creating Accessible PDFs, so that you can compare the steps required to set up accessibility for both PDF and in5, and to get a sense of the accessibility of the output.

For the purposes of this article, I will assume that you’re not interested in InDesign’s native HTML export, because it does not support layout the way a PDF does. In contrast, in5 exports HTML while maintaining your InDesign layout.

in5 is a 3rd-party InDesign plugin that can create accessible, interactive HTML output (without any coding on your part).

Both the PDF export and in5 can produce 508 compliant output from InDesign, but there are some key difference detailed in the article below.

Publish Online vs. in5 — Digital Publishing from InDesign Compared

Justin

in5 is the main alternative to using InDesign’s Publish Online. There are many ways that the two solutions are similar, but they are different in some very important ways.