Interactive PDF is dead—here’s what you can create from InDesign that’s even better
It sounds like I’m exaggerating doesn’t it?
I’m not.
Almost none of the interactivity in an interactive PDF actually works, even in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader.
What doesn’t work in a PDF
Here’s a list of things that you can create with InDesign that don’t work in a PDF:
- Animation
- Video*
- Animated GIFs
- Multi-State Objects
- Embedded HTML content (like YouTube videos)
- Button actions related to several of the above items
- Scrollable Frames
- Custom page transitions (like flipbook pages)
*Video was supported previously in Acrobat and Adobe Reader, but it was dependent on the Flash Player (which no longer comes bundled with the Adobe apps).
The introduction of smartphones and tablets—almost none of which now support Flash—and a slew of new PDF readers, essentially guarantee that interactive PDF features will not work when your clients view your PDFs.
To see the breakdown of an interactive PDF in action, and to get a sneak peek at the solutions that I describe below, you can watch the following video.