Whole business documents
The papers a business sends out every day, written by the machine that already holds the figures.
7 examples
What it is for
Eleven families of documents and features. Each one has a page that says, in plain words, what it is and what it saves the person paying for it — and then leads to the examples that do it.
Nothing here assumes you write software. If you want the examples straight away, they are all on one page. Go to the examples
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Pages, text and fonts
The sheet itself, the words on it, and the lettering — carried inside the file so the page looks the same everywhere.
2 examples
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Paragraphs, columns and typography
Hand over the words; it works out where each line ends, where each column stops and where each page breaks.
14 examples
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Tables
Rows that size their own columns, break their own pages and carry their heading onto the next one.
8 examples
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Colour, inks and printing
The colour you asked for is the colour that comes off the press — and the printing works takes the file without asking questions.
12 examples
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Drawing, patterns and transparency
Lines, shapes, gradients and see-through effects drawn by the file itself — sharp at any size, and weighing almost nothing.
8 examples
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Images
Photographs placed at the size and the position you choose, from the files a camera and a scanner already produce.
3 examples
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Barcodes and 2D codes
The codes a till, a warehouse scanner, a boarding gate or a telephone reads, printed straight onto the document.
5 examples
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Links, navigation and how a file opens
Contents that jump, words that open an address, and page numbers that match the ones printed on the page.
5 examples
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Forms, stamps and overlays
Boxes a reader fills in on screen, and your text laid over stationery somebody else already printed.
5 examples
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Archiving, accessibility and metadata
Documents an archive will still open in twenty years, that a screen reader can read aloud, and that an accounting system books by itself.
6 examples