Production WebProduction Web refers the process of serving a document to the Web in a "What You See Is What You Get" format. A software tool such as Adobe Acrobat is employed to save a preformated document in a way that will allow it to retain the same look as its printed counterpart. These documents do not undergo a conversion to HTML.
Production Web is useful for those who have to design printed documents such as newsletters and brochures. Software such as Adobe Acrobat allows a designer to simply "print" these documents in the Portable Document Format (PDF) and load them directly on the WWW. Documents saved in this format can be served to the Web, send via e-mail, and given to someone on CD-Rom. Although this system sounds appealing, it does have its drawbacks.
In order to read a file formatted by Adobe Acrobat in the PDF format, a user must download the Acrobat reader. Not only can this be an annoying extra-step to a Web user who wishes to have the information immediately, it also goes against the notion of using HTML for the design of pages to be served on the Web.