Improved Download Performance for Free PDF Image Documents (Available
October 1, 2004)
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ERIC will introduce free, full-text PDF image documents (added
to ERIC from 1993-July 2004) through this Web site on October
1, 2004. In the past some users experienced slow download times
for the largest ERIC PDF image files. Download performance is
dictated by the bandwidth of the connection and the size of the
item being downloaded. As a result, to optimize download performance
for all ERIC users, the new Web site will introduce PDF files
that have been significantly compressed (3:1). Since this was
done by leveraging a newer version of Adobe's software (Version
5) all users must have Acrobat Reader 5 or higher installed. While
this reduction in file size will significantly reduce overall
download times and improve download performance, it is important
to keep in mind that even though all PDF documents are significantly
smaller, some of these files are still extremely large and will
require a long period of time to download (particularly on dialup
connections). To gauge download time, users should always look
at the file size prior to downloading. In summary, when using
the new Web site, expect to see improvements in overall file download
performance due to the reduced file sizes and more optimized Internet
route, and less variation in overall performance due to the increased
bandwidth available to the ERIC Web site.
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