Making PDFs Accessible (For Once)

College… where condoms are free, but printing is not.

Grad school is a lot of reading. I’d heard about this, but figured it was more accurate for the humanities than business. But no, I’ve read dozens of pages already, and class hasn’t even started yet!

To compound this difficulty, this isn’t pulp fiction. It’s academic journal writing, copies of which I’d have on hand for patients with sleeping problems (This is why I didn’t go to medical school.).

I need all the help I can get to make it through these. Ideally, this would include printing these articles to read on paper. We read faster and comprehend better on paper versus a screen. 

But the paltry printing budget I was given will never cover the hundreds of articles I will need to read. Never mind the unlimited prophylactics.

So, I am resorting to this trick.

Screen glare is one reason why reading on the computer is so difficult. To cut down on the glare, I set my PDFs to a gray background. Here’s how:

(Note: If the GIF is not running, the steps are to go to “Edit” on the home ribbon, then “Preferences” (last selection on the “Edit” menu.

Choose “Accessibility” from the “Preferences” menu. 

Under “Replace Document Colors,” change your Page Background to gray by clicking on the color box and selecting another color. (There are many options: gray is the best for cutting down on glare.)

Now you have a gray PDF:

Not quite the same as paper, but it helps. 

(Note the example article is not an assigned journal article but a popular magazine piece I am reading for fun. Yes, reading for fun on top of the assigned reading. This is it!)