Web standards for PDFs and other file types

This web standard is mandatory for all PDFs and other file types published on the public website.

Standards for producing accessible PDFs can be found on Our Surrey.

Page contents

Important PDF guidance
File name (when you save your file)
File or asset tile
File descriptions
Long documents split into separate files
Linking your files
Other document types
Reason for this web standard

Important PDF guidance

Content should always be added as web pages as they are the only fully accessible format. PDFs should only be considered under special circumstances (see 'Reasons why PDFs may be allowed' below).

Remember:

the web page document template is designed for long documents
web pages can be printed if necessary using the browser print tool.
do not link directly to third party PDFs, instead link to the external webpage they are attached to.
Short PDF's should be a web page
Aim for your PDFs to be around 1 megabyte (MB) but no more than 2 MB.

Reasons why PDFs may be allowed:

material meant for printing
documents that can't be suitably converted to webpages

File name (when you save your file)

The filename should be lower case with no special characters (except hyphens or underscore to replace spaces).
Do not use full stops in your filename.
Include the date for documents that are regularly updated. The format should be dd-mm-yy, for example: service-delivery-plan-13-04-20.pdf, this is the default in Matrix and helps us be consistent.

File or asset title

The file or asset title should be grammatically correct and meaningful.
Ideally it should be the full title of the document and not the file name.
Do not use acronyms or reference numbers unless they are explained for example: Annual Review of Education, Health and Care Plan form and not ECHP.
Do not use block capitals.
The date should be formatted as follows: 13 April 2020 and not 13.04.20 and 2020 to 2024 and not 2020-24.

For full details, please see our web page: Web standards for page and file titles.

File description

Between 110 and 160 characters long, including spaces.
Reflect the content of the file and be different to the file or asset title.
No jargon, abbreviations and acronyms.

For full details, please see our web page: Web standards for page and file descriptions.

Linking your file

Links to file assets should be via the ID number of the file not the URL.
Files should be attached in the metadata tab of the page, under 'File to download', us the ID number.
If you refer to the file in the text of your page, you should be consistent and use the same link text and the full title of the file and the link text should end with (PDF).
Do not link to external files, but rather the web page they are sitting o

For full details, please see our web page: Web standards for links.

Example

File name: Surrey_geology_report_2014_part3.pdf
Asset title: Surrey Geology Report 2014 part 3
Description: Part 3 of 9. Part 3 of 9. This section of the report covers the chalk Downlands in the districts of Tandridge and Mole Valley.

Reason for this web standard

PDF web standards are mandatory for technical, usability and accessibility reasons.

Following the PDF standards will make your PDF accessible and your information will be viewable by a wider audience.
Illegal characters in a filename can prevent some users from being able to open the attachment. This is because some punctuation or symbols have a technical function.
A meaningful filename, asset title and description make your attachment much easier to find using search engines and helps visitors to the website decide if it contains the information they are looking for and whether to open it or not. This is also important for accessibility reasons as attachment titles and descriptions are used by screen readers.