Why GOV.UK content should be published in HTML and not PDF

We're not huge fans of PDFs on GOV.UK. We hope this post will help publishers explain to colleagues the problems with using them and support moving towards an HTML-first culture.
Head of GOV.UK.
Neil tweets as @neillyneil
We're not huge fans of PDFs on GOV.UK. We hope this post will help publishers explain to colleagues the problems with using them and support moving towards an HTML-first culture.
Head of GOV.UK Neil Williams talks about the work that's been happening to future proof the government's content, including keeping up with new technologies and turning to robots to help.
GOV.UK has just passed 2 billion visits since the site went live in October 2012.
We’re proud of GOV.UK, and how much we’ve achieved in such a short time. But an unintended consequence of that pride might be that we sometimes give the impression we think GOV.UK is perfect.
A project team in GDS is working to make sure GOV.UK can meet the needs of all its users, including specialists and professionals, when it becomes a fully-realised “single domain for government” later this year. Neil Williams, who leads the …
Last month we celebrated the first anniversary of GOV.UK’s launch. Today marks one year since the first two departmental domains were switched over, and the “Departments and policy” section (then known as Inside Government) went fully live. Today we have …
There’s an adage in writing circles known as “kill your darlings”, based on a quote by William Faulkner (“In writing, you must kill all your darlings”). The theory goes that writers should be ruthless about cutting the bits of their …
Martha said we needed a revolution. As of this moment, 10 Downing Street, the Deputy PM’s office, all 24 of the UK's central government departments and its embassies around the world are now sharing a single, joined-up presence on the web at …
One of the questions publishers in government departments are asking us a lot at the moment is "Can I embed [insert name of web app here] on GOV.UK?" In the spirit of "publish, don't send" this blog post sets out …
A year ago today we launched the beta of Inside Government on GOV.UK - a working, public demo of a product which to many people had previously seemed unimaginable. The site was a live test of what multiple departments sharing …
Government Digital Service (GDS) delivers platforms, products and services that help government to become joined-up, trusted and responsive to user needs.
How accessible is your website?
Public sector organisations have a legal duty to make websites accessible. Find out how your organisation is impacted at GOV.UK/accessibility-regulations
GOV.UK service and product owners need to upload an accessibility page and publishers need to upload an accessible documents policy.