Paper or Digital Format?

L.Jenkins

Daft question. When you need to read up on something, whether it be a tutorial, design spec or other document, do you prefer it to be in paper of digital format? I maybe strange in the sense that I prefer something I can hold and reference quickly.

Aswerty

While I prefer paper I don't print things out unless I'll be keeping them for a good while for reference purposes.

I think one of the great things about paper based resources is that you can sit back and read them. Where as at my computer screen I'll always keep jumping into my text editor to try things out instead of just spending time consuming the resource at a leisurely pace.

L.Jenkins

I'm the same in a way, but if I want to try a code snippet, I'll search for something specific to my needs or something similar on the net first before I go trawling through a document. I have a couple of folders with useful reference information in them so I can have a read when I need to get away from the laptop for a few minutes.

Tom Dunne

My PhD thesis is about screen reading, yet I prefer paper.

I think for quick-and-dirty, "I need info NOW", digital is fine. But for more in-depth reading, you can't beat paper (and the research suggests that this is a prevalent view).