Thread: EPUB3 reader?
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Old 02-18-2011, 06:10 AM   #11
delphin
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Funny to hear the mention of Yosemite - Just yesterday, I checked out an EPUB version of Fodor's "Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon" from my local library.

I agree that big glorious bound books are nicer for these kinds of books, but the above e-book doesn't look bad on my 20 inch PC monitor.

I suggest that you download Adobe Digital Editions and then check out some EPUB titles from your local library, so you can see the current state of EPUB publishing.

Complex math formulas aren't a problem, because they can be rendered using inserted image files, just as they often are on web pages.

The current EPUB standard already requires support for UTF-8/16, and you can embed whatever kind of Unicode fonts you require, so most international text should not be a problem.

An exception is that there is currently no support that I know of for languages that read right-to-left rather than the more common left-to-right.

For really complex formatting where EPUB is not sophisticated enough yet, PDF is still a good option, but EPUB does a pretty good job for most things, even now.

My one big complaint with the current EPUB reader implementations is the lack of 'fixed position' elements on nearly ALL current devices.

Fixed headers and footers are in the spec, but no one seems to support even this minimal level because the oeb-page-head and oeb-page-foot tags are totally ignored by every reader that I have checked them on.

I understand that Sony and some other EPUB readers using embedded versions of Adobe's ADE can use a custom Adobe hacked headers, but using nonstandard tags seems like a poor substitute for complying with the spec.

So, as has been already said, I wouldn't worry too much about finding a EPUB 3 device.

If they can't even get really simple things like fixed headers and footers right, an EPUB 3 device would just have an even more impressive list of features THAT WOULDN'T BE IMPLEMENTED ANYWAY.
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