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Prospect · 08-06-2008, 10:51 AM

Using bytes would most certainly be possible.

I do not think that images or would be a problem since (at least to my knowledge) most ebook formats (at least mobi and epub) are container formats where the images are not saved together with the text referred to and saved elsewhere (the same way as html and images in a zip archive). And in every case it would be simple to count only text and not the binary data.

There could be issues with different encodings (eg unicode vs ASCII), compression and how to handle markup. If the players agree with each how to handle this, a system based on bytes of text could be used as absolute page numbers.

In my opinion the same could be archived counting words or characters, and this would probably be easier to understand implement and be more precise.
Regardless of what metrics lies behind I would suggest that the word "page" (or horse?) is used easy reference: 1 page = 1 (or 2?) kb, 100 words, 1000 characters or whatever. It is a wonderful word.

Dose anybody know how these kinds of problems was handled back in the old days of the scroll?

08-06-2008, 10:51 AM	#75
Prospect Other Posts: 143 Karma: 644 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Norway Device: Cybook, Kindle	Using bytes would most certainly be possible. I do not think that images or would be a problem since (at least to my knowledge) most ebook formats (at least mobi and epub) are container formats where the images are not saved together with the text referred to and saved elsewhere (the same way as html and images in a zip archive). And in every case it would be simple to count only text and not the binary data. There could be issues with different encodings (eg unicode vs ASCII), compression and how to handle markup. If the players agree with each how to handle this, a system based on bytes of text could be used as absolute page numbers. In my opinion the same could be archived counting words or characters, and this would probably be easier to understand implement and be more precise. Regardless of what metrics lies behind I would suggest that the word "page" (or horse?) is used easy reference: 1 page = 1 (or 2?) kb, 100 words, 1000 characters or whatever. It is a wonderful word. Dose anybody know how these kinds of problems was handled back in the old days of the scroll? Last edited by Prospect; 08-06-2008 at 10:53 AM.