ePub Headers

[tompe]

Originally Posted by pepak

Jellby: Well, a "reader feature" is the same thing as "proprietary extension" - EPUB does specify how a book should be rendered, and any different rendition is proprietary. It doesn't matter where the additional rendition comes from (it could just as well come from the filename, for example, and wouldn't be any less proprietary because of that, even though the book file itself would remain unchanged).

If the data comes from standardised information in the book like the author and title then i do not see how it can be a proprietary extension of the format. That is like saying that a device the read the book out aloud is a proprietary extension even if it only use the standardised information in the ePub file.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And to be honest, I should already know what book I am reading. If you had a book with a lot of chapters, then I can understand wanting a footer showing that chapter you are on. But as for a header, it's not all that useful.

Well, this depends on how your memory works. And when you read the next book from an author that you have a lot of books of it is not easy to remember which one you are reading since you often just takes the next one in the series and do not care for the title when you start reading the book.

Having to modify en ePub file to switch on or off a header seems like a very bad thing. These kind of thing belongs to the presentation layer and should be controllable from the reader.

[JSWolf]

What I would is the book to have the header & footer and have a per-book option to display them or not. Having to modify the code is not what I meant. I want ADE to allow me to control it from within ADE.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

At 10 point I can get 27 lines per screen in LRF. A 400 page book will take about 14 or 15 extra page turns. Plus, I prefer to have as much text on the screen as I can. And to be honest, I should already know what book I am reading. If you had a book with a lot of chapters, then I can understand wanting a footer showing that chapter you are on. But as for a header, it's not all that useful.

It could be on the header too, no need for a footer

And yes, you usually know what you are reading, but sometimes you have many short books in a series, or by an author, and you don't always remember exactly which one you are reading. Other times you know you are reading "that book about pyramids by a Swiss guy", but how was the author named?, what's the exact title? Many people are ready to sacrifice 15 page turns for that info.

What would be perfect in ePub is the ability to turn headers and footers on or off. Of course we need to have headers and footers in the first place.

That goes without saying. Everything should be configurable, from font size to margins and headers.

[Timoleon]

It's only been in the last couple of months that I've been making my ebooks with headers --- never bothered to do it before, and never thought I'd want to do it. But once I started doing so, it began to really grow on me.

I find adding the headers aesthetically pleasing, and it truly helps "burn" or "reinforce" into my brain that I'm reading such and such by so and so. It's like having 400 or so subliminal reminders per book --- and, all in all, I think it makes the experience more memorable, enriching, and rewarding (or something like that!).

Of course, if you have an eidetic memory or a certain mental vigor --- I supposed this is all a series of moot points...

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Jellby

It could be on the header too, no need for a footer

And yes, you usually know what you are reading, but sometimes you have many short books in a series, or by an author, and you don't always remember exactly which one you are reading. Other times you know you are reading "that book about pyramids by a Swiss guy", but how was the author named?, what's the exact title? Many people are ready to sacrifice 15 page turns for that info.



That goes without saying. Everything should be configurable, from font size to margins and headers.

If you only need the name of the book and the author then most readers provide an info button that provides this information. For me a header needs to provide the chapter title to be useful. I agree that headers, if present, should be able to be turned off along with other customizations.

Dale