PRS-300 Display question

[sabredog]

I have been the proud owner of my PRS-300 for around a week now and am most impressed by the unit.

Can someone please answer a quick question regarding the display?

There is a small number along the right border from time to time. The number increases as one reads through the ebook and I am unsure to what this number represents or how one might toggle it on or off the display.

Cheers for any help!

Mike

[Mike_73]

The numbers on the right side are usually page numbers. So if your reader displays part of page 3 and 4, then somewhere on this page you'll have a 4 on the side, indicating where page 4 starts.
On the bottom you'll have something like 3-4 as page display. Only if you are completely on one page, the page display on the bottom will show a single number.

I never tried to turn this off as it didn't bother me. So sorry, I cannot help here.

[dordale]

The number on the right side is a "feature" of ePub books. Like Mike says, it represents the page number of the ePub. Unfortunately, on Sony's readers (except for the 900) there is no way to turn it off...and I'm pretty sure there is no way to turn it on on the 900s.

[sabredog]

Cheers for the replies. I can live with the numbers, they are not prominent, so not a distraction.

These guys are correct. Theoretically the page numbering is supposed to correspond to the page numbers in the print edition so that the reader of either the ePub or printed book can reference the same material with the same page number. But I doubt it is really that accurate. Sony ePubs are supposed to be hard encoded with page identifiers, but that is totally up to the publisher. If the ePub doesn't have hard encoded page identifiers then the reader's firmware uses a math algorithym to estimate page breaks. At any rate it is annoying not to be able to turn it off on the 300, but at least they don't show up on the 900.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by jswinden

These guys are correct. Theoretically the page numbering is supposed to correspond to the page numbers in the print edition so that the reader of either the ePub or printed book can reference the same material with the same page number.

I could be wrong but I believe that ADE uses 1 page = 1024 bytes.

This doesn't equal the print edition but if everyone in a class is using the exact same ebook hopefully page 44 will be page 44 for everyone in the class regardless of what size font they're using.

[Toxaris]

Not only that, but if you use another compression factor on the XHTML files inside an epub, the number of pages change...

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I could be wrong but I believe that ADE uses 1 page = 1024 bytes.

I'm not sure about this either as I've heard various explanations. One explanation says that the book publisher can hardcode in the page break tags to make the pagination of the eBook close to that of the printed version. However, if the publisher does not hardcode the page break tags then ADE uses the 1 page = 1024 bytes algorythm. Perhaps someone can enlighten us with certainty (not speculation) on this matter.

This much I know for certain: Pagination of the same books on my 300 and 900 are the same. If I read to page 221 in a book on my 300 and then switch to the 900 to read the same book, I can use the Goto page 221 function and quickly find the location.

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I could be wrong but I believe that ADE uses 1 page = 1024 bytes.

This doesn't equal the print edition but if everyone in a class is using the exact same ebook hopefully page 44 will be page 44 for everyone in the class regardless of what size font they're using.

I find the page number on the side a bunch of rubbish, and pure eye-sore. It even bleeds into the text some times... WTF? ADE is a load of crappiness right now, and I'm surprised it made it as a standard. LRF was skads better in terms of how it displays on the Reader.

That said...

Page numbers do not have to match up in a classroom setting. Every book has multiple editions, all with different page numbers: Hardcover, trade paperback, paperback, large print, etc. We should consider the eBook exactly the same thing: a different edition. It's absolutely fair to ask the prof. what chapter and state you have a different edition. And if you do a bibliography, you simply indicate the digital edition as well (it's been stated in every eBook I've bought).

Here's a great example of what I'm saying...

I was in a Bible study and the professor (UCLA Lit. prof.) actually said "page xyz if you're using the NIV." Well, except I had a different NIV than him -- and Zondervan is the only publisher -- and page xyz was definitely not a match (he gave the chapter/verse too).

So different editions are a part of life, and have always been. Trying to force eBooks to fit some artificial definition of pagination is just plain wrong.

-Pie

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by EatingPie

Trying to force eBooks to fit some artificial definition of pagination is just plain wrong.

Any pagination for ebooks by definition is artificial. Not having it equal 1 page per screen saves every ereader the overhead of recalculating page numbers for every change of font size. I like having an arbitrary 1024 bytes equals 1 page.

I'm with you on the side page numbers, they should be a user defined option. There should be an option to turn them off.

Since I use large fonts to avoid reading glasses those page numbers rarely get in my way since they are about a quarter of the size of my font.

Originally Posted by EatingPie

I find the page number on the side a bunch of rubbish, and pure eye-sore. It even bleeds into the text some times... WTF? ADE is a load of crappiness right now, and I'm surprised it made it as a standard. LRF was skads better in terms of how it displays on the Reader.

You are blaming ADE, but the blame really should be put on Sony's implementation of ADE on the 300. On the 300 Sony displays page numbers in the right margin and does not allow text to be justified. However, on the 900 page numbers are not displayed in the right margin and text is justified. Other device manufacturers who use ADE have different implementations.

As for LRF, it is crap. It is a bloated file format that had super-wide margins on Sony readers and was not capable of being easily deDRMed. I'm glad this format is extinct.

Originally Posted by EatingPie

Page numbers do not have to match up in a classroom setting. Every book has multiple editions, all with different page numbers: Hardcover, trade paperback, paperback, large print, etc. We should consider the eBook exactly the same thing: a different edition. It's absolutely fair to ask the prof. what chapter and state you have a different edition. And if you do a bibliography, you simply indicate the digital edition as well (it's been stated in every eBook I've bought).

Here's a great example of what I'm saying...

I was in a Bible study and the professor (UCLA Lit. prof.) actually said "page xyz if you're using the NIV." Well, except I had a different NIV than him -- and Zondervan is the only publisher -- and page xyz was definitely not a match (he gave the chapter/verse too).

So different editions are a part of life, and have always been. Trying to force eBooks to fit some artificial definition of pagination is just plain wrong.

-Pie

You argument is what the ancient Greeks would have called pathetic. From pathos meaning emotion and not from logos meaning knowledge. Hence in modern English pathetic. Even a so-so professor will tear you a new one if you use that kind of pathetic argument within a paper.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by jswinden

As for LRF, it is crap. It is a bloated file format that had super-wide margins on Sony readers and was not capable of being easily deDRMed. I'm glad this format is extinct.

I can't talk to the technical issues of LRF but it is Sony's DRM free format, LRX was their DRM'd format. I never noticed wider margins with LRF versus any other format. Actually LRF usually looks the best.

I just hated it recalculating page numbers every font change and occasionally rebooting because it ran out of memory during re-pagination. Due to this I switched to ePub so all my books could be easily moved to most any other reader.

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by jswinden

You are blaming ADE, but the blame really should be put on Sony's implementation of ADE on the 300. On the 300 Sony displays page numbers in the right margin and does not allow text to be justified. However, on the 900 page numbers are not displayed in the right margin and text is justified. Other device manufacturers who use ADE have different implementations.

As for LRF, it is crap. It is a bloated file format that had super-wide margins on Sony readers and was not capable of being easily deDRMed. I'm glad this format is extinct.

Disagree, and see above for LRF vs. LRX. LRF produced the best looking e-books I've seen on any e-Reader. Plus it has headers that work, and table of contents that show in the menu (only self-generated LRFs).

Calling it crap is just rhetorical.

You argument is what the ancient Greeks would have called pathetic. From pathos meaning emotion and not from logos meaning knowledge. Hence in modern English pathetic. Even a so-so professor will tear you a new one if you use that kind of pathetic argument within a paper.

Um. You actually didn't even address a single thing I said. Ironically, I was relaying a fact: publishers produce different editions that have different page numbers; hence the need for specifying editions in bibliographies.

I will (sarcastically) congratulate you though. This is the rudest -- and maybe only -- flame I've received on MobileRead. There is something to be said for civility, and MobileRead is a great site for that very reason.

-Pie

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I can't talk to the technical issues of LRF but it is Sony's DRM free format, LRX was their DRM'd format. I never noticed wider margins with LRF versus any other format. Actually LRF usually looks the best.

I just hated it recalculating page numbers every font change and occasionally rebooting because it ran out of memory during re-pagination. Due to this I switched to ePub so all my books could be easily moved to most any other reader.

The original Sony Reader software actually pre-calculated prior to transferring to your Reader. So font size changes didn't invoke the spinning arrows of death! That changed, though, when they moved to the current version of the Software.

Back in the day, I actually had a Mac program that mounted my PRS-500 and allowed copying... and thus no need for a Windows Parallels run. But then font changes caused the dreaded spinning arrows. I chose to boot parallels rather than suffer that fate! Which is saying a lot for a Mac guy!!

-Pie