Penguin UK with some ePub books to try out

mikecook · 09-03-2008, 03:59 PM

A few hours back Penguin.co.uk put up a page with six Penguin titles in the ePub format :-D

These are just teasers but it is cool to see they are preparing to go live themselves!

Here is the link;

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/u...ers/index.html

There is also an article about this on ePubBooks.com

zelda_pinwheel · 09-03-2008, 04:27 PM

YEAH BABY !!!! EPUB FROM PENGUIN !!!!! brilliant news !! thanks for the link !

wallcraft · 09-03-2008, 04:55 PM

This is good news. However, the "tasters" of The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollop and of King of Swords by Nick Stone are each about 2MB because they both include Charis SIL as an embedded font. If all the Penguin ePubs are going to do we will have multiple copies of this font taking up room on our memory cards.

TheJohnNewton · 09-03-2008, 05:32 PM

Like the idea of epub. Don't care for the Adobe Digital Editions requirement. It's unusable on my ereader and my work pc.

MerLock · 09-03-2008, 05:46 PM

It would be great if they did the same in America.

Hadrien · 09-03-2008, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallcraft

This is good news. However, the "tasters" of The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollop and of King of Swords by Nick Stone are each about 2MB because they both include Charis SIL as an embedded font. If all the Penguin ePubs are going to do we will have multiple copies of this font taking up room on our memory cards.

I agree. The ability to include fonts might be a godsend for most publishers (they can create an experience closer to their p-books) but I'm not sure that it's always such a good idea from a pure customer perspective.

While embedded fonts can provide a better looking presentation, they shouldn't be used for the main text, but rather just for a few elements where they might be useful. One of the benefit with e-books, is that the user can potentially select both the font and the size of the font based on their tastes, not strictly on what the publisher decided.

mikecook · 09-03-2008, 06:09 PM

I just had an email via epubbooks.com with a visitor asking why they can't read those Penguin ePub books on their iPhone/Stanza setup.

Alas, this is one of the issues when publishers add DRM.

Does anyone know if Adobe will be releasing DE on the iPhone?

wallcraft · 09-03-2008, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikecook

Alas, this is one of the issues when publishers add DRM.

The full ebooks probably will have Adobe DRM, but the "tasters" are DRM-free. They are readable using FBReader for example.

smithno · 09-03-2008, 06:19 PM

I downloaded all 6, but when I open them up in the Sony eBook software, there only appears to be 1 chapter in each of the books. 2-3 MB per book is a big for one chapter; thought they were complete books...

zelda_pinwheel · 09-03-2008, 06:31 PM

so they're not even really tasters, they're just hors d'oeuvres ? well, that's a bit disappointing, but it's still a nice effort and i'm still thrilled to see that they're publishing in epub. it's early days yet ; hopefully they'll work out all the details soon. perhaps someone should leave them a friendly message explaining that embedding fonts is not ideal, for instance...

ttate90303 · 09-03-2008, 10:07 PM

I'm sure Penguin would appreciate our feedback - I'm sure they want to make it a win-win situation. Now let's hope the US gets on board and we start to get more ePub titles.

AMacD · 09-03-2008, 11:00 PM

They open in Stanza Desktop for the Mac just fine. I kept one just as a tester.

Sparrow · 09-04-2008, 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheJohnNewton

Like the idea of epub. Don't care for the Adobe Digital Editions requirement.

Same here - had a quick play with Adobe DE; but have now uninstalled it and don't intend using it in future.

MobiPocket Reader did a good job converting them to prc though.

Hadrien · 09-04-2008, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikecook

I just had an email via epubbooks.com with a visitor asking why they can't read those Penguin ePub books on their iPhone/Stanza setup.

Alas, this is one of the issues when publishers add DRM.

Does anyone know if Adobe will be releasing DE on the iPhone?

Adobe wanted to release DE on the iPhone but they didn't like the fact that there's no way to sync content between the desktop edition of DE and the mobile one, if you don't use some sort of client/server.

It is also impossible to add a MIME handler on Safari (that's why Stanza and eReader both have a way to download content within the application, but you can't simply browse the Web using Safari and download e-books if you're not in a dedicated application).

HarryT · 09-04-2008, 05:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

YEAH BABY !!!! EPUB FROM PENGUIN !!!!! brilliant news !! thanks for the link !

DRM-protected ePub such as this is no more portable than any other format. Less so at the moment, in fact; to the best of my knowledge, the Sony PRS-505 is the only eBook Reader which can read it.

That's the problem - you take an open standard like ePub and add to it the ability for anyone to add to it whatever custom DRM they want. The end result is inevitably a confusing mess of mutually-incompatible eBooks. If company "A" and company "B" each add their own DRM, inevitable some devices will be able to read company A's books, other devices will be able to read company B's books, and the poor consumer gets stuck with a mess.

That's why I'm still rather skeptical about the idea of ePub as an "end-user" format. I just don't see it as a solution to the "e-Babel" situation at all.

09-03-2008, 03:59 PM	#1
mikecook Enthusiast Posts: 35 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: United Kingdom Device: iPad Mini, Nexus 7, Sony Reader, Kindle, and others.	Penguin UK with some ePub books to try out A few hours back Penguin.co.uk put up a page with six Penguin titles in the ePub format :-D These are just teasers but it is cool to see they are preparing to go live themselves! Here is the link; http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/u...ers/index.html There is also an article about this on ePubBooks.com

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09-03-2008, 04:27 PM	#2
zelda_pinwheel zeldinha zippy zeldissima Posts: 27,827 Karma: 921169 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Paris, France Device: eb1150 & is that a nook in her pocket, or she just happy to see you?	YEAH BABY !!!! EPUB FROM PENGUIN !!!!! brilliant news !! thanks for the link !

09-03-2008, 04:55 PM	#3
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,975 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	This is good news. However, the "tasters" of The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollop and of King of Swords by Nick Stone are each about 2MB because they both include Charis SIL as an embedded font. If all the Penguin ePubs are going to do we will have multiple copies of this font taking up room on our memory cards.

09-03-2008, 05:32 PM	#4
TheJohnNewton Addict Posts: 256 Karma: 144599 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Boox Nova 2	Like the idea of epub. Don't care for the Adobe Digital Editions requirement. It's unusable on my ereader and my work pc.

09-03-2008, 05:46 PM	#5
MerLock Evangelist Posts: 411 Karma: 1034889 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: none	It would be great if they did the same in America.

09-03-2008, 06:09 PM	#7
mikecook Enthusiast Posts: 35 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: United Kingdom Device: iPad Mini, Nexus 7, Sony Reader, Kindle, and others.	I just had an email via epubbooks.com with a visitor asking why they can't read those Penguin ePub books on their iPhone/Stanza setup. Alas, this is one of the issues when publishers add DRM. Does anyone know if Adobe will be releasing DE on the iPhone?

09-03-2008, 06:19 PM	#9
smithno Groupie Posts: 152 Karma: 222484 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Tenn., US Device: jetBook, jetBook Lite, Kindle 3, Galaxy Note II	I downloaded all 6, but when I open them up in the Sony eBook software, there only appears to be 1 chapter in each of the books. 2-3 MB per book is a big for one chapter; thought they were complete books...

09-03-2008, 06:31 PM	#10
zelda_pinwheel zeldinha zippy zeldissima Posts: 27,827 Karma: 921169 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Paris, France Device: eb1150 & is that a nook in her pocket, or she just happy to see you?	so they're not even really tasters, they're just hors d'oeuvres ? well, that's a bit disappointing, but it's still a nice effort and i'm still thrilled to see that they're publishing in epub. it's early days yet ; hopefully they'll work out all the details soon. perhaps someone should leave them a friendly message explaining that embedding fonts is not ideal, for instance...

09-03-2008, 10:07 PM	#11
ttate90303 Enthusiast Posts: 26 Karma: 36 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: USA Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Apple iPad 3, Kindle 3, Nook Simple Touch	I'm sure Penguin would appreciate our feedback - I'm sure they want to make it a win-win situation. Now let's hope the US gets on board and we start to get more ePub titles.

09-03-2008, 11:00 PM	#12
AMacD Al Posts: 66 Karma: 140 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Bardstown, KY as home base, but RV following the seasons. Device: Kindle1 and Kindle2 and Palm T\|X	They open in Stanza Desktop for the Mac just fine. I kept one just as a tester.