WIRED: Why E-Books Look So Ugly

[rogue_ronin]

Originally Posted by toomanybooks

That is great for tech savvy e-book users, but I am not computer proficient enough to do that. I am stuck with however the file I download is formatted. E-books sold by publishers need to be formatted for people like me who don't know how to customize e-books.

Y'know, it occurs to me that it's no easier to make a PDF either -- in fact it's pretty darn hard to do good design anywhere.

Assuming that JSWolf is correct that anything you can do in PDF you can do in ePub is true (and I think it is), then it's just a matter of adding some proper design to an ePub.

You can definitely work on a page level; you can definitely work with the awareness of resolution for your target screen -- I know both of those are true with CSS.

The difference, of course, is that if you want to adapt it later for use on another machine -- and you're not the original designer -- the source is wide open and pretty easily understood.

PDF? Not so much.

When the PDF supporters compare a professionally designed ePub to a professionally designed PDF (preferably of the same book, and by the same team) then we'll be comparing apples to apples. Until then, it's all about comparing something that has had hundreds of hours of paid work invested in it to something that a guy ran through a converter.

m a r

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by rogue_ronin

Assuming that JSWolf is correct that anything you can do in PDF you can do in ePub is true (and I think it is), then it's just a matter of adding some proper design to an ePub.

Sure you can. The trick is finding a program to render it. FBreader doesn't do such a good job there. I wish there was a way for me to change the font on the mobi reader, though.. the PC version supports about a dozen fonts, and they're all more pleasant to the eye than the 1 font this thing supports, sadly.
Which is why I generally convert a word document with the text to PDF.
God bless Constantia