01-20-2012, 08:26 PM | #1 |
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Badly formatted eBooks
While I enjoy using my Kindle much more than my previous eReader, because it has a touch screen, and many more books are available, one pet peeve remains:
Many (most?) free eBooks are very badly formatted. While I am not someone to often complain about free stuff, I can't help myself this time. Many eBooks contain spaces in places where they should not be (especially Gutenberg versions), so the text starts to look like this which is of course not very readable, the cover image is very bad or missing (Amazon), there often is no Table of Contents where there should have been one (Amazon, Gutenberg), or chapter headings look like normal text instead of being bold or larger (Amazon). While not always perfect, the books from MobileRead are often the best of the bunch. I ripped all of my MP3 files myself from my original CD's, tagged them myself, and put the cover image into them myself, and with regard to freely available eBooks, I wonder if I should start doing so myself, starting out with Gutenberg's TXT or HTML files... but I know I will never have the time for that -and- properly read the books too. Sorry to complain, but I had to vent a moment there. I just hope that bought eBooks, especially the more expensive ones, will be better... Last edited by Katsunami; 01-20-2012 at 08:29 PM. |
01-20-2012, 08:33 PM | #2 | |
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As for the eBooks with the split lines, that's usually an indication that the publisher used a PDF file as the source for the other eBook formats. A lot of eBooks don't have the proper cover and instead have a generic cover. As for the ToC, could be the ePub converted using Kindlegen and with no internal ToC in the ePub, no ToC in the Mobipocket. I've noticed that the poorly formatted headers is more often found in Mobipocket eBooks then ePub. |
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01-20-2012, 09:02 PM | #3 |
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Thanks for the explanation.
How do MobileRead members create the eBooks they upload; do they start by hand, using the Gutenberg TXT-files? I can't really believe that, because adding all the tags for paragraphs and such would be a horrendous job. Some of the ePub / Mobi files from Gutenburg that I have encountered are very well formatted though, and would just need to be fine tuned. I remember using Mobipocket Creator, back in 2008. The program still is on Mobipocket.com, but the library on the website seems to be empty. Is Mobipocket Creator still relevant nowadays? I imagine that it is not possible to directly edit a PRC, Mobi or EPUB file. At the moment, I tend to go with the plain TXT files from Gutenberg with regard to the free books... |
01-20-2012, 09:07 PM | #4 |
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They are from the TXT or HTML files.
Most were formatted using Bookdesigner. Calibre can do it when converting. Convert to ePub, toss the ePub into Sigil, edit and get it right, convert to other formats with Calbre. Done. |
01-20-2012, 09:10 PM | #5 |
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01-20-2012, 09:32 PM | #6 |
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I'll see what I'm going to do. Maybe I'm going to check out Sigil, and then edit the free books as I see fit after downloading or converting to the EPUB file, and then creating a mobi again for the Kindle.
I'm just wondering why many of the free books downloaded from Amazon are so very bad. I did not expect that, and hope that paid books wil be -way- better. |
01-20-2012, 09:45 PM | #7 | |
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Maybe some were converted from a Word document. That can make some poorly formatted eBooks. and given that you can't edit Mobipocket after it is created, they just let it be. There are my guesses. |
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01-20-2012, 10:01 PM | #8 |
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Hm, OK. Never knew that Amazon would just convert a book and put it up on their website, if it's a free one. I'd expect it to be proofed and checked over (even for a free one) as a matter of pride, to be honest.
Some of the Project Gutenberg ePubs are quite good to look at, but difficult to make heads or tails of in Sigil because of the many strange codes. I just saw that EPUB basically is HTML, which I did not know before, and Sigil an HTML-editor for books instead of websites. Being a software engineer in "real life", it seems that Sigil will be easy to work with for me. Maybe I'll reformat some books when I stumble upon a badly formatted one that I want to read. Is it allowed to upload a book to the MobileRead library in a certain format, if that format is already there? Also, I don't really know if it's allowed to strip all the "Project Gutenberg" stuff and the entire license out of the book, replacing it with some links to the website and aknowledgement that it was the starting version, before re-distribution... the pages and pages of legal stuff and the end of those books really vexes me. |
01-20-2012, 10:15 PM | #9 | ||
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Last edited by DuckieTigger; 01-21-2012 at 09:31 AM. |
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01-20-2012, 10:44 PM | #10 |
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Yes, without the Gutenberg license stuff inside, it should be a PD book, logicslly. I assume that its perfectly legal to get a book from them, strip all Gutenberg info from it, and add a "Thank you" in the beginning, stating that the formatting of the new version is based on the work that they did before. Credit where credit is due. They do it themselves, by stating which version of the text they have used.
Some of their html and epub-versions that I've seen are quite ok, and just need some fixes. Same goes for some Mobileread books. Maybe I will format some books that I'll be reading, starting from the Mobileread or Gutenberg epub, if I think that I can do better. Edit: I really should watch out for typos more when using my tablet to post. Last edited by Katsunami; 01-20-2012 at 11:22 PM. |
01-20-2012, 11:15 PM | #11 | ||
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01-20-2012, 11:27 PM | #12 |
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Of course my version would be better than the one I start out from, or there wouldn't be a point in posting it
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01-21-2012, 02:08 AM | #13 | |
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And for another example I've often edited ePub books designed by others to correct typos and other mistakes. If one has a basic knowledge of HTML and stylesheets it is easy to edit ePub ebooks. |
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01-21-2012, 07:49 AM | #14 | |
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However, you are not allowed to use the phrase 'Project Gutenberg' anywhere without including the entire license. I think that it is ok to say something like 'thanks to PG' as that is not trademarked. |
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01-21-2012, 09:17 AM | #15 | |
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