BEST ebook format?

cancelx · 04-16-2010, 11:45 AM

hi all.

ok, so i'm hoping i'll have things cleared away to actually get some books on my PP tonight !!!

that said... i found a bunch of faith-based books (free editions) and are available in many formats (no DRM)

i'm too new to appreciate what each reading program in the PP is capable of...so...

could I get some impressions as to what is the Best (most comfortable, natural looking) ebook format to use? (and what prog in the PP actually opens them?)

THANKS A BUNCH !

---back to wring up my room now............

AJ Starr · 04-16-2010, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cancelx

hi all.

ok, so i'm hoping i'll have things cleared away to actually get some books on my PP tonight !!!

that said... i found a bunch of faith-based books (free editions) and are available in many formats (no DRM)

i'm too new to appreciate what each reading program in the PP is capable of...so...

could I get some impressions as to what is the Best (most comfortable, natural looking) ebook format to use? (and what prog in the PP actually opens them?)

THANKS A BUNCH !

---back to wring up my room now............

Whether it is the one that is the most comfortable for you, I suggest epub as that is the de facto standard, and hopefully the format that will win the "format wars". You wouldn't want a format that future readers will not be able to read.

By the by, can you share the site with the faith based books?

AJ

irenas · 04-16-2010, 12:00 PM

I like .fb2 best of all, .epub works fine for me, but i do not like its zoom levels, so i usually convert .epub to .fb2, thought .fb2 file is larger then .epub...

Davimee · 04-16-2010, 12:01 PM

Yes, I agree... can you please share where you found the books? Thanks!

theducks · 04-16-2010, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cancelx

hi all.

ok, so i'm hoping i'll have things cleared away to actually get some books on my PP tonight !!!

that said... i found a bunch of faith-based books (free editions) and are available in many formats (no DRM)

i'm too new to appreciate what each reading program in the PP is capable of...so...

could I get some impressions as to what is the Best (most comfortable, natural looking) ebook format to use? (and what prog in the PP actually opens them?)

THANKS A BUNCH !

---back to wring up my room now............

IMHO
PDF is the worst format it there is for anything except normal text (no wingdings, images).
PDF was designed to render the document as the originator intended. Everything just as the originator wanted: Page Size, format and Placement. If the Document was designed for a 600x800 (3:4) grey scale (Like on the PEZ) display, you would get exactly what was intended.
The sad thing, is the e-ink display on the PEZ was never intended to support Panning (those scroll bars on your PC, required if you simply Zoom the Image). The PEz does a fair job at forcing text to reflow in spite of the PDF constaints

my 2 cents

cancelx · 04-16-2010, 12:12 PM

thanks all.
.fb2 -- does this have larger zoom ability?
would i be just as well to use epub and add the .fb2 trick instead?

--> I think you all know the book site... manybooks.net

They have Andrew Murray AND William Wilberforce! Now I'm not a Calvinist or anything, but this guy in the 1800s was beyond today's even Pentecostal "Holiness" appreciation for living the life. And that to Murray's hold on our relationship with Jesus, and you got some heady reading to do (grin)

THANKS AGAIN !

Robertb · 04-16-2010, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AJ Starr

Whether it is the one that is the most comfortable for you, I suggest epub as that is the de facto standard, and hopefully the format that will win the "format wars". You wouldn't want a format that future readers will not be able to read.

By the by, can you share the site with the faith based books?

AJ

Dear AJ:

Both FB2 and EPUB are the clear favorites. Whate makes EPUB the winner (in my opinion) is that you have 9 font sizes in EPUB and it works well with Text-To-Speech.

cancelx · 04-16-2010, 12:29 PM

Robert. Thanks... didnt know TTS was an epub (not fb2) feature. That's Big !

animedude01 · 04-16-2010, 12:29 PM

Rally, the best format is the one that works best for you. However, you do want to consider longevity of the format and whether the next reader will be able to read it.

PDF is readable on almost any device and is now an open format, but, as theducks mentions, it is more of a display format and if not designed properly, it will look bad on smaller screens such as on the PP.

ePub appears to be the format that everyone is moving to and is an open format so should be around for a while.

Mobi is owned by Amazon, so it will likely be around for quite a while as well since they use it on their Kindle.

fb2 is an open format, but I don't really know how well it will do since ePub is also open and backed by Adobe. However, since it is open, you can always format shift to another format if that becomes an issue.

HTML is open, and will stay around for a long time. It can be format shifted to all the other formats easily so should be very future proof.

Txt won't have a lot of formatting, but will be readable on practically anything, and is almost future proof.

Which format is best is also determined by what is offered. Sometimes the choice is limited. However, I'd go with ePub, then mobi. I'd stay away from PDF if possible as it doesn't always display well and shifting can be a bear, depending on the original was created.

The nice thing about the PP is that it displays all these format, but each has their own quirks. Personally, I try to get ePub as it's looking to be the current format winner. It's also easy to format shift if it doesn't have DRM and relatively easy to strip of DRM.
Hope this helps!

Xochipilli2012 · 04-16-2010, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cancelx

thanks all.
.fb2 -- does this have larger zoom ability?
would i be just as well to use epub and add the .fb2 trick instead?

--> I think you all know the book site... manybooks.net

They have Andrew Murray AND William Wilberforce! Now I'm not a Calvinist or anything, but this guy in the 1800s was beyond today's even Pentecostal "Holiness" appreciation for living the life. And that to Murray's hold on our relationship with Jesus, and you got some heady reading to do (grin)

THANKS AGAIN !

Great that you know about Manybooks.net! A wonderful resource, with well-constructed books in several formats. They also have books by Allen, Troward, Korzybski, Tolstoy, Ingersol, James, Paine, and Russell.

Happy reading, mate!

Laura81 · 04-16-2010, 01:00 PM

Personally I like epub, text and html best. I find the PP does a great job with all 3 of these and have had mixed results with others that I've tried like mobi and pdf. I've not tried fb2 or any other format.

Dave_S · 04-16-2010, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irenas

I like .fb2 best of all, .epub works fine for me, but i do not like its zoom levels, so i usually convert .epub to .fb2, thought .fb2 file is larger then .epub...

ZIP the FB2 file up with filename.fb2.zip and CoolReader will unZIP it to read it. I use only FB2 for now, and my ZIPed FB2 files are usually about 10% smaller than the EPUB that I derived them from.

Dave_S · 04-16-2010, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robertb

Whate makes EPUB the winner (in my opinion) is that you have 9 font sizes in EPUB

That is not EPUB, that is ADE that has only 9 font sizes. When FB2 or EPUB is read in CoolReader there are 16 font sizes available, and there is nearly an order of magnitude more font faces available when you install your own fonts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robertb

and it works well with Text-To-Speech.

Well, there is that.

That is if you are a fan of listening to a mechanical sounding voice.

cancelx · 04-16-2010, 01:16 PM

Dave_S
that's cool. usually when you zip it asks for compression rate... suggestions?

so.. name.epub.fb2.zip correct?
and will i still have the epub's TTS this way?

Dave_S · 04-16-2010, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cancelx

Dave_S
that's cool. usually when you zip it asks for compression rate... suggestions?

I use 7ZIP for archiving, and I just leave the compression setting at "Normal".

Quote:

Originally Posted by cancelx

so.. name.epub.fb2.zip correct?
and will i still have the epub's TTS this way?

I think that we have a bit of mis-communication here.

EPUB is, in fact, a ZIP file already. It just has it's extension name changed to EPUB. You can open an EPUB archive with a tool like 7ZIP. I was referring to FB2 files and the fact that they can also be ZIPed using filename.fb2.zip. It would be pointless to ZIP an EPUB file since it is already a ZIP file. I just buy books in EPUB format and then convert them to FB2 format to help future proof them, and to enjoy the benefits of open source book reading programs.

Lastly, TTS is not file format related, it is reading software related. ADE supports TTS, while CoolReader does not currently do TTS. If you use the filename.epub.fb2 trick, you will not have TTS available in the current CoolReader.

04-16-2010, 11:45 AM	#1
cancelx Nervous Groupie Posts: 154 Karma: 22 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Nova Scotia Device: Pocket Pro	BEST ebook format? hi all. ok, so i'm hoping i'll have things cleared away to actually get some books on my PP tonight !!! that said... i found a bunch of faith-based books (free editions) and are available in many formats (no DRM) i'm too new to appreciate what each reading program in the PP is capable of...so... could I get some impressions as to what is the Best (most comfortable, natural looking) ebook format to use? (and what prog in the PP actually opens them?) THANKS A BUNCH ! ---back to wring up my room now............

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04-16-2010, 12:00 PM	#3
irenas Zealot Posts: 101 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Orange County Device: Astak EZ reader	I like .fb2 best of all, .epub works fine for me, but i do not like its zoom levels, so i usually convert .epub to .fb2, thought .fb2 file is larger then .epub...

04-16-2010, 12:01 PM	#4
Davimee Happy Wife & Momma Posts: 532 Karma: 1634 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: USA Device: Purple Astak Pocket Pro! :)	Yes, I agree... can you please share where you found the books? Thanks!

04-16-2010, 12:12 PM	#6
cancelx Nervous Groupie Posts: 154 Karma: 22 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Nova Scotia Device: Pocket Pro	thanks all. .fb2 -- does this have larger zoom ability? would i be just as well to use epub and add the .fb2 trick instead? --> I think you all know the book site... manybooks.net They have Andrew Murray AND William Wilberforce! Now I'm not a Calvinist or anything, but this guy in the 1800s was beyond today's even Pentecostal "Holiness" appreciation for living the life. And that to Murray's hold on our relationship with Jesus, and you got some heady reading to do (grin) THANKS AGAIN !

04-16-2010, 12:29 PM	#8
cancelx Nervous Groupie Posts: 154 Karma: 22 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Nova Scotia Device: Pocket Pro	Robert. Thanks... didnt know TTS was an epub (not fb2) feature. That's Big !

04-16-2010, 12:29 PM	#9
animedude01 Addict Posts: 254 Karma: 1200 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Los Angeles Device: DR1000S, ILIAD2, Nokia n900, Kindle for PC, Astak EZReader Pro	Rally, the best format is the one that works best for you. However, you do want to consider longevity of the format and whether the next reader will be able to read it. PDF is readable on almost any device and is now an open format, but, as theducks mentions, it is more of a display format and if not designed properly, it will look bad on smaller screens such as on the PP. ePub appears to be the format that everyone is moving to and is an open format so should be around for a while. Mobi is owned by Amazon, so it will likely be around for quite a while as well since they use it on their Kindle. fb2 is an open format, but I don't really know how well it will do since ePub is also open and backed by Adobe. However, since it is open, you can always format shift to another format if that becomes an issue. HTML is open, and will stay around for a long time. It can be format shifted to all the other formats easily so should be very future proof. Txt won't have a lot of formatting, but will be readable on practically anything, and is almost future proof. Which format is best is also determined by what is offered. Sometimes the choice is limited. However, I'd go with ePub, then mobi. I'd stay away from PDF if possible as it doesn't always display well and shifting can be a bear, depending on the original was created. The nice thing about the PP is that it displays all these format, but each has their own quirks. Personally, I try to get ePub as it's looking to be the current format winner. It's also easy to format shift if it doesn't have DRM and relatively easy to strip of DRM. Hope this helps!

04-16-2010, 01:00 PM	#11
Laura81 Addict Posts: 360 Karma: 407796 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Victoria, Australia Device: Paperwhite 5	Personally I like epub, text and html best. I find the PP does a great job with all 3 of these and have had mixed results with others that I've tried like mobi and pdf. I've not tried fb2 or any other format.

04-16-2010, 01:16 PM	#14
cancelx Nervous Groupie Posts: 154 Karma: 22 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Nova Scotia Device: Pocket Pro	Dave_S that's cool. usually when you zip it asks for compression rate... suggestions? so.. name.epub.fb2.zip correct? and will i still have the epub's TTS this way?

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