New Source for PDF ebooks formatted for Sony Reader screen

[dhbailey]

I did a web-search for the bebook ebook reader and went to the web-site for it and found that it will handle PDF files (among other formats). The web-site claimed to have 20,000 free ebooks all formatted for the bebook reader so I went to the downloads section and decided to investigate. The number 20,000 of course means that it's the PG library so I downloaded a random book by J.S. Fletcher (whose writing I like) in the PDF format they claim is optimized for the bebook screen, to test it out on the Sony Reader (I have the 500).

These are formatted quite nicely in my opinion, they fit the Sony Reader screen very nicely, and will provide an excellent source for people who don't have the patience to do their own conversion from the PG text format or html format.

These files in PDF format are great for ALL the readers which use this same sized screen and support PDF, which is practically all current ebook readers, so for households with both Sony and Kindle (or any other of the current crop of readers which use the same screen) this is an ideal source of files -- no need for duplicates.

The URL for the ebook library for bebook reader is:
http://mybebook.com/download_free_ebook/

Of course they're many of the same books you can download free in LRF format from this group or manybooks.net or munseys.com but it may prove to be a great resource for some members of this group so I thought I would share it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

These files in PDF format are great for ALL the readers which use this same sized screen and support PDF, which is practically all current ebook readers, so for households with both Sony and Kindle (or any other of the current crop of readers which use the same screen) this is an ideal source of files -- no need for duplicates.

Please note that the Kindle can't handle PDF files but, as you say, most of the other readers (Sony, CyBook, etc) can.

[Hadrien]

They're not very well formatted.
No TOC, no indentation for the paragraphs, no hyphenation etc...

Here's an example on Bebook: http://mybebook.com/download_free_eb...ebook18256.pdf
On Feedbooks: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2908.pdf?size=sony

And of course, you can customize the PDF the way you want too on Feedbooks: http://www.feedbooks.com/help/custom_pdf

[dhbailey]

While I can see that linked table of contents can be of use in a book where people might want to jump around among the chapters, I read mainly fiction and I couldn't care less about a table of contents -- I start reading at the beginning and place bookmarks so I can resume reading wherever I wish.

I don't particularly like indented paragraphs -- I prefer the blank space between paragraphs, so I'm not particularly thrilled with the feedbooks format. Your custom settings allow a great deal of customization, which is wonderful and people can get the font size they want with the margins they find most satisfactory, but you don't give the option for those of us who might want the extra space between paragraphs.

I don't know why it is but perhaps I've just read too many PG texts, with electronic book readers I prefer the extra space between paragraphs whereas with printed books I don't have a problem with indented text -- perhaps its because with printed text I have no options and can't change things.

In any event, the Feedbooks format is wonderful for those who like it, but the bebooks format is great for people who prefer it instead.

I wouldn't say one is well-formatted and one is not very well formatted -- I'd rather just consider it that one is well-formatted for people who like that format and the other is well-formatted for people who prefer that format.

That's why I thought I would share this new source for PDF files of the same ebooks everybody keeps re-hashing in slightly different formats. It might be better for some who want PDF ebooks in that particular format.

If people don't like it, they're certainly not forced to download any, but the more sources more of us learn about the better, in my opinion.

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

While I can see that linked table of contents can be of use in a book where people might want to jump around among the chapters, I read mainly fiction and I couldn't care less about a table of contents -- I start reading at the beginning and place bookmarks so I can resume reading wherever I wish.

I don't particularly like indented paragraphs -- I prefer the blank space between paragraphs, so I'm not particularly thrilled with the feedbooks format. Your custom settings allow a great deal of customization, which is wonderful and people can get the font size they want with the margins they find most satisfactory, but you don't give the option for those of us who might want the extra space between paragraphs.

I don't know why it is but perhaps I've just read too many PG texts, with electronic book readers I prefer the extra space between paragraphs whereas with printed books I don't have a problem with indented text -- perhaps its because with printed text I have no options and can't change things.

In any event, the Feedbooks format is wonderful for those who like it, but the bebooks format is great for people who prefer it instead.

I wouldn't say one is well-formatted and one is not very well formatted -- I'd rather just consider it that one is well-formatted for people who like that format and the other is well-formatted for people who prefer that format.

That's why I thought I would share this new source for PDF files of the same ebooks everybody keeps re-hashing in slightly different formats. It might be better for some who want PDF ebooks in that particular format.

If people don't like it, they're certainly not forced to download any, but the more sources more of us learn about the better, in my opinion.

Actually it' a bit more complicated than just indented or blank line. Most of the time when you have a blank line in the end format it's because the system didn't treat them like paragraphs at all, but only rely on something such as the <br /> tag.

I can of course add a way to customize things such as the space between 2 paragraphs, it's very easy to do. But I'll probably have to add an "advanced options" link then, rather than throwing dozens of options at people that are just trying to change the font to something else.

Aside from this, there's some elements that are not relative to one user or another. For example in Project Gutenberg files you get a lot of --. They don't process them to the right entity on Bebook. In the example that I've mentioned, there's a lot of songs/poems too. Instead of displaying them with an element such as a blockquote, they display them in a single line.