A repository for well laid out books

[baker101]

once i get my reader, i plan on creating a site where people can upload their recipes in reader style format.

hey hadrien, i to am a RoR freak. ive been learning it since september and have already built a few applications. do you know anything about the pdfwriter plugin for rails? i havent really researched it, but it seems that it can create custom pdfs based on whatever is in the database?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by unkilbeeg

RTF is inherently limited -- table of contents is not supported. I'll use it if I can find no alternative, but really, with a little effort I can turn rtf to good PDF.

I can see that a TOC is useful for a book you want to look stuff up in, but really for normal fiction that you just start reading at the beginning and go through to the end it is (for me, at least) completely unnecessary. RTF is my preferred format for the simplicity of being able to create content in "Word".

[Sponge_Bath]

Just posted:

The Brothers Karamazov (2 PDFs) - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1001 Nights Volume 1 - Sir Richard F Burton (Footnotes not linked)
at
http://www.box.net/public/pdbf4k8i6d

The reason I've formatted them onto A4 is because I like A4 and if the scaling causes some of the kerning to go wonky by a few subpixels and page turns to slow down by a few milliseconds well I'm pretty sure my world will not fall off its axis.
People are more than welcome to re-Distill them down to 89x119mm.

I also like the 0mm margin because the reader applies its own margins and I don't have to worry about hitting the size button.

Cheers.

[unkilbeeg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I can see that a TOC is useful for a book you want to look stuff up in, but really for normal fiction that you just start reading at the beginning and go through to the end it is (for me, at least) completely unnecessary. RTF is my preferred format for the simplicity of being able to create content in "Word".

With a table of contents, there is very little need for the Reader to support searching. The Reader does keep my place, so I can come back to where I left it, but there are times when I will come back to a book and want to enter it at a different place than I left it, etc.

I also make use of chapterization to put shorter works together as if they were a single book. Since we have no other way to organize content on these things, that seems like a reasonable solution to that problem.

Creating PDf content is as easy as using a word processor would be -- I have SED scripts that convert text files pretty reliably to LaTeX and there are tools that convert well formatted html to LaTeX, so PDF is a slam dunk to do. I don't see any downside to PDF on the reader if I format it correctly. LRF would be better if I had the tools, but I don't.

Here's an example of one I converted from Gutenberg (I did spend some time getting footnotes, etc. right.)

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by unkilbeeg

Here's an example of one I converted from Gutenberg (I did spend some time getting footnotes, etc. right.)

Here's another one generated with feedbooks.com for the sony reader: http://beta.feedbooks.com/discover/g.../6?format=sony
With A4 PDFs we also add headings: http://beta.feedbooks.com/discover/get_pdf/68?format=A4

With our UI it's even easier, instead of typing LaTeX commands, you just have to click on a part or chapter button and everything is created + available for everyone else.

Isn't Adobe working on a whole new reflowable PDF system ?
If we had support for reflowable PDF for both LaTeX and the Sony Reader, it would be the best solution around.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by unkilbeeg

With a table of contents, there is very little need for the Reader to support searching.

That depends what kind of book you're talking about. With a reference book, I agree - the TOC lets you go to where you want rapidly.

In fiction books, however, my main use for searching is typically when I come across some character I've forgotten about and I want to find out where his name first occurs in the book. That's something you do need a search for, rather than a TOC.

[henkvdg]

Originally Posted by unkilbeeg

With a table of contents, there is very little need for the Reader to support searching. The Reader does keep my place, so I can come back to where I left it, but there are times when I will come back to a book and want to enter it at a different place than I left it, etc.

I also make use of chapterization to put shorter works together as if they were a single book. Since we have no other way to organize content on these things, that seems like a reasonable solution to that problem.

Creating PDf content is as easy as using a word processor would be -- I have SED scripts that convert text files pretty reliably to LaTeX and there are tools that convert well formatted html to LaTeX, so PDF is a slam dunk to do. I don't see any downside to PDF on the reader if I format it correctly. LRF would be better if I had the tools, but I don't.

Here's an example of one I converted from Gutenberg (I did spend some time getting footnotes, etc. right.)

This file looks very nice on my iRex iLiad !
Thanks.

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by baker101

once i get my reader, i plan on creating a site where people can upload their recipes in reader style format.

hey hadrien, i to am a RoR freak. ive been learning it since september and have already built a few applications. do you know anything about the pdfwriter plugin for rails? i havent really researched it, but it seems that it can create custom pdfs based on whatever is in the database?

Haven't tried the pdfwriter, I guess it's much closer from the usual pdf plugins that you can find for PHP, powered by HTMLDoc etc...

I'm using a customized version of rtex, LaTeX is much more flexible and the speed is better.

The recipe website sounds like a good idea, I have almost all of the code ready for something pretty close to this: a website for cocktails recipes, but no design yet for it. Too much work with feedbooks right now, I'll work on it later but it should provider an easy way to dump your favorite recipes as a PDF file (so, e-ink support).

[Sponge_Bath]

Happy New Year to you all.

http://www.box.net/public/pdbf4k8i6d
Just reformatted and uploaded the whole lot.
They are now all formatted at 36pt on A4.
Also added: Emma, Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility.
http://www.box.net/public/pdbf4k8i6d

Cheers.

[Sponge_Bath]

Just added:
1001 Nights Volume 2 - Sir Richard F Burton
http://www.box.net/public/pdbf4k8i6d

Cheers.