iBooks 1.1 out for iPhone and iPad

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by scottjl

But my point is, if I use the smallest size text in iBooks (which may be a different size than the smallest available in another application) a book might be 100 pages. When I zoom it to the largest font size, it might be 250 pages. On another reader, with different fonts, you're going to have different page counts as well. How do I tell someone reading a book on a Kindle "Look at the diagram on page 25," when his page 25 might be page 37, or page 21?

That is one benefit of all the different readers that use Adobe ADE to display ePub files. ADE uses a "page" that is 1k in size, so "the diagram on page 25" will be on page 25 on any ADE device, regardless of screen size or font size.

[toddos]

Originally Posted by foghat

Kolenka,

I am happy that Apple made ibooks looks so good - and really that is their thing. I trust they will add at least some of the functionality I am looking for. That said, sometimes style does win out over substance.

"Look so good" how? There's a ton of wasted space, the fonts are barely decent, and no hyphenation with full justification leads to lots of rivers in the text. Sure, the chrome around the text looks nice (though I still don't understand why they couldn't dynamically adjust the stack of "pages" to the right as you read through a book), but it's non-functional and takes away from the act of reading -- chrome for chrome's sake is not "good". iBooks looks like a "book", but in doing so it wastes usable space.

I'm also very disappointed that there's no white-on-black view. IIRC iBooks on iPad had this option (I'll have to double-check on the girlfriend's iPad), so why take it out for iPhone?

Personally, I'm sticking with Stanza. Better fonts, better customization of margins, hyphenation (even if flawed, it's better than not hyphenating IMHO), fully customizable color schemes, etc all make up for what few rendering issues Stanza has in comparison to other readers.

iBooks is good because it's well-publicized and thus gets more people thinking about e-reading. But as a reader it leaves a lot to be desired.

[athlonkmf]

Once again, for white on black mode, just do the triple click home button trick, if you have set that up that is. In general settings, accessibility

[Bremen Cole]

@toddos - I do agree with you. The thing I do like about Stanza is that it is very customizable. Like in your example above, for me I would tighten the line spacing. And that is what is cool about Stanza, you can.

But, I also realize that Stanza is a mature product. Been around for years and all they had to do was port it to the iPad. iBooks is a brand new product, and I hope over time will develop into a top notch reader, with lots of options.... Even something as simple as adding the Sepia option is a step in the right direction. Perhaps in the next release they will have a slider for the margins as well. And at some point it would be nice to have the option to get rid of the whole imitation paper book look. While it's impressive to show someone, for folks like me that have been reading ebooks for 10 years it's really pointless.

[toddos]

Originally Posted by athlonkmf

Once again, for white on black mode, just do the triple click home button trick, if you have set that up that is. In general settings, accessibility

Nowhere near the same. That reverses all colors, which means the status bar will be white and any illustrations will be inverted. If it works for you, great. The rest of us white-on-black readers will use a different app until Apple gets their act together.

[foghat]

Originally Posted by toddos

iBooks looks like a "book", but in doing so it wastes usable space.

That was my point in saying it looks good - it looks like a book. If you read my previous posts, you will see I share the same sentiment - there is a lot of wasted space; they went for style over substance - imo, substance partly being a way to (at least optionally) get rid of all the white space.

Granted I am only making my way through my first book on ibooks, but I see no 'rivers' in the text when using full justification. Maybe I am just lucky with this particular book.

The white on black, I personally don't care; as I did with Stanza, I prefer to just lower the brightness in low/no light situations. But I know a lot of people want this, and most certainly a night mode is coming.

I agree stanza does a lot of things better, but I am going to stick with ibooks. I'm gathering it is not very important for some (most?), but having the total number of pages (i also really like the way ibooks does the pages left in a chapter) is a big deal to me. I also like the page turn animations, even if they are a little fast. All this may be superficial, but it adds to the overall reading experience for me.

Now that I have read a bit more on ibooks, the wide margins are not as annoying as when I first started, but I still do wish there was a way to make them smaller.

Given that this is a first (or second) version of ibooks, I'd say Apple has done a pretty good job so far.

[JSWolf]

All I can say is WOW! Those two samples look awful. One looks like eReader and the other looks worse. It's like someone doesn't know how to make decent looking eBooks.

But that said, when using iBooks, Georgia is the best available font to use for the body text. That was a good move on Apple to allow the use of Georgia without the hack. Can Stanza use Georgia as a body font? Sans-serif fonts are not a good idea for a body font for a book.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Can Stanza use Georgia as a body font? Sans-serif fonts are not a good idea for a body font for a book.

Stanza gives you access to every system typeface on the iPhone/iPad, including Georgia.

[toddos]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

All I can say is WOW! Those two samples look awful. One looks like eReader and the other looks worse. It's like someone doesn't know how to make decent looking eBooks.

What's wrong with looking like eReader? Anyway, that's Stanza using Helvetica because I personally find a sans serif font easier for reading at smaller font sizes than a serif font (the serifs get in the way and make things more jumbled). Helvetica works for me. Unfortunately iBooks only exposes Verdana, which does not. I've also intentionally enabled both paragraph indent and paragraph spacing because I like having both. Yes, I realize you're only "supposed" to do one or the other, but if I want both why not let me have both? If my font, margin, indentation, and spacing choices are "ugly" to you, you're completely welcome to change those values in Stanza

iBooks (the one that looks worse) is there in all of its mostly-default glory, with the only change being that I turned on full justification. That's the terrible default font of Palatino at the default font size. I'm not sure I'd blame the source material for it looking terrible.

[tyche]

Originally Posted by toddos

iBooks (the one that looks worse) is there in all of its mostly-default glory, with the only change being that I turned on full justification. That's the terrible default font of Palatino at the default font size. I'm not sure I'd blame the source material for it looking terrible.

Here are a portrait and landscape shot of a book I'm currently reading in iBooks (font is 2 sizes above min for two. The 3rd picture shows smallest font and all icons turned on and isn't blurry at all on the iPad screen). I know everyone has their own preferences but I don't feel this looks terrible. Pushing margins to the absolute edge just make longer reading lines which aren't as needed on an iPad as their would be on a smaller screen.

[foghat]

^ on the ipad, I agree. The margins are fine and I quite like the look. On the iphone, while I still like the look, I would rather be able to reduce the margins and fill with text.

[MsAstoria]

Personally, I like the Palatino font better than the Georgia, but that's just me :-) And I find the "new" sepia much easier on the eyes in ibooks especially for indoor reading. Outside I revert back to black on white for better contrast.

[Kolenka]

I've noticed that there is another font size available on the iPhone 4. Looks. Looks nearly microscopic to boot, but is still very crisp.

[bookfanmd]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't mean to be rude, but I'd seriously suggest downloading the iPad User Guide from the iBookstore (it's free) and reading at least the introductory stuff in it. You'll probably find all sorts of things that aren't obvious - I know I did.

Good advice. Thanks.

[kathyfitz]

I have what may be a stupid question, but I have searched around for an answer and haven't been able to find one.

Could someone explain how syncing iBooks between an iPhone and iPad works? I'm sure I am missing something basic, but I am not getting anything...