Working on way to subset fonts for ePub/KF3

[Freeshadow]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Makes sense to me as well. Trying to explain what font subsetting IS would be hard enough, let alone trying to explain how you only use Calibre for one thing and not another. The only thing the customer would hear is "yes, we are using Calibre to convert your book but charging you a 'hand crafted' price."

+1
Exactly that's what I tought too.
Regardless which branch - customers think they KNOW better and judge you by half-facts prejudices and assumptions

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

+1
Exactly that's what I tought too.
Regardless which branch - customers think they KNOW better and judge you by half-facts prejudices and assumptions

Yes. That's very true. Not all of them, of course; but quite a few.

I know that this is also true for clients of the scanning companies. I have lost track of the number of clients I have tried to send to a competent, top-flight scanner. Instead, they use $1 Scanning or BlueLeaf, etc. And then I get a phone call, complaining about how much work it is to 'fix' the scan! I've tried repeatedly to explain that not all scanning is the same (just like, not all ebook-makers are the same), but...deaf ears. I know that competent scanning is expensive, compared to the very-cheap alternatives, certainly; but how much is one's time worth?

Some of these clients get back all their text in frames, for hundreds of pages, and think I can magically remove them. They're incensed when I cannot, even though I warn them about this very thing when using the cheaper scan companies (I mean, yes, there's a way to program something to remove text from frames, but, c'mon! And I think Toxaris' macro will ignore them, perchance, but I've never tried it).

Frustrating.

And thanks, guys. You helped me clarify in my own mind the why. I mean, why my gut just couldn't go with it and ignore it.

Hitch

[Toxaris]

Removal of the frames generated by ABBYY is actually quite simple via a Word macro...

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Removal of the frames generated by ABBYY is actually quite simple via a Word macro...

Toxaris:

Not all of us have your mighty Word-macro-fu. VBA and I have never quite seen eye-to-eye. ;-) As I think you know, LOL!

Hitch

[Freeshadow]

Some people are just like dilbert's boss.
Wasn't it:
"like with everything I have no clue about I assume the task is simple and you can do it in 15 minutes."

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

Some people are just like dilbert's boss.
Wasn't it:
"like with everything I have no clue about I assume the task is simple and you can do it in 15 minutes."

OMG, yes!

It was, and yes, it's like that in here. If I get asked "can you just 'save as' and give me a Word file from my ePUB/MOBI" (and the "for free" is implicit) once a day, I get asked it 10x weekly. I just had one client's webguy actually ask me that. (???) Nobody, and I mean, nobody understands that there is no such thing as a "mobi editor." And, cranky? Nobody understands how long it takes to make edits in HTML. That's a killer.

And it's a pain, too; we work to a very tight schedule, unlike some of our competitors (not to say they're right and we're wrong, or vice-versa; just...we have fixed delivery dates and they mostly do not). It would be far easier to price edits in a per-hour rate, but it's such a giant PITA to collect and discuss ("it can't possibly take THAT long to make 20 edits!")...man, I can't tell you. We charge by the edit, for that reason. We often lose money on that part of the process, because some edits just take longer than others, but...damn. The line between Customer Service and Sensible Commerce is a very fine one, indeed.

Hitch

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Toxaris:

Not all of us have your mighty Word-macro-fu. VBA and I have never quite seen eye-to-eye. ;-) As I think you know, LOL!

Hitch

That is why I always want to help. You can expect a mail by the way soon with something you might find interesting.