Anyone else love LRF?

[ccowie]

I'm just wondering if anyone else still loves the LRF format and wishes that ebooks could still be purchased in that format.

When it comes to hard copy books I really don't like the text to be fully justified, but for some reason my preference changes completely when reading my ereader. And, I know it's rather unpopular, but I still prefer the pagination in LRF to Epub. Thank goodness my Sony readers still support the format because I now convert everything to LRF in Calibre and don't read anything in Epub anymore.

So, anyone else feel the same or am I really crazy?

[shenye]

LRF (BBeB) is a binary format, isn't it? Theoretically it should be faster for your Sony Reader to parse than ePub, which is essentially XHTML. Did you find LRF to perform better?

One problem you might be facing in the future is if you want to convert your LRF books back to something else (who knows for how much Sony is going to support LRF). The conversion process isn't always perfect and it may look different from what your original. Make sure you keep your original ePubs in Calibre.

[ccowie]

I do keep all my Epubs for that reason.

Regarding performance there is something I find a little peculiar. My books to tend to perform better when I'm reading them. The page turns a little quicker and I can navigate back and forth from a table of contents better. But, after loading new books LRFs take a lot longer to format and a lot longer to adjust to a new size. Epubs take no time at all.

[shenye]

Originally Posted by ccowie

I do keep all my Epubs for that reason.

Regarding performance there is something I find a little peculiar. My books to tend to perform better when I'm reading them. The page turns a little quicker and I can navigate back and forth from a table of contents better. But, after loading new books LRFs take a lot longer to format and a lot longer to adjust to a new size. Epubs take no time at all.

I think I know the reason for that. LRF are in binary format. In other words, with a new book, your reading device has to parse the "code" first and turn it into the intended text outcome. It may then cache the outcome to make subsequent loading and page turning faster.

[acanthicus]

Originally Posted by ccowie

I'm just wondering if anyone else still loves the LRF format and wishes that ebooks could still be purchased in that format.

Yes, yes, yes!
I love LRF. Thought I'm the only one nowadays. I convert every book using bookdesigner with a nice footer . And I hope my Sony readers (505, 650, 350) stay healthy for the rest of my life....

acanthicus

[Quexos]

Never used it. When I had my 650 I was mostly on epub. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen an LRF anywhere. Even the Sony bookstore sells books in epub.

[Timoleon]

I have often wished that Sony would release the LRF format to the public domain. I think it is a great standard, and loved it on my Sony Readers.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Quexos

Never used it. When I had my 650 I was mostly on epub. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen an LRF anywhere. Even the Sony bookstore sells books in epub.

This happened a couple of years ago.

Before that, Sony used the LRF format for ebooks.




Don

[Bookworm_Girl]

The Sony bookstore switched over to EPUB in December 2009. I think the first reader without LRX support was the 900 launched around that same timeframe. The T1 in 2011 was the first reader without LRF support.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by shenye

I think I know the reason for that. LRF are in binary format. In other words, with a new book, your reading device has to parse the "code" first and turn it into the intended text outcome. It may then cache the outcome to make subsequent loading and page turning faster.

LRFs are actually a single xml file in a binary wrapper, similar to epub (muitiple xml files in a binary wrapper). The slow initialisation is because a LRF is completely read and paginated when it is opened, so one screen equals one page. The same happens when you change the font size, which is therefore slow too.

[shenye]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

LRFs are actually a single xml file in a binary wrapper, similar to epub (muitiple xml files in a binary wrapper). The slow initialisation is because a LRF is completely read and paginated when it is opened, so one screen equals one page. The same happens when you change the font size, which is therefore slow too.

Interesting, I didn't know that. The "binary wrapper"... it is used to make parsing faster, isn't it? I can imagine parsing an XML files to be quite CPU intensive and slow. Much easier to use binary code to "describe" the layout, kinda like offering the device pre-processed content to make things faster. At least this is how I thought LRF to work.

[mediax]

Personally I do prefer LRF style pagination.

However, I think the format is now in a smilar state to Monty Python's parrot, so I've joined the masses who've emigrated to EPUB. I do keep thinking that maybe I ought to repaginate my EPUBs sometime to "correct" the page numbering, but I never seem to get round to it.

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

LRFs are actually a single xml file in a binary wrapper, similar to epub (muitiple xml files in a binary wrapper).

LRF inside is not XML, it's a sequences of binary tags and content. There is a source format for LRF (LRS) which is XML.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by igorsk

LRF inside is not XML, it's a sequences of binary tags and content. There is a source format for LRF (LRS) which is XML.

Ah yes, I remember now...and there were tools that allowed you to convert between them. Was LRS a Sony standard, or just a convenient format invented by the community to represent LRF?

[shenye]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

Ah yes, I remember now...and there were tools that allowed you to convert between them. Was LRS a Sony standard, or just a convenient format invented by the community to represent LRF?

Sony standard. Proprietary.