Quote:
Originally Posted by JMikeD
I don’t quite see how those two things are connected.
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In a multiformat world you tend to target the lowest common denominator approach, rather than utilizing the full potential of the format and media. The publication path today might look something like this:
A high quality pipeline:
Frame Maker -> pdf or print.
Path with tagged and extracted content:
Frame Maker -> DocBook -> ePub, HTML and Mobi
The downgrade happens because Frame Maker has more features than the other formats, but lacking in other areas. At the same time the material is written for a different media. DocBook although good, downgrades the material even further, then you have a last conversion step where you'd probably utilize XSL and just try to find simmilarities with all 3 to ease conversion and maintenance.
(And that's a really good multiformat route, a lot of commercial mulitiformat releases are much much worse).
Compare for example, Three men in a boat, with your average commercial epub:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48377
It just feels like a higher quality publication and getting it done requires tuning the book to ePUB.