Quote:
Originally Posted by madwab
Hi, folks, I'm new to ebooks and to the forum, but I've had a hunt around the net and around this forum, and I'm hugely disappointed in two things: (a) most of the books I've checked have lost the formatting of the original, in particular the author's italics, and (b) there doesn't seem to be much interest in the community about this issue.
Given that italics can change the tone of a sentence quite drastically, surely it's important that they're retained? I understand that a lot of books have been saved as .txt files at some point in their lives, but I'm sure that's not the only explanation: I have the impression that most people don't care.
Have a look for Les Miserables on amazon's Kindle store - there are 67 matches, most of which are the Isabel F Hapgood translation, which uses italics. None of them are free. I've downloaded the sample for most of them, and I haven't found one that has retained the italics.
A few days ago I updated my Dickens novels collection from mobileread.com, and was very pleased to find that all of them were formatted correctly; but the Les Miserables file is just another modified .txt version.
Is it just me, or are others frustrated by this? (And can anyone point me at a formatted version of Les Mis?)
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I think I can understand why someone really into Dickens would want to replicate the formatting of a paperbook as much as possible.
We are in the very early stages of ebook publishing, not all the software tools we need are in place, and not all the tools we have are particlarly mature. As a result, it takes quite a bit of effort to get an eBook 'just right' because there are multiple screen sizes, and what looks good on screen size 'A' isn't all that great on Screen size 'B'. And then, because of the multiple file formats by multiple manufacturers, if you want to publish to a second or third file format or manufacturer, you have to do all that work over again.
I think you aren't looking for the right versions for you. They're out there, but you do have to search for them. And they usually produced by people like you who love the look and feel of a paperbook. (And usually, these people tend to specialize in public domain books for whatever format they use/prefer!). For them it is a work of love, not profit.
At this point, I'd look at the community of users of your particular machine. When you find a volume you really like, find out who produced it, and ask them if they've done any others. You might even offer to help.
Yeah it's some work, but try to remember you are laying the groundwork for an industry in transition. What you do, WILL affect the future.