Quote:
Originally Posted by jbenny
Although it seems from Kacir's comment that the usability of the reader (at least with TXT) is not what it should be.
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txt file is displayed on reader using monospaced font - something like courier new on Windows or a font on an old text-only computer terminal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbenny
I figured there must be some reason that all those Gutenberg ebooks were getting converted to LRF.
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The thing is that you have to do some conversion in order to read the book onthe reader. You have at least remove excess hard returns. And when you have the file opened on a pc, why not convert it to the format that is "natural" for Reader. lrf file opens a little bit faster (that means you use less battery), pageturns and change of font size are a little bit faster with lrf files...
I personally use rtf files, because for me that is "the path of the least resistance". I have a set of macros written in Vim text editor that processes the "naked ascii text" for me and then I format it in OOo Writer. I have a macro in OpenOffice.org Writer that formats a book for me in a very short time (sets margins, font, paragraph spacing and other cosmetic things). The problem is, you have to do it manually, because each book is slightly different and you have to see the result. Some books have too many hard returns (like PG texts), other books use non-standard characters that do not display well on Reader (like super fancy typographic quotes, em dashes, en dashes '...' characters, funny formating characters). It is not a problem to format a book and it takes only a very short time once you have some practice.
Go ahead and download some book from Gutengerg and you will see. The biggest problem is that it is in "vanilla ASCII" format with lines 80 characters long. The Reader display is not wide enough to display EXACTLY 80 characters so you end up with a very ragged looking text. Like this:
THE BROTHERS GRIMM
FAIRY TALES
THE GOLDEN BIRD
A certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a tree
which bore golden apples. These apples were always counted, and about
the time when they began to grow ripe it was found that every night
one of them was gone. The king became very angry at this, and ordered
the gardener to keep watch all night under the tree. The gardener set
his eldest son to watch; but about twelve o'clock he fell asleep, and
in the morning another of the apples was missing. Then the second son
was ordered to watch; and at midnight he too fell asleep, and in the
morning another apple was gone. Then the third son offered to keep
watch; but the gardener at first would not let him, for fear some harm
should come to him: however, at last he consented, and the young man
laid himself under the tree to watch. As the clock struck twelve he
heard a rustling noise in the air, and a bird came flying that was of
pure gold; and as it was snapping at one of the apples with its beak,
the gardener's son jumped up and shot an arrow at it. But the arrow
did the bird no harm; only it dropped a golden feather from its tail,
and then flew away. The golden feather was brought to the king in the
morning, and all the council was called together. Everyone agreed that
it was worth more than all the wealth of the kingdom: but the king
said, 'One feather is of no use to me, I must have the whole bird.'
Then the gardener's eldest son set out and thought to find the golden
bird very easily; and when he had gone but a little way, he came to a
wood, and by the side of the wood he saw a fox sitting; so he took his
bow and made ready to shoot at it. Then the fox said, 'Do not shoot
me, for I will give you good counsel; I know what your business is,
and that you want to find the golden bird. You will reach a village in
the evening; and when you get there, you will see two inns opposite to