Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
You are assuming all textbooks are like your mother's comp sci/math texts. They aren't. There are plenty of texts that must include illustrations, perhaps even in color (medical textbooks, anyone?), and multi-column layouts, footnotes, and sidebars are largely the norm.
Simply adding math to ePub doesn't help you. (And you can include equations now as embedded illustrations.)
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You mean there are areas of study that don't use math (I'm kidding)?
As far as color diagrams, so insert a color picture. I'm willing to wager the majority of eReading is done on devices that can show color. And eInk devices will get color at some point. My only point is that we should go back to linear textbook formatting, as opposed to having busy pages with an example in one corner, a second picture somewhere else, and margin notes. What's wrong with a paragraph and then an equation/picture/table? Margin notes can simply be hyperlinked endnotes.
I guess I just fail to see what is so hard about making a textbook enjoyable to use in a flowable format, other than having to do it differently from the firehose approach of putting as much glitz onto a page as possible in the printed world.