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Old 06-16-2011, 11:18 PM   #39
toddos
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vaughnmr View Post
Wrong. PDF is usually fixed for an 8.5"x11" display, and it really doesn't have a way to display properly on a smaller display. That's the big problem with pdf, it won't display or reflow properly on a smaller ereader. Don't confuse the issue, we need a universal ebook format, and pdf is not the one at present.
This. PDF is only "perfect" for designers stuck in a paper mindset. Sorry, you don't get to have pixel-perfect layouts with ebooks. That's entirely not the point of the format.

I will grant that today PDF is somewhat better for a very specific subset of non-fiction books, those that are layout or data heavy. But most of that goes right back to the paper mindset. You think you need tables and sidebars and whatever to layout your data, but you'd be wrong. You can provide links, interactive content, and more with a proper, no-PDF ebook format (this is not fully there yet, but both iBooks and Nook Color support richer, more interactive books and it's just a matter of time until standards get enhanced and support becomes universal). And yet there are plenty of technical books that can make the epub format work for them, like A Book Apart (also available in PDF because there are luddites who wouldn't buy it otherwise).

PDF for narrative literature, fiction or non, is an insult. PDF for anything else is at best a lazy cop-out.

Last edited by toddos; 06-16-2011 at 11:22 PM.
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