MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - 10 Reasons Why PDF is the Right Format for Ebooks in Education

kacir · 04-02-2008, 01:59 PM

Great majority of points you list will be valid if you replace pdf with txt, rtf, or html. Even chm format would suffice for a vast majority of your points.
None of those formats will preserve the exact layout.
And THAT is what is important.
You see, the name of this site is mobileread. And mobile devices tend to have small screen. Reading text on a mobile device is like slurping text through a straw.
Wast majority of pdf formated textbooks are almost unuseable on mobile devices. Print out a typical pdf on an A4 paper.
Now take another paper and cut out a 120x90mm window in it.
Remember. This is one of largest screens mobile devices have. Some devices hace screen that is less than half of that.
Now cover your pdf with a cut-out paper and try studying the text. Plus take into account 1 second needed for refresh of an e-ink screen.

04-02-2008, 01:59 PM	#14
kacir Wizard Posts: 3,463 Karma: 10684861 Join Date: May 2006 Device: PocketBook 360, before it was Sony Reader, cassiopeia A-20	Great majority of points you list will be valid if you replace pdf with txt, rtf, or html. Even chm format would suffice for a vast majority of your points. None of those formats will preserve the exact layout. And THAT is what is important. You see, the name of this site is mobileread. And mobile devices tend to have small screen. Reading text on a mobile device is like slurping text through a straw. Wast majority of pdf formated textbooks are almost unuseable on mobile devices. Print out a typical pdf on an A4 paper. Now take another paper and cut out a 120x90mm window in it. Remember. This is one of largest screens mobile devices have. Some devices hace screen that is less than half of that. Now cover your pdf with a cut-out paper and try studying the text. Plus take into account 1 second needed for refresh of an e-ink screen.