Quote:
Originally Posted by seajewel
When I think about how if Amazon didn't go the way it did, epub would likely be the worldwide standard, and we could buy books at any store and use them on any of our readers.. it really makes me a little sad.
I know that epub vs mobi can be a contentious issue, but really. Think about it. Yes, DRM is easy to remove (if illegal in some places). We could have a worldwide standard. Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, Cybook, all the other readers have adopted epub. (snip)
|
With all due respect...we don't have a "worldwide standard" in ePUBs. I wish we did; I was just lamenting this lack the other day on another thread. ePUBs that are gorgeous on ADE don't work properly on iPad; ePUBs with the xpgt don't work thither; dropcaps that work in ADE don't work on Nook; dropcaps that are stunning in Nook for PC are horrific and displaced on the NookColor. The steps you have to take to ensure that Nook doesn't automatically hyphenate headers wherever it runs out of room (we don't need no stinkin' syllables!) bastardizes any shot you have of using a BFL-smallcaps combo for any type of heading. iBooks ignores WHATEVER CSS Apple chooses--and if you don't like it, tough. Sony's readers don't recognize justification, for about 80% of them, so if you have a client that wants a fully-justified book, you have to make an LRF for them.
Sorry, but the idea that ePUB is a "worldwide standard" is, IME, wishful thinking. We are fast approaching the stage--hell, we've
passed the stage--wherein you have to make a slightly different ePUB for every device upon which it might be read. I have a client that insisted we remake an ePUB 14 times--FOURTEEN TIMES--because we couldn't get the BFL-smallcap combo to work WITH the steps we had to take (speed optimize, anyone?) to prevent Nook from hyphenating the header text absurdly. I finally sent them 10 different screenshots and asked them which compromise they were willing to live with, because B&N had released an update that was incredibly awful. And the BFL's we used in lieu of drops, for their chapter starts? Are dreadful on the iBooks app.
BUT, people are jumping up and down with joy because merely by using html5, CSS3 and who-knows-what-else, you can animate images inside ePUBs on the iPad. Whooop, another flashy-thingy! Meanwhile, Amazon, which has the most primitive reading format, by far, quietly goes about its business, cleaning up tidily on the massive self-publishing trend, watching authors like Larry Block slip over to "the dark side," and offering innumerable new authors exclusive deals. Yeah, ePUB is the "worldwide standard," all right...but at the end of the day, it tends to be widely used by people making books for themselves. You can take all the ePUB retailers put together, and still...for every ONE book they sell, Amazon sells ten.
I wish there was one standard, I truly do. I wish there was a single, polished format like ePUB3. I wish the retailers would stop screwing around and chasing every new bright shiny thing...but it's not going to happen, I fear. Just as consumers demand every new toy that comes out (oooooooooooooooh, the iPhone4! Who cares if no one can hear me on it? Gotta have it, gotta gotta gotta....my
precious...I'll stand in line for 3 days waiting for it...), retailers will keep screwing around with book formats, because making the books that get read on them isn't THEIR problem.
So, no...I can't blame Amazon. If everyone else actually WAS using an ePUB standard, I could join that chorus...but they aren't, and they clearly have no intention of so doing. Hell, I think we'll see a new format before we actually see an ePUB standard that's adhered to (yes...that's probably sardonic pained hyperbole, but you get my point).
JMHO, and worth what you paid for it,
Hitch