MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - The importance of proofing against printed texts

HarryT · 11-28-2011, 12:42 PM

My experiences in proof-reading Edgar Rice Burroughs's "A Princess of Mars" provide a good illustration of the importance of proofing against a printed text (or, at least, a decent scanned PDF of a printed edition). Although the Project Gutenberg text of this book is, from a nominal reading, in very good shape, I've so far come across two instances where words are missing from the book; in both cases it appears that a complete line has been omitted. Neither case could have been detected simply by reading the eBook, since it just so happens that the sentences concerned make sense without the text that's missing.

So, the moral of the story is to ALWAYS proof against printed editions!

What I generally do myself, if I can't find a scan at Google Books or archive.org, is to buy the cheapest 2nd-hand edition I can on eBay or Amazon, proof-read against it, and then re-sell it.

11-28-2011, 12:42 PM	#1
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,557 Karma: 93980341 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	The importance of proofing against printed texts My experiences in proof-reading Edgar Rice Burroughs's "A Princess of Mars" provide a good illustration of the importance of proofing against a printed text (or, at least, a decent scanned PDF of a printed edition). Although the Project Gutenberg text of this book is, from a nominal reading, in very good shape, I've so far come across two instances where words are missing from the book; in both cases it appears that a complete line has been omitted. Neither case could have been detected simply by reading the eBook, since it just so happens that the sentences concerned make sense without the text that's missing. So, the moral of the story is to ALWAYS proof against printed editions! What I generally do myself, if I can't find a scan at Google Books or archive.org, is to buy the cheapest 2nd-hand edition I can on eBay or Amazon, proof-read against it, and then re-sell it.