Quote:
Originally Posted by jswinden
Ebook publishers just don't understand HTML, CSS, etc. and how it should be used to create eBooks. They tend to use a lot of <SPAN> and <DIV> rather than using cleaner, more standardized HTML. I've seen a lot of eBooks that use no <H#> tags for headings. All of their headings are <P> tags with a CLASS id to make it do what a heading tag was designed to do. It is sloppy crap. I also see a lot of <SPAN> tags used to assign formatting and fonts. Again, sloppy.
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Though I'm sure this is true to a degree (and more true for some publishers than others), I don't think it's primarily the fault of the publishers. When I use HTML/CSS the way I would for a browser, different ebook readers and software don't render the result correctly and consistently. If I want the ebook to look presentable with multiple devices and apps, I end up having to target the least common denominator and change things like <h1> to <p class='heading1'> just to make sure that results are consistent across multiple platforms. I actually have a set of search-and-replace macros so I don't have to write the source like that, but can wait until after I'm done to dumb it down.