Quote:
Originally Posted by xristy
Apparently neither of you have used a good PDF reader app on a tablet such as the iPad. You can certainly search normally, you can resize, you can reframe and so on.
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But search in PDF is completely dependant on the text backend.
In the case of scanned text, this is typically OCRed automatically, and is extremely unreliable (see Archive.org).
Also, if the PDF export itself was not done properly (for example, "tagged"), then the text is ALSO unreliable. (Hopefully all purely digital works are being exported properly, but not everyone knows every little inch of functionality in the tools they are using).
Or you can take the example of the multitude of different PDF tools/converters/editors out there, who knows what is happening to the backend of the PDF. When editing something very minor in the PDF (let us say metadata), usually the entire file has to be rewritten.
Or let us say this is written in some older version of Quark (which you do not have installed any more), you open it up in InDesign, do a little tweak (add cover, add new Introduction, tweak the copyright page), and save again. The backend had the potential to get mangled in the process!
PDF is really built as a FINAL format, not an intermediary one. So if you do not have access to the actual source and RECREATE the PDF from there, you have the potential to introduce trouble.
If you are not the original author/publisher, you probably don't have access to this source... or even if you ARE, sometimes the source documents get lost in the abyss (computer crashes, no backups, publisher goes out of business, etc., etc.). Sometimes the dreaded PDF is all that is left! (ask me how I know)
Quote:
Originally Posted by xristy
I think this knee jerk response that PDF is for print and can only give a poor user experience on a tablet is indicative of lack of experience with tablets the size of the iPad and proper reader software.
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Or we just had a taste of the "good stuff" (the EPUB kool-aid).
But I agree, very technical books are currently an area where ebooks are lacking. EPUB3 will help alleviate a little more of that pain (but still won't be perfect).
Quote:
Originally Posted by xristy
Of course on a phone or a phablet - these are too small; however, they are also worthless for reading junk ePub or mobi formatted mathematical content which was my original topic.
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Reframing does help fit a PDF onto a smaller screen, and maybe turning to landscape might help fit the width of the text on a smaller screen... but compared to a quality EPUB on the same device?
Changing fonts?
Changing colors?
Changing font-size (NOT like a PDF where you zoom in/out)?
Hmmm... I don't know, I would need to see a math book that was quality converted to EPUB (which as you can see, an extremely tiny portion of the market). Maybe on MathJax's or Readium's site there are some quality examples.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xristy
There are certainly quite a number of authors who do their own typesetting in LaTeX and such and are quite disturbed at the loss of fidelity that occurs with current approaches to creating ePub and mobi versions from material that is laboriously typeset by the authors not the publishers.
[...]
Typesetting of technical material is part of the communication act and dumbing down the typesetting degrades the content.
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EPUB3 might help out in a lot of this regard (allowing more advanced CSS)... but, there will still be a giant (and I mean GIANT) market of older devices out there. The sales on this will be pathetic (sort of like fixed-format EPUBs/MOBIs currently, or those "iBooks only" books).
Having the book already in LaTeX though is fantastic... that will definitely allow them to swap formats much easier than going through a crappy converter.... but the different size devices/fonts/everything else when converting to HTML comes into play, and will ruin a lot of the "typographical finesse" that comes with being able to "finesse" the text into a knowable size beforehand.
Or they can try to create multiple PDFs to suit different devices (PDF generated using LaTeX for 7" tablets, 10" tablets, iPads, PCs, ...) But this goes back to trying to sell this. This seems to be just asking for customer support headaches.
People already get confused over something as basic as 3 formats: Print/EPUB/Kindle. Let alone introducing multiple PDF sizes to choose from.