[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well...hard to know what's cause, versus what's effect, here.

I concur.

In my experience, most of the books used in many classes have no proper ebook versions of the books, or if they do offer any sort of digital version of the book, it is mangled with problems.

Here are some of the cons of the digital versions:

• PDF
  
  • If they do offer this, it is typically only sold on the publisher's website
    
    • No competition (can't purchase from B&N, Amazon, [...]) or places where you may already have an account.
  • Typically locked down with draconian DRM and limitations
    
    • Sometimes no Copy/Paste, no Exporting text, no Highlighting, no Printing, [...])
  • Can't scale well on all devices (phone, ereader, [...]).
    
• HTML
  
  • They are typically locked down in draconian DRM
    
  • Typically have "renting" or Semester/Yearly/Limited access to the site.
    
    • Or if the site/publisher dies, you lose access to your digital book.
  • Locked in some sort of proprietary system/website.
    
    • Sometimes no Copy/Paste, no Exporting text, no Highlighting, no Printing, MUST be online and logged into their accounts to use, [...].
      
    • May use a proprietary reading system
      
      • I ran into this in a few cases in college. Linux was my main OS, and guess what wouldn't run in Linux/Firefox! Needed IE and Windows. I assume now this problem is even more prevalent with Android/iOS.
        
  • Aren't able to read on what you are comfortable with (phone, ereader, [...]).
    
    • Might be heavily reliant on Flash and/or may not be designed as Mobile friendly.
• EPUB/MOBI
  
  • IF they even offer a proper ebook version of the text, qualities may vary greatly.
    
    • High quality
      
    • Medium quality (exported right out of InDesign/Quark)
      
      • Typically these books are still designed as PRINT FIRST, with ebook as just an afterthought.
        
      • Might be full of crappy/buggy CSS, etc. etc.
        
    • Complete crap (horrible OCR or conversion).
      
      • Low quality images.
        
      • Low resolution + impossible to read Charts/Graphs.
        
      • Images of Tables.
        
      • [...]
        

Typically these digital versions are the same price, barely cheaper, or sometimes EVEN MORE than the physical. Why pay for this when in many cases are getting an inferior and mangled product?

Also, you may find used copies of the physical version for much cheaper than the digital version of the book. The physical version can be resold if need be to recoup SOME of the cost (as mentioned above, the discount between ebook + physical doesn't always exist, or isn't enough).

This doesn't touch the whole "page number" thing either (I have written quite a bit about this previously... I think referencing page numbers should go the way of the dodo . A handful of words in a search leads you to anywhere in the book).

Given this, in many cases I would painfully settle on a physical copy of the book over a locked down or broken digital version. (And again, this is EVEN IF they offer a proper digital copy of the book in the format I want!)

I would take a proper digital copy of the book over the physical any day of the week... the problem is, most of the time there is no proper digital copy!