I wrote the following:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solitaire1
I'm using OpenOffice.org (OO.o) and I've been generating my ebooks as PDFs, mainly because I can know exactly what my ebook will look like on my ereader. Plus, its extremely easy to generate PDFs using OO.o. I did install OO.o EPUB generator but I wasn't happy with the results (as an example, I ran into problems with non-standard style names).
I've been considering using OO.o to generate an ebook as basic HTML (OO.o can generate it as HTML 3.2), and then use Calibre to create an EPUB from that document. OO.o seems to create fairly clean HTML and can also clean up the tagging in an HTML document so I'm hoping that it will work.
|
Then Hitch wrote the following in response as part of a previous post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Urk. Well...depending on what you're doing: PDF isn't really an "eBook format." I know, I know, thousands of web companies, etc., have sold ePDF "eBooks" on the net for years, but the inability of PDF to reflow (before everyone jumps on me, yes, I know that a PDF can be made that will resize and reflow, but 99.99% don't, thanks) really makes it clunky. Um...y'know, Pablo's Tutorial on ePUB-making, in the Wiki, is pretty darned good. Why don't you give that a go? I think you might be surprised at how much you like ePUB once you've made one the right way.
|
I do consider PDF an ebook format but its disadvantages make it unsuitable by many people for that use. But I do think it is suitable in cases where the ebook must be formatted in a specific way, and that formatting reliability is a major reason that I've been using it.
It stems from a while ago when I tried to use RTF as an ebook format on my Sony ereader. It should have been easy since Sony ereaders support RTF as ebook format and my word processor (Jarte) used it as its native format. However, I couldn't get it to consistently display the right general typeface (not a specific typeface [like Times New Roman, Arial or Courier New] but just Serif, San Serif or Monospace) within the same ebook (some paragraphs were San Serif and others Serif even though the typeface and size of the text was the same).
As I said previously, PDF was wonderful to work with because of its consistency. I can create it on my word processor (OpenOffice.org) and it will look precisely on the same on my ereader that it looks like in my word processor. Based on what I've seen in this thread and in some of the EPUB ebooks I've purchased, it seems like that is not the case with EPUB and that (along with how complicated EPUB seems to be) is the reason I haven't made much use of it and when I have tried it I haven't been pleased with the results.
It is possible that my issues with EPUB have stemmed from the fact that I've created an ebook in another format and then used tools to convert it into an EPUB. I'm going to try using Calibre to convert some of my ODT formatted ebooks to EPUB to see if I can get better results. If that isn't successful I will take a look at the tutorial you mentioned above.