[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Do you know that RPN does not stand for what you think it does but in fact means Reverse Polish Notation? See older HP calculators for RPN.

Jon, sweetie, sitting on my desk--used constantly--is an HP 12C calculator, which, IIRC, is...31 years old, that I bought new, in 85 or so. Possibly a year earlier, but I don't think so. It was the version created for business (y'know, with ROI, payment calculations, amortization scheduling and so on). I'm quite familiar with RPN, and to this day, I have to stop and readjust my brain (and ordering) if I'm going to use a regular calculator. So, yes, I know that RPN stands for Reverse Polish Notation.

How about a compromise, then, so you don't go off on one of your tears? RP#s. Ta-da. Happy now, my resident curmudgeon?

Originally Posted by JSWolf

No you can't build a fixed layout Mobi file from any source. You can build a fixed layout KF8.

Really? Well, gosh, sweetie, you're killin' me, because we build them here daily. Right there at the end of the filename, it says ".mobi." Can you kindly take this one up with Bezos, Wolfie Quixote, because I'm just all played out on doing battle on 50 different fronts. Thanks. I understand the distinction you are endeavoring to make; however, they kept the .mobi file extension, and that's that.

Originally Posted by Doitsu

@Hitch: IMHO, the best format for Bob's purposes would be the Kindle Print Replica textbook format, i.e., an Amazon DRM-wrapped PDF file.

I'm sorry, I just bloody disagree. Not with your take on it--you are correct there in assessing "if you must have X, then you really have to use Y." It's just...we do a LOT of fixed-layout, compared to the average bear. It's fine for many books. It is, in my opinion, not fine for text-heavy books. To me, it's just not very usable or user-friendly.

Let me put it this way: if the publisher doesn't care about how much inconvenience the end buyer is put through (don't think for a second that Amazon will be that cavalier, however), then fine. Create a "PDF with a wrapper," which as you noted is fundamentally how KPR and KTextbook function. Take a PDF, and wrap it.

They (KPR) are supported on these devices:

• Fire tablets
• Kindle for PC
• Kindle for Mac
• Kindle for iPhone, iPad, & iPod touch
• Kindle for Android
• Kindle for Samsung

And on NO OTHERS.

However, AFAIK, you can't publish Kindle Print Replica books via Amazon KDP. (AFAIK, Amazon CreateSpace will accept .pdf files, but only for print-on-demand books.)

Have you ever prepared a Kindle Print Replica textbook for a "well-known educational publisher" or have you ever heard of someone who managed to sell a CreateSpace print-on-demand book as a Kindle Print Replica textbook?

Yes, we've done this.

For all intents and purposes, KPR is (as you noted, Doits) just like putting a PDF on your Kindle or other eReader, unconverted. You sit there, pan/scan around, use internal nav links. And so on. I cannot imagine having a book on Amazon, that someone has to pinch-zoom, pinch-zoom, flip, pinch-zoom, lather, rinse, repeat, for 400 or so pages. I get uber-irritated when I'm trying to read a PDF on iBooks, never mind trying to suffer through it on my PHONE.

We do this relatively often, BTW, for "coffee-table books." In that environment, I think it works well. (Although, without naming names, we once did a set of books for a certain museum. They were adamant that it just HAD TO BE fixed-layout, because they didn't want to lose the flavor, layout, yadda. They were speechless once we'd complied--of course--and then I sent them the reflowables for ePUB/MOBI. Couldn't believe how gorgeous they were. I'm not trying to be braggadocious; I'm just saying...a little creativity and elbow grease can do wonders in an eBook.)

There is nothing wrong with PDF, on a device, if it's something you're going to check here and there. Or a quick reference, cheat-sheet, etc. But try to read for hundreds of pages, particularly on, say, an iPhone or Droid phone? Moses on a Pony.

However, all that complaining aside, Doits, if Bob or some other publisher is bound and determined to have their pages have "R#s," then, yes, RPN is the only way to do that. Or, to be specific, to do that in a way that is intrinsicand organic to the format.

That's my $.02, FWIW.

Hitch