Quote:
Originally Posted by haydnfan
I never understood this point. Physical books have page counts completely dependent upon font size. Why should it be different for ebooks? Why is it is so important to have an absolute measure? As an example the current mass market paperback edition of Dune is 894 pages long. The hardback copy in my shelf is 507 pages long.
If it is to be able to estimate a time to read, well Kindle and Kobo provide that figure directly in hours based on the average reader.
I can't imagine anything as imprecise as epub pages and kindle's "real page numbers" which both advance non-linearly. Every 2-3 pages (depending upon font setting), sometimes immediately with a chapter break. With the Kobo, every time you turn the page, the page count increments. With Kindle, every time you turn the page, the location count increments (based on how much text was on the screen). Those are meaningful figures to me.
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It's handy if you have to cite something from a book and are required to include page numbers. If the eBook page numbers depends on your font settings a quote you claim to be on page 45 might be on page 65 in the teacher's copy or on page 25 in the physical version. Kindle's real page numbers are based on an actual paper edition. If someone has that same paper edition then a quote on page 45 in the kindle version should be in that exact paper version as well. No it doesn't work for any edition but it's better than nothing.
Kindle locations are similar in that they are absolute but they have never have a corresponding physical version and don't have any sort of corresponding version in non-Kindle readers. They are also sort of confusing to people who have never used a Kindle before.