Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
If they simply scrapped the present system entirely and used real PDFs would be the best upgrade. This is re-inventing the wheel as a hexagon.
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I could not care less about what the format is. And I would call Amazon to task for the way they are misrepresenting this feature, e.g. 'mark up PDF's!' We all know that's not true. And since it doesn't work right now, let's just assume the PDF round trip will never measure up to any real world requirements, and that such a feature doesn't exist (even if it did, I can't see myself ever using it).
In reality they are converting PDFs to a more boring format (invented years ago) that resembles ePub fixed layout, which I assume other reading platforms use instead of PDF. And so now, there is finally a way to import fixed-layout content that behaves like a full citizen on the Kindle platform, whereas before there was only poorly supported PDF.
And since I happen to have a Scribe, I'm looking forward to being able to read books on it in Print Replica format that I have in my library, and perhaps even being able to more easily remove DRM from them. And I also have a number of books in PDF form that were only sad orphans prior to this: crippled on devices with large enough screens, functional only on devices with too-small screens, and that don't sync reading position and annotations.
The new support for ePub import, and enhanced PDF and DOCX import ironically mean that even if I never purchase another book from Amazon (e.g. if they succeed in defeating DRM removal for all eternity), I can import any content I get elsewhere and continue to enjoy a consistent cross platform reading experience.
Outsiders to the Kindle platform seem to have a hard time understanding these benefits. If you don't have much use for a 'reading platform', then there you are. But isolated eReaders are not enough for me, and so I would not be want to be without the services of one.