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Steven Lyle Jordan · 04-21-2009, 04:21 PM

I appreciate fine illustrations. But I don't think that only a PDF can deliver them properly. A lot of e-book formats support images, and only have to be viewed on a sufficiently large device to be enjoyed. In most cases, the illustrations are not so tightly tied to the text that they cannot simply be placed nearby the relevant paragraph to do the job. And although I see the point of your observation of Alice In Wonderland's "tail" of words, I am just as satisfied to have digitally-created, reflowable and resizable text for a book like Frankenstein.

I only recently discovered an easy way to rotate my laptop screen, allowing me to resize a PDF or Zinio window to a roughly letter-sized page image, and making it possible to read magazine pages without having to enlarge sections of type. (I set up hotkeys, allowing me to jump back and forth easily.) Most tablet PCs could do the job you describe with other e-book formats as well, basically having the display window fill the screen. So if you require some of your e-books to display full-sized pictures and illustrations, that method would work for you right now. (Psst: You also get color!)

So, don't despair: You can do what you want right now. About the only thing you might have to suffer with is the weight and battery life of larger devices.

I do hope that the someday-coming color e-ink readers allow me to run PDFs and Zinio-formatted magazines on them, at less weight and longer battery life than my laptop. But until then, I can still get enjoyment out of larger-format documents.

04-21-2009, 04:21 PM	#16
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	I appreciate fine illustrations. But I don't think that only a PDF can deliver them properly. A lot of e-book formats support images, and only have to be viewed on a sufficiently large device to be enjoyed. In most cases, the illustrations are not so tightly tied to the text that they cannot simply be placed nearby the relevant paragraph to do the job. And although I see the point of your observation of Alice In Wonderland's "tail" of words, I am just as satisfied to have digitally-created, reflowable and resizable text for a book like Frankenstein. I only recently discovered an easy way to rotate my laptop screen, allowing me to resize a PDF or Zinio window to a roughly letter-sized page image, and making it possible to read magazine pages without having to enlarge sections of type. (I set up hotkeys, allowing me to jump back and forth easily.) Most tablet PCs could do the job you describe with other e-book formats as well, basically having the display window fill the screen. So if you require some of your e-books to display full-sized pictures and illustrations, that method would work for you right now. (Psst: You also get color!) So, don't despair: You can do what you want right now. About the only thing you might have to suffer with is the weight and battery life of larger devices. I do hope that the someday-coming color e-ink readers allow me to run PDFs and Zinio-formatted magazines on them, at less weight and longer battery life than my laptop. But until then, I can still get enjoyment out of larger-format documents.