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Originally Posted by Sonist
But regardless, if we have 2-3 sizes established as standard (e.g. 6", 9.7", 12"), then publishers can design as appropriate, for material which does not lend itself to reflow. Again, we do have well-established standards for paper sizes, so why not for ereader screens?
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We do not have standard paper sizes for books. We have a small set of standards (mass-market paperback, magazine size, and perhaps a couple of others), and a range that most other books fall into--trade paperbacks are roughly of a size, but not universally; textbooks are "big paper, square-ish," but not of any one set of dimensions.
We have a standard size for notebook paper because it's easy to produce millions of pages the same size, not because anyone thought most notebooks should be the same size. (We still get variations. Some spiral notebooks are 8.5x11, some are that plus a half-inch tear-out margin. And other sizes do exist--I prefer 6x9 steno pads.)
Books come in a set range of sizes because of publication limitations; when you're printing several hundred thousand copies, they need to be the same, and it's easier to arrange layouts of lots of books on a standard template. There's no need to extend this to ebooks.
(Just like there's no need to insist a sellable ebook be 50,000 words, the length of a short novel. Short stories could be sold indivdually, rather than in collections or magazines, as Fictionwise does.)
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Moreover, I am not sure EPUB robust enough for complex layouts, where design is of great importance, such as magazines. We already know that PDF is.
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Design is of great importance for magazines because page real estate was valuable--because printing costs money. When page counts are irrelevant, there's no need to put text in columns with pictures to one side or the other--pictures can be inline with the text, or a chart can have its own page.
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On the web, if one wants precise control over a non-dynamic page, they use PDF, and most browsers can deal with it with ease.
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That kind of precise control is a bug, not a feature, in many publications. The end-user's ability to adjust fonts, margins, and other formatting details in ebooks is part of what makes them useful for many people.
PDFs are great for the intricate layouts required for some textbooks; they're awful for novels. They're good for children's books... how long will it be before we have a color childsafe ebook reader? They're okay for poetry, in that they have controls that are lacking in some other readers--but unless someone comes up with a reflow that keeps more original formatting & line breaks, it'll remain at "okay" instead of "good."
"It acts just like paper" is not an advantage for a lot of digital documents. And while you might claim not many people want 3" screens... there's a lot of content bouncing around on iPhones. Apparently, many people are willing to sacrifice screen size for pocketability. (Not many of them are reading novels--but the number who are, is growing.)