I think the DE "page numbers" are brilliant and, I am looking into support for them in the popular open source applications. However, this thread changes my perception on how well such a change would be received.
Advantages of virtual page numbers:
- It would allow me to switch from reading on my iTouch to my Reader by simply typing in the number
- I can refer other people to what I'm looking at
- Shorter delay when changing font sizes (that delay you see is the reader re-rendering every page in order to give you accurate page numbers)
- No crashes in large documents while pre-rendering (only happens on the largest books and can be fixed by using the Sony desktop client to transfer, but it still stinks)
Disadvantages of virtual page numbers:
- Flipping to the next page doesn't increase the number at the bottom by 1
- Numbers are slightly less accurate (very heavily styled text takes up more "page" than plain text)
Note that virtual page numbers still give the reader a really good idea of progress within a book so it isn't clear why that is a complaint.
Is the problem that they are called "page numbers"? Is it the style issue of page numbers hanging off the right-hand side? If you include only percent (and we assume that you can "jump to %" in reader programs), would people be happier with "13.428%" instead of virtual page "190"? (I know Americans generally prefer whole numbers to percentages; I'm not sure about the rest of the world.)
What would you do better?