Quote:
Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
actually, epub can do everything you mention, reflows worlds better than pdf, and with css can support very advanced layout (good enough for magazines). the current viewers aren't capable of supporting all these features, but the format can.
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Is that where the problem lies though, in a seperation of disciplines? Designers, for the most part, are GUI types (gross oversimplification) who use products like Quark/Indesign to produce layouts for print books, whereas the CSS skills for ePub are more a 'coding' skill (another gross oversimplification).
I'm playing Devil's Advocate here, because I'd like ePub to suceed, but I can also see how these companies would like to keep hold of their existing knowledge-bases and use that to transition. 'If' these 9/10" colour screens become popular and 'if' the publishers no longer need worry about smaller devices, what's to stop them from going all PDF for everything they produce? Their typographers and book preparation employees are already trained in GUI layout, so no retraining needed. The whole workflow becomes much simpler for them, with very little change needed from the normal publishing model (the typesetters/book designers files will easily convert direclty to PDF at the same time as going to the printer).
EDIT: I forgot about Indesign's ePub output, so the questions above are probably mute
If Indesign's output of ePub becomes more robust, which is bound to happen, then producing the ePub files would be as trivial as outputting to PDF.