Quote:
Originally Posted by ahi
I hope I did not offend you, Astra. I did not mean to.
Most people reacted positively to my custom eBook device targeted PDFs of Sun Tzu's "Art of War" ... I'd be curious to know what you think.
Although I would also suggest that you might find reading some of the earlier back-and-forths interesting (whether or not you ultimately agree).
- Ahi
P.s.: Perfect reflowability doesn't exist. It shouldn't either. Reflow degrades quality objectively, quantifiably, and ALWAYS. (Even if it makes it easier to read on account of blatant stuff like font-size.)
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You missed Astra's point. There is no standard reading device you can design for. One of the major selling points for ebooks is that I can transport the information without the dead tree to a variety of readers. I personally use a 2.8", a 3.5", an 13", a 15", a 17", and a 19" screen for reading at various times of the day. I read the same book on all of those. If the only format available for ebook reading is PDF without tagging, I don't buy your product*, so I never see your beautiful layout.
Most people aren't interested in either perfect layout or perfect reflowability. "Good enough" at a reasonable cost is just fine. When you come up with a way of accomodating my 2.8" smartphone and my 19" desktop screen with one compact purchase, you'll have a valid argument that your PDFs are "superior" to simpler, less pretty renderings. I haven't seen it in PDF format in any of the myriad files I've bought and used. And by the way, yes, some ignorant publishers release and sell to the public camera ready copy complete with 2" margins, crop marks and registration targets. Try reading that on a 2.8" screen.
You might have a valid argument if you say PDF could be a good ebook format if everyone was good at making PDFs. You'll have an easier time finding examples of poor PDFs, and a difficult time finding good ones for sale to the general public.
*Barring extreme need which makes me willing to read on some large, immobile screen.
Regards,
Jack Tingle