Quote:
Originally Posted by ahi
Hell, I do not even see any realistic prospect of wider eBook reading device adoption until the typography issue is fixed.
- Ahi
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That's where our opinions differ, then. I think the track record speaks for itself. People consume poor quality mass market paperbacks at a much higher rate than they do higher quality hardcover. Tabloids outsell magazines. Direct Mail marketers no longer care AT ALL about color fidelity. People increasingly get their news from websites built with the scantiest nod at typography, rather than newspapers.
I would love to see a PDF or descendant technology that stored the content once and layout/typographical information X times, in a single file, and the appropriate author/developer tool set, and for that technology to be adopted by the publishing industry for ebook production. I don't think it will be.
(Adobe, after all, has abandoned PostScript. They even abandoned DTP software for a time (remember PageMaker?). The PDF spec itself became so bloated that the graphics arts industry had to step in with PDF/X (and other "formats") which aren't so much separate formats as they are restrictions on the PDF format. They even suspended PDF development for a time to focus on the dead-end PPML technology. Adobe has brilliant engineering coupled with horrible marketing and product development.)
I'd love to be wrong about this, but think the truism "you can have it cheap, fast, and good - pick any two" will still apply.