Just my $0.02 worth on the "ePub standard"...
I would like to say FB2 will win (it should win but won't, since it's not a widespread English language format). IMHO, ePub may be the industry-enforced de-facto standard, but it sucks big time. FB2 is far superior.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zetmolm
Well, fb2 is a format that came out of the Russian readers community, and their efforts have led to a situation where the Russians are far ahead of us in making copyrighted contents available in a way that makes readers, authors, and publishers happy. There are several legal Russian sites where you can read any book you want (in Russian, of course) for free online, or download them for a price of often less than 1 dollar. And all the legal rights and fees arfe taken care of!
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I'm not familiar with the Russian copyright laws, but I have been using FB2 since about 2003 (on my crappy old Acer n10 PocketPC with Haali Reader) and I can tell you it is by far the best eBook format around.
There are also plenty of legit Russian eBook shops that sell in the FB2 format (classics as well as current works), and they have heaps of free Russian classics (similar to Gutenberg) on places like Lib.ru which either are available in FB2 (as well as HTML, TXT, RTF, etc.) or can be easily converted.
Look at most of the FB2 creation software (BookDesigner, OOoFBTools, etc.) and they are Russian developed apps (which can make it hard for us English speakers to use as the info is mostly in Russian!). And look at the development advances in FBReader and CoolReader - primarily driven by the Russian/Ukrainian developers because that's what their users need (LBook firmware is miles ahead of BeBook, Aztak, etc. on the Hanlin clones).
And FB2 focuses on content versus format, which makes sense when you have a diversity of readers with different screen sizes and so on. PDF has shown how poorly handled fixed formats are when you may want to see them on anything from a 5" to 10" display (even reflow only addresses part of the problem). FB2 is pure XML so the book has a heap of marked-up text than can then be interpreted by the reader of choice and displayed with almost limitless felxibility.
When I read an ePub I have maybe 3-5 zoom settings, 2-3 of which are useless (usually the range of settings is thus: (1) microscopic > (2) readable > (3) bigger but readable > (4) way too big (5) extremely large - a few words per screen). For me, (2) and (3) are the only usable options, and somehow the reader designers seem to find a way to choose the sizes such that I still find (2) a little small and (3) a little big!
And choosing fonts? Forget it! Unless they're embedded in the ePub, which very few publishers are doing as yet, then you're stuck with the crappy Adobe selected font and the strict sizing choices. And even if fonts are embedded, doesn't that seem a waste when you have to have them included in each ePub file? And embedded fonts are not a real choice, they are just an alternative to the system provided font.
With FB2 when I use CoolReader or FBReader (the two main choices for eInk devices) I can load up my favourite open type fonts and display my books with any font I choose, and usually with a choice of 10 or more sizes! I know to ePub readers this sounds amazing, but it's true. Added to that, CSS stylesheet settings can be used to finely tailor your FB2 reading experience. We are all individuals with our own tastes and styles, and you can thus specify little tweaks like the level of indenting for paragraphs, the line spacing within paras and between paras, margin settings, styles for title, subtitles, captions, and on and on.
Face it - ePub may be XML-based, but it is severley hampered when compared with a straight FB2 XML file that can be displayed to suit user needs. ePub reader software must provide these same features in future if it is to be a serious eBook format (again, IMHO only).
(Note: FB2 is not a perfect format - there are some limits, but I have been using eBooks in earnest for over 8 years and convert 99% of all my eBooks to FB2).
I like to view the ePub (English/US) vs FB2 (Russian) eBook situation as an analogy with something from the old space race days. The problem was to solve how to write in zero-G environments. NASA poured millions into creating the Zero-G pen - a sealed pen that could pump the ink to the tip to allow writing in zero-G. This is the ePub equivalent - it has all the bells and whistles but is extremely complex and expensive and prone to failure. The Russian solution is FB2 - use a pencil - it does what you need, has the necessary design features, and works well!
