Thread: which format will win?
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Old 02-26-2010, 08:48 PM   #246
JSWolf
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frabjous View Post
But the whitespace usage will become more inconsistent if I do that, hence, in actual circumstances that matter, it won't look as nice.



It is an issue if I want them and can't get them. You said that your ePub looked better than my PDF. I was just pointing out ways in which it looked worse.



But the point was ePub isn't capable of doing it right now. I do think it will be in the future, so the problem is not with the format in particular but the renderer.



No. What this shows is that ePub is a good choice for distribution, not that it is a good choice on your reader.

The only point of reflowing is to be able to get the font, font-size, etc., and other layout features you prefer from the same source. You can take that source and create a PDF that has all the desired features you wish, plus additional features that are impossible display on an ePub on most devices. . Once the PDF already has your preferred layout, what would be the point of reflow?

So, again, my conclusion is that I'd rather acquire ePub than PDF, but I'd rather read PDF than ePub right now. (Of course, I'd really rather be given LaTeX source, but HTML-based source, like that found in ePub, is almost as good.) So again, my conclusion is that PDF is currently better for reading than ePub.
The ePub did look better then the PDF. No question about it. Also, the PDF is a fixed size. So depending on what size it was made for, it can look not good on a lot of readers. The ePub will look good on different readers screen and size not an issue. PDF means you have no real choice in how it looks. Once it's done, it's done. If I want a larger font, I can have it with ePub. PDF, nope.

Now if I want to make a PDF that will look nice on my Sony Reader, I can do that. But if I give that same PDF to someone that has a Kindle DX, it won't look nice.

You don't get it. PDF is fixed. Sure you can have more typographic control when making it, but you have to make many many different versions to fit all sorts of screen sizes. It's not worth the hassle.
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