Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Russell
Think of it as the analogy to the Adobe .pdf format, but for flowable text, so it can display well on any size screen from a PC to a phone.
|
I agree that this is the intent, but there are as yet no implementations except on desktop computers with really big screens. So what does it have in principle that helps on small screens and with low performing processors?
FBReader runs on small devices, but it throws away the CSS which is presumably supposed to make the "display well on any screen size" promise come true. The way FBReader tries to optimize the look of a document is to allow customization to the device and to the reader's preferences. This is not to say that FBReader should not support CSS, but on a small screen it may be advisable to ignore much of the document's embedded style.
I think EPUB is the best solution out there for reflowable non-fiction and in particular for technical documents. These probably intrinsically require a 6" or above screen size, but maybe this is ok given trends in hardware. If you do need to read a technical document on a cell phone, then EPUB may still be your best option (just not a very good one). Two examples of EPUB's advantages for non-fiction are SVG and embedded fonts.