[ficbot]

I am so sick of tinkering. On the old Sony, I hacked everything from eReader into HTML, converted to LRF and everything looked great. These same HTML files, converted to mobipocket for the Kindle, looked terrible and I had to use a plain text editor to completely strip all the formatting, then save it again.

The Sony meanwhile could not justify epub files, while the Kobo I have on loan can justify some epub files but not others (and can not zoom the font on some files either, seemingly by random because people have tested these files for me on other devices and they zoom just fine).

Now, I am playing with an Aluratek Libre (may return it) and mobi which was native looks fine but mobi I convert myself from these same HTML files I cleaned up twice already (once to convert from eReader for Sony, once to re-do all clean for the Kindle) have no line breaks. Epub does justify but uses a different font than the other formats this reader supports, which cannot be changed, and two of the page-turning buttons don't work when reading epub although they work with other file types. I am debating whether it would be more work to convert these files to plain text, or to just return the Libre, get a Sony Pocket instead (but then the epub won't justify, sigh) and be done with it. Oh, and plain old ascii text from Project Gutenberg, with all its funky line breaks and awkward font? Look fabulous on the Libre.

I am baffled. I really thought I was 'future-proofing' very well with good old HTML. But now I have one device which renders my Calibre conversion as beautiful, read-able mobi and one which takes this same mobi file and hacks it all to pieces. I have one device which zooms on an epub file that another device will NOT zoom on. And this same device which hacks my beautiful mobi to pieces reads plain old text like a dream.

What's going on here? What format should I really be using if I want a good experience across the board in a reasonably future-proof way? I thought I had it all figured out already, but since my HTML is clean now and other devices are reading it fine, I have to assume the problem is with the Libre. But why would they randomly lock out two of the buttons during their otherwise satisfactory epub rendering? What possible rationale could there be for that?

*sigh* I guess I am doomed to convert everything to plain text if I keep this reader. I am using my Kindle as my main reader but wanted one with folder support for storing personal documents and magazine subscriptions from Fictionwise (multiformat, thankfully, so the mobi looks fine).