Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWV
[...] and they're way below the 300 ppi that the vendors want.
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May I ask where you got this information?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWV
The few that I've converted look OK, so I think SVG images may be my best option. Large tables that have so many cells that the numbers are tiny on my Kobo Touch don't look as good as the fixed-pixel PNGs but at least they're legible. The other images look good and they scale well.
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Sadly, large tables are just a giant problem. You have multiple issues:
- The user can select a font size too large.
- This makes the information flow off of edge the page.
- The table itself is too wide for a device
- The (not set in stone) "rule" that most people recommend is not to go beyond 4 columns wide.
- Save the table as an image.
- For extremely large tables, this is what many people settle on because it is compatible across devices.
- Has a bunch of disadvantages (which I personally believe outweigh the benefits):
- Not following user preferences of font, font size, etc. etc.
- The look of the table can't be manipulated by CSS.
- Not copy/pastable/searchable.
- Not readable by a computer. (For example, a blind user would not be able to read the table, or text-to-speech couldn't read it either).
- The text is at a fixed size. (For example, if you have poor eyesight and read at a large font, the table is impossible/hard to read).
- If you make a mistake somewhere in the table and have to fix it, you have to go through the trouble to regenerate an entire image again, instead of just tweaking a simple fix in HTML.
- Image of text don't scale the greatest (as you have stumbled on).
There was a bunch of discussion on tables here too:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=223062
And also, just keep in mind that at a certain point, a very wide table of data is just physically impossible to fit on a little cell phone. All of this is weighing out pros/cons.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWV
I tried two means of creating SVG images: 1) File/Save As/PDF, open in Inkscape, adjust size to fit image, Save As/Plain SVG, 2) Create the PDF using the Foxit virtual printer then follow the same procedure as #1.
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Did you take apart the SVG itself and see what the code is saying? Mind attaching a sample so some of us on the board can fiddle around with it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWV
It looks like I could, as a last resort, recreate my tables in Inkscape. And I might even be able to add the text to charts in Inkscape rather than Excel. But I have 21 charts and 34 tables, some of which contain a lot of data, which is why I didn't use HTML tables. I'd be looking at a LOT of work to do it all in Inkscape so I'm hoping I can figure this out.
[...]
I probably should have gone with two print books. I've literally spent more time working on the images than I spent writing the books, compiling the data for the spreadsheets, and creating the tables and charts from the data.
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Also, what is your market for this book?
Are you going to be selling on Kindle?
Are you going to be selling on Nook?
Are you focused on iBooks only?
Are you selling this on your own site?
Also, you should keep in mind that SVG does not work in the old Kindle format... so if you are planning on selling on Kindle, you are limiting your market to EPUB if you go with SVG tables only.
I would say, your best bet is to either see if you can figure out a way to squeeze your tables into ~4 column-wide HTML tables. If not, go with the devil and settle on an image of a table (this is sadly, the most compatible way across devices, even though it looks like crap in many cases).
If you are selling this book on your site, feel free to do whatever, I personally settle on full HTML tables... you can go the SVG route if you want (although this one is not as nicely copy/pastable OUT of an EPUB, while pure HTML can be really transferred anywhere).