ebook has words running together with no gaps between them likethis

DarkRoast · 01-03-2011, 09:50 PM

The book I am currently reading seems to have a lot of words that run together without gaps where they should be. Thereare several sentences thatare displaying like this. I haven't noticed it in other ebooks. Just wondering, is this likely to be the fault of the publishers, the software or my reader or something else? I have a Sony PRS-650 and I had downloaded the book from A&R in Australia and used the Sony Library software. Any ideas?

viviena · 01-03-2011, 10:13 PM

Oh, what fun. I once had an ebook in which at least TheFirstSentenceOfEachChapterWasSoLongThatItWouldR unOffTheView. Then there were the page numbers interspersed throughout, and random words also glued together. (I should have demanded a refund, come to think of it.) What book was yours, out of curiosity?

In many cases, as it is I suspect with A&R, bad ebooks are the publishers' fault. Try complaining to A&R all the same though: 'Ebooks cannot be returned, please choose carefully. If your eBook appears to be faulty, please contact customer service to discuss the issue.' [*]

SeaBookGuy · 01-03-2011, 10:16 PM

Epubs shouldn't be doing that. PDF library books ... the formatting can be a bit "off" though not quite that much!

artig · 01-04-2011, 02:23 AM

I've come across occasional examples of this in some ebooks. Also cases of hyphenation in the middle of a line, some- thing like this. Presumably ebooks are not always proof-read as assiduously as pbooks.

Fastolfe · 01-04-2011, 02:32 AM

Artifacts such as "some-thing", "somethingwicked" or "somethlng" are typical of OCRed books that haven't been proofread. You find them a lot in homebrew (read: pirate) ebooks, but also in a fair few ebooks sold by big-name distributors that are also scanned paper books.

James_Wilde · 01-04-2011, 04:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkRoast

The book I am currently reading seems to have a lot of words that run together without gaps where they should be. Thereare several sentences thatare displaying like this. I haven't noticed it in other ebooks. Just wondering, is this likely to be the fault of the publishers, the software or my reader or something else? I have a Sony PRS-650 and I had downloaded the book from A&R in Australia and used the Sony Library software. Any ideas?

I find this is very often a question of punctuation marks which have not been displayed properly. One of my chief suspects is the dash between words, can't remember its proper name - this kind of thing that marks a parenthetical thought.

I thought gutenberg.org books were free of it, but when I replaced the copy of "Emma" which came with my ebookreader with the one from Gutenberg it had the same problem.

DarkRoast · 01-04-2011, 04:56 AM

Hmmm.... well I guess I will contact A&R and see what they say. It seems a bit sloppy and we pay high prices for ebooks in Aust.
viviena, the book I was reading was one by Arnaldur Indridason. I keep coming across words that at first glance look like words I don't know. I've even wondered if they Icelandic or something and then I realise, they are just two words stuck together.

DarkRoast · 01-04-2011, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James_Wilde

I find this is very often a question of punctuation marks which have not been displayed properly. One of my chief suspects is the dash between words, can't remember its proper name - this kind of thing that marks a parenthetical thought.

No, missing punctuation doesn't seem to be the cause of the problem with this ebook.... just twowords stucktogether.

mr ploppy · 01-04-2011, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkRoast

The book I am currently reading seems to have a lot of words that run together without gaps where they should be. Thereare several sentences thatare displaying like this. I haven't noticed it in other ebooks. Just wondering, is this likely to be the fault of the publishers, the software or my reader or something else? I have a Sony PRS-650 and I had downloaded the book from A&R in Australia and used the Sony Library software. Any ideas?

The official Mobi converter does that when PDF is used as the source file, and so does Calibre. Lazy/ignorant publisher trying to use print-based files for ebooks.

Joykins · 01-04-2011, 01:52 PM

I have come across a few books recently where the words are broken up...

"I think what you are saying is un sup port ed. Do not say such things anymore. It makes you look sup er fi cial."
Sometimes more than once per page.

AN NOY ING.

It seems book-specific. The source file is NOT pdf. These are brand new releases.

screwballl · 01-04-2011, 02:19 PM

Many times this is caused by physical books being scanned and converted to digital wording via OCR type technology. Sometimes if a smaller print book was used, it can do that. I have seen that plenty of times with older books that had to be scanned or books submitted and only available via PDF and converted.

mr ploppy · 01-04-2011, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joykins

I have come across a few books recently where the words are broken up...

"I think what you are saying is un sup port ed. Do not say such things anymore. It makes you look sup er fi cial."
Sometimes more than once per page.

AN NOY ING.

It seems book-specific. The source file is NOT pdf. These are brand new releases.

How do you know the source is not PDF, are they ebooks you have created yourself?

Joykins · 01-04-2011, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

How do you know the source is not PDF, are they ebooks you have created yourself?

By source I mean the file I purchased -- which is epub. If this is the artifact of a sloppy pdf-to-epub conversion done by the publisher and then sold, shame on them. Let the floggings comence.

Jellby · 01-05-2011, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joykins

By source I mean the file I purchased -- which is epub. If this is the artifact of a sloppy pdf-to-epub conversion done by the publisher and then sold, shame on them. Let the floggings comence.

It is, no doubt, the artifact of a sloppy whatever-to-epub conversion done by the publisher (or someone hired by them), with no proper proofreading or quality check.

mr ploppy · 01-05-2011, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joykins

By source I mean the file I purchased -- which is epub. If this is the artifact of a sloppy pdf-to-epub conversion done by the publisher and then sold, shame on them. Let the floggings comence.

Who is the publisher?

01-03-2011, 09:50 PM	#1
DarkRoast Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 55272 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Australia Device: Sony Reader 650	ebook has words running together with no gaps between them likethis The book I am currently reading seems to have a lot of words that run together without gaps where they should be. Thereare several sentences thatare displaying like this. I haven't noticed it in other ebooks. Just wondering, is this likely to be the fault of the publishers, the software or my reader or something else? I have a Sony PRS-650 and I had downloaded the book from A&R in Australia and used the Sony Library software. Any ideas?

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01-03-2011, 10:13 PM	#2
viviena Evangelist Posts: 412 Karma: 520610 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Canberra, Australia Device: Currently Kobo Clara HD and Aura One, iPad	Oh, what fun. I once had an ebook in which at least TheFirstSentenceOfEachChapterWasSoLongThatItWouldR unOffTheView. Then there were the page numbers interspersed throughout, and random words also glued together. (I should have demanded a refund, come to think of it.) What book was yours, out of curiosity? In many cases, as it is I suspect with A&R, bad ebooks are the publishers' fault. Try complaining to A&R all the same though: 'Ebooks cannot be returned, please choose carefully. If your eBook appears to be faulty, please contact customer service to discuss the issue.' [*]

01-03-2011, 10:16 PM	#3
SeaBookGuy Can one read too much? Posts: 2,029 Karma: 2487799 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Naples, FL Device: Kindle PW 3, Sony 350 and 650	Epubs shouldn't be doing that. PDF library books ... the formatting can be a bit "off" though not quite that much!

01-04-2011, 02:23 AM	#4
artig Zealot Posts: 138 Karma: 681012 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: New Zealand Device: kobo, kindle pw	I've come across occasional examples of this in some ebooks. Also cases of hyphenation in the middle of a line, some- thing like this. Presumably ebooks are not always proof-read as assiduously as pbooks.

01-04-2011, 02:32 AM	#5
Fastolfe Bookworm Posts: 98 Karma: 55796 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Sony PRS-650	Artifacts such as "some-thing", "somethingwicked" or "somethlng" are typical of OCRed books that haven't been proofread. You find them a lot in homebrew (read: pirate) ebooks, but also in a fair few ebooks sold by big-name distributors that are also scanned paper books.

01-04-2011, 04:56 AM	#7
DarkRoast Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 55272 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Australia Device: Sony Reader 650	Hmmm.... well I guess I will contact A&R and see what they say. It seems a bit sloppy and we pay high prices for ebooks in Aust. viviena, the book I was reading was one by Arnaldur Indridason. I keep coming across words that at first glance look like words I don't know. I've even wondered if they Icelandic or something and then I realise, they are just two words stuck together.

01-04-2011, 01:52 PM	#10
Joykins Wizard Posts: 1,609 Karma: 9211856 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: kindle Oasis 2018, kindle 4 NT, kindle PW2, iPhone, iPad mini	I have come across a few books recently where the words are broken up... "I think what you are saying is un sup port ed. Do not say such things anymore. It makes you look sup er fi cial." Sometimes more than once per page. AN NOY ING. It seems book-specific. The source file is NOT pdf. These are brand new releases.

01-04-2011, 02:19 PM	#11
screwballl NewKindler Posts: 504 Karma: 1865773 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: NWFL Device: Kindle3 Wifi	Many times this is caused by physical books being scanned and converted to digital wording via OCR type technology. Sometimes if a smaller print book was used, it can do that. I have seen that plenty of times with older books that had to be scanned or books submitted and only available via PDF and converted.

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