Other Fiction Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice (Illustrated). v2, 2 Mar 2008

[zelda_pinwheel]

imp conversion of HarryT's illustrated Austen series. I will do the others as well. to avoid confusion in case of further revisions i have copied the title of HarryT's post, including version number and date (they correspond to the mobi version i converted).

conversion notes :
1. thanks to Nick's brilliant conversion tool, i can make an .imp 1150 *and* a 1200 version with almost no extra effort on my part, so i have included both here. the color illustrations make the 1200 particularly worthwhile.

2. the images from the original file were too large / the wrong proportions for imp screen size. when resizing them, i took into account the proportions of the 1150 screen, since that seems to be significantly more prevalent than the 1200. As a result, a few of the images are *still* too large for the 1200 screen, and the bottom edge may be slightly cut off. Since this part of the illustration contains only the caption, which is repeated in the body of the text immediately after the illustration, i decided not to redo TWO sets of images. any perfectionist 1200 owners who want to redo the images themselves however are welcome to my source files !

HarryT's original description :

Originally Posted by HarryT

A fully illustrated version of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". This is the PG text of the book, with 24 full page illustrations by C.E.Brock added.

Plot summary from Amazon:

Pride and Prejudice has delighted generations of readers with its unforgettable cast of characters, carefully choreographed plot, and a hugely entertaining view of the world and its absurdities. With the arrival of eligible young men in their neighbourhood, the lives of Mr and Mrs Bennet and their five daughters are turned inside out and upside down. Pride encounters prejudice, upward-mobility confronts social disdain, and quick-wittedness challenges sagacity, as misconceptions and hasty judgements lead to heartache and scandal, but eventually to true understanding, self-knowledge, and love. In this supremely satisfying story, Jane Austen balances comedy with seriousness, and witty observation with profound insight. If Elizabeth Bennet returns again and again to her letter from Mr Darcy, readers of the novel are drawn even more irresistibly by its captivating wisdom.

Illustrations are used, with thanks, from http://www.mollands.net and http://www.solitary-elegance.com. Both these web sites are great resources for all fans of Jane Austen!

Enjoy!

[EDIT : Nick has redone the 1200 version to fix the illustrations, so i have attached it here to make it easier to find, with the prefix "nrapallo". it's worth taking a look even if you have to use the simulator on a pc ; the illustrations are really quite stunning.]

This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.

To report a copyright violation you can contact us here.

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

imp conversion of HarryT's illustrated Austen series. I will do the others as well. to avoid confusion in case of further revisions i have copied the title of HarryT's post, including version number and date (they correspond to the mobi version i converted).

conversion notes :
1. thanks to Nick's brilliant conversion tool, i can make an .imp 1150 *and* a 1200 version with almost no extra effort on my part, so i have included both here. the color illustrations make the 1200 particularly worthwhile.

2. the images from the original file were too large / the wrong proportions for imp screen size. when resizing them, i took into account the proportions of the 1150 screen, since that seems to be significantly more prevalent than the 1200. As a result, a few of the images are *still* too large for the 1200 screen, and the bottom edge may be slightly cut off. Since this part of the illustration contains only the caption, which is repeated in the body of the text immediately after the illustration, i decided not to redo TWO sets of images. any perfectionist 1200 owners who want to redo the images themselves however are welcome to my source files !

HarryT's original description :

Gallant first effort. You nailed it with the 1150 version.

I may have a go at the "cut off" 1200 version. This is a hard problem to solve for BOTH versions with the same code and same images! Got anything against justified text?

p.s. the link above should be Nick's brilliant conversion tool.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by nrapallo

Gallant first effort. You nailed it with the 1150 version.

I may have a go at the "cut off" 1200 version. This is a hard problem to solve for BOTH versions with the same code and same images! Got anything against justified text?

p.s. the link above should be Nick's brilliant conversion tool.

thank you very much sir ; coudn't have done it without you.

(i fixed the link... i'll probably have to fix the link on all the other pages too because i think i just re-copied my original page...)

you are welcome to make a 1200 version ; would you like my converted files ? [EDIT it is indeed hard to make one version for both devices, since the screens are not only not the same size, but apparently not proportional either. however this should only be a problem with "full-screen" images which are reduced in size automatically. i don't think we should have to worry about it too often.]

as for justified text, actually yes, i *do* have something against it if i can't manage the kerning, which is the case with reflowable text. i can't stand a page full of "holes".

left aligned text is actually easier to read anyway, because the eye doesn't get lost as easily traveling across the page (more landmarks when the right side is ragged). i actually have a couple of paper books which are printed left-aligned, ragged right ; they are recent Penguin editions of a couple of Wodehouse books which I bought in the airport at Heathrow. i was suprised at first but i got used to it quick. i think it's even less perturbing for an ebook, since you don't have the effect of symmetry (or rather, asymmetry) of the two facing pages.

[JSWolf]

What is the resolution of a full screen image for the 1150 and the 1200? This way, I can resize to fit both I hope.

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What is the resolution of a full screen image for the 1150 and the 1200? This way, I can resize to fit both I hope.

The maximum (and practical i.e. everyday use) resolutions are as follows:

EBW 1150: Max usable: 319 x 446; Practical size: 315 x 440; Screen: 320 x 480

REB 1200: Max usable: 472 x 595; Practical size: 468 x 590; Screen: 480 x 640

SOURCE: The Gemstar Formatting Standards.pdf (in appendices) and from practical experience.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What is the resolution of a full screen image for the 1150 and the 1200? This way, I can resize to fit both I hope.

according to the Gemstar eBook EB-1150 Formatting Standards (which i beleive i found on this site, somewhere... in pdf format), the USABLE screen size of the 1150 is 318px x 446 px ; however, that does not include side margins or the running header which i always include, so i format my images for 310px x 430px. this is an approximation acheived through trial and error and probably could be further refined, but i got tired of the trials.

the 1200 usable screen size is given as 470px x 593px, but again this is WITHOUT header or margins. i don't know what the actual usable size is, with those elements. in any case, i can tell you it is not homothetic to the 1150 (that would have been too easy ).

[EDIT or just ask Nick...]

as i said though, this only poses a problem with images that are tall and narrow and larger than the screen, which you allow eBook Publisher to resize automatically. if only it would fit to the height as well as to the width, it would not be a problem even then.

see this other post for how i get around the problem without losing image quality (a rather quick and dirty solution, but it does work).

[HarryT]

Do the images look OK at such a comparatively low resolution? Being watercolour paintings, I was afraid they'd tend to "blur out" if you lowered the res too much.

Forgive my ignorance, but is the eBookwise a device with a colour screen?

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do the images look OK at such a comparatively low resolution? Being watercolour paintings, I was afraid they'd tend to "blur out" if you lowered the res too much.

Forgive my ignorance, but is the eBookwise a device with a colour screen?

The eBookwise 1150 is a low res (320x480) 16 grayscale device and yes the watercolour paintings do get a bit washed out.

The .IMP format is also used by another (predecessor) device that has the same GUI interface as the eBookwise but is vga res (480x640) 32,768 colours, namely, the REB1200. (My avatar is a picture of the REB1200 displaying the cover of a Newsweek magazine issue).

I have re-done zelda_pinwheel's REB1200 version to 'fix' the images that were "cut off" at the bottom and it is now attached as part of the first post above.

If you would like to view it without the actual REB1200 reader, there is a viewer that comes along with the installation of the eBookwise Publisher software that can be used on a computer (PC or Mac).

The illustrations you chose are very striking in this version below. To paraphrase, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

[HarryT]

The "dithering" that the Gen3 does rather washes them out, too. I guess, though, the fact that the 1150 has a lower resolution is compensated for by the fact that it has more grey scales (16 vs. 4), so that will make them look better. They look great on the Mobi desktop viewer, which shows them in colour.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The "dithering" that the Gen3 does rather washes them out, too. I guess, though, the fact that the 1150 has a lower resolution is compensated for by the fact that it has more grey scales (16 vs. 4), so that will make them look better. They look great on the Mobi desktop viewer, which shows them in colour.

yes, they look great on the imp desktop viewer (1200 version), which shows them in color as well !

that's why i preferred to leave them in color, rather than switch them to greyscale, even though the 1150 imp file is not color ; hopefully, in the near future, color screens will become more accessible and we'll be able to really appreciate them then.

[HarryT]

Yes, I agree!

[nrapallo]

As requested, I've updated these .imp ebooks using Mobi2IMP v9.4e to the latest version posted by HarryT, namely:

EDIT: 10 Aug 08

Replaced the cover with a much improved one. Thanks to Paul Durrant for this. Uploaded v4.

EDIT: 25 Apr 09

Spent the last month thoroughly proofing the book against the first edition text. Dozens of genuine errors corrected, and literally thousands of changes (changes to pretty much every sentence in the book) made in punctuation to match the first edition's punctuation, which is very different to modern usage.

Note that this version of the book now uses Austen's original spellings, which may appear odd to modern readers: her random use of "ei" in words which we now spell "ie", such as "neices" instead of "nieces", "shew" instead of "show", "chuse" (sometimes, but not always) instead of "choose", "staid" instead of "stayed", and many more. The spelling is also internally inconsistent: "Philips" sometimes appears as "Phillips", for example, "de Bourgh" is randomly "De Bourgh". All this matches the original text.

Enjoy!

This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.

To report a copyright violation you can contact us here.