The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[Quoth]

Yes, insecure keyboard is more serious. Also due to flaws in USB / USB HID a maliciously made USB mouse can inject malware.

TBH I'd not worry about the wireless mouse security, except the same proprietary dongle is often also in a set* with a keyboard.

Close without a concealed dish in a van/truck with cloth / fibreglass sides/panels.

There is ONE documented case I know of miscreants renting the unit next door. That enables sniffing WiFi, BT and so called "powerline" ethernet which isn't blocked by anything at the fuse/meterbox. Ethernet over your maoins wiring may or may not be encrypted securely.

Sorry for going off topic on Reading Ranting!

EDIT
[* Actually someone gave me a new MS keyboard & mouse wireless set that used a proprietary dongle. I tried it with a PC that's on a TV, but gave I it away to someone. I have a small pocket sized keyboard with touchpand and dongle that mysteriously works to type text into TV. We don't have the TV on ethernet or WiFi. I last used it for a UK postcode on the tuning scanning.]

[issybird]

Moderator Notice
Back on topic, please.

[Quoth]

Ebook from a major publisher. The left, right, top, bottom Text/paragraph margins and indents in px! Map and illustration in small number of px, about 2 lines of text high, though low resolution (epub not Amazon purchase).

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Ebook from a major publisher. The left, right, top, bottom Text/paragraph margins and indents in px! Map and illustration in small number of px, about 2 lines of text high, though low resolution (epub not Amazon purchase).

I've wondered why e-book formatting is such as issue. It should be easy to create an ebook that will render properly on all e-reading devices. I thought that was supposed to be one of the main advantages of the EPUB format, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm beginning to think that basic HTML might be a better format for ebooks (it's open source, easy to code by hand using just a text editor, and flexible).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

I've wondered why e-book formatting is such as issue. It should be easy to create an ebook that will render properly on all e-reading devices. I thought that was supposed to be one of the main advantages of the EPUB format, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm beginning to think that basic HTML might be a better format for ebooks (it's open source, easy to code by hand using just a text editor, and flexible).

It is HTML under the hood of ePub. You can easily screw up the format of HTML with CSS.

The problem is the publishers trying to make the eBook look like the pBook and failing because the pBook format does not work as an eBook in most cases.

What publishers need to do is make an eBook properly without trying to duplicate the pBook.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It is HTML under the hood of ePub. You can easily screw up the format of HTML with CSS.

The problem is the publishers trying to make the eBook look like the pBook and failing because the pBook format does not work as an eBook in most cases.

What publishers need to do is make an eBook properly without trying to duplicate the pBook.

I agree about the formatting of eBook properly. Issues like page sizes should be a non-issue with ebooks, and other things (like specific typefaces) shouldn't be hard encoded. Instead, just code in a general typeface (serif or san serif) and let the user choose the specific typeface and size (which seems to be the case with EPUB ebooks).

When I was referring to Basic HTML, part of it meant no CSS. I've looked into CSS and it is overly complicated. It has a syntax that is unrelated to regular HTML, which makes it confusing to handcode. I suspect that CSS was designed to not be handcoded, but to be created using an intermediary program.

[Quoth]

CSS is good and a well formatted MSS from LO Writer or MS word imported to Calibre as docx converts the paragraph styles to css.

HTML without CSS is like a using a wordprocessor like a glorified glass typewriter.

No CSS is terrible. That's what mobi format has.

I've not handcoded HTML for 25 years, though I've edited it even today.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

I've wondered why e-book formatting is such as issue. It should be easy to create an ebook that will render properly on all e-reading devices. I thought that was supposed to be one of the main advantages of the EPUB format, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm beginning to think that basic HTML might be a better format for ebooks (it's open source, easy to code by hand using just a text editor, and flexible).

Why are there so many Linux versions?
Same reason... 'My way is better'.... Even if it is (way) less flexible .

My way would have all those user settings be the differences fromthe publisher settings. Not either Or as the ones I have used. Enlarge or shrink. Not absolutes.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by theducks

Why are there so many Linux versions?
Same reason... 'My way is better'.... Even if it is (way) less flexible .

My way would have all those user settings be the differences fromthe publisher settings. Not either Or as the ones I have used. Enlarge or shrink. Not absolutes.

One thing I think would improve ebooks is to have one mastering format that is used to format the actual ebook. It would be extremely verbose, leaving absolutely no guesswork when it comes to ebook formatting, and would be a free and open standard. As mentioned above, some things could be based on relative formatting, such as the size of the main text, with smaller/larger adjustments within the text. This would have the advantage that the actual ebook would only have to be formatted once.

Then, each ebook publisher creates a distillation program that takes that verbose ebook file, parses it, and generates an ebook customized for their specific devices. Each distillation program removes code that the publisher decides is not needed, or modifies it based on what they've decided when it comes to formatting. However, they don't have to format ebooks from scratch.

It is possible that I could be wrong or too idealistic. But I think this would eliminate some of the issues with ebook formatting.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

One thing I think would improve ebooks is to have one mastering format that is used to format the actual ebook. It would be extremely verbose, leaving absolutely no guesswork when it comes to ebook formatting.

No, that's rubbish. Like a worprocessor where you can't change styles or templates. Some big companies do that and produce rubbish. You'd need 100s of redundant styles to cover all the common kinds of publications. Or like a spreadsheet that's locked and only lets you enter data for one use case.

Or like a DTP program that only lets you produce one format of document.

I think maybe Amazon had a stupid Paste & Go ebook creator like that.

The source document should decide the formatting.

Edit:
Amazon do take an uploaded reflowable epub from the publisher and automatically make mobi/KFX, azw3/KF8 and maybe two or three kinds of KFX in advance and then deliver the appropriate file according to model of Kindle or an app. Only the AZW3 is close to original. The results are worse if docx (or worse is doc) are uploaded, especially the document misuses styles, formatting etc.

They handle fixed layout (which includes PDF) differently.

[mbovenka]

Self-edit: - It's getting off-topic -

[DNSB]

Add another pet peeve. I purchased an ebook and virtually every chapter had no capital letters in the first line of the first paragraph. I suspect the original was supposed to use a small caps block but it was removed without correcting the capitalization.

"what do you mean that alexander is not returning?" asked sarah Grey?

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Add another pet peeve. I purchased an ebook and virtually every chapter had no capital letters in the first line of the first paragraph. I suspect the original was supposed to use a small caps block but it was removed without correcting the capitalization.

"what do you mean that alexander is not returning?" asked sarah Grey?

To me, this is an argument for direct formatting in some cases in an ebook. Why not just enter the uppercase letter manually? I wonder if it is due to some typefaces not being available on the ereader so a substitute typeface replaced it?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

To me, this is an argument for direct formatting in some cases in an ebook. Why not just enter the uppercase letter manually? I wonder if it is due to some typefaces not being available on the ereader so a substitute typeface replaced it?

The ebook did not have any embedded fonts or references to such fonts. There was a empty span wrapped about the first 40-67 characters of the line which is why I guessed small caps or similar. A sample of the ebook from Amazon and Smashwords showed the same capitalization issue.

I suspect that since only a single span was used, it was supposed to look like:

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT ALEXANDER IS NOT RETURNING?" ASKED SARAH Grey

though I would have used

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT ALEXANDER IS NOT RETURNING?" ASKED SARAH Grey

[Solitaire1]

Quoth wrote the following as part of a post:

Originally Posted by Quoth

No, that's rubbish. Like a worprocessor where you can't change styles or templates. Some big companies do that and produce rubbish. You'd need 100s of redundant styles to cover all the common kinds of publications. Or like a spreadsheet that's locked and only lets you enter data for one use case.

That's not what I was saying. Nothing is locked, the original source file is just a starting point to let everyone know what the ebook is intended to look like, but the distillation program will remove/adjust the coding, depending what is needed, resulting in a perfectly formatted ebook. Each Publisher takes the same original source file and adjusts it to their own needs, but only one original source file is needed. It's basically "format once, convert many times."

Returning back to topic, that is one of my issues with ebooks. By this time there should be little difficulty properly formatting an ebook, but it seems there still are.