36 free ePubs, lots more to come!

[Dr. Drib]

I would say that Queentess pretty much summed up the feelings here.

Ondabeach, I am posting here as member of MobileRead [and NOT as a Moderator]:

I would have to say that speaking from personal experience on this site that there's certainly room for many views, as long as those views are expressed with tolerance and demonstrate respectful attention to differing views and an understanding of other people's opinions.

Our community is very diverse and opinions are numerous, which often results in conflicting views. You are encountering a barrage of questions, insights, and challenges due (in my opinion) to a perceptual shift in your language when you mention competition, or when mentioning formats, etc. that you disagree with. Some individuals see this as an attack upon their choice of format and/or device.

This is the cause, I feel, of the recent challenges you've had since you started your thread.


Don

[ondabeach]

Hi Ahi,

Who cares about the Publisher's perspective? My point is that the people who read books and those who write them are the ones that matter. The publishers are only in it for the money.

As far as PDF or any other format 'crowding out' the ePUB format, It's going to be the other way around. It may take a few years but the ePUB format will become the defacto standard for sharing virtually all types of electronic documentation.

It has to.... because it needs to, there are probably more documents written, read and or transferred from one place or device or another than music files. So the benefits of having a universal standard for documents that allows them to be viewed and or edited on any platform hardware or software that is capable are pretty obvious.

MP3's can be played on every computer platform handheld or otherwise, as well as car stereos, phones, dvd players etc etc etc..... even some dedicated ebook readers.

The ePUB format is capable of so much more than any other format inherently due to it's structure. It can be used for novels, newspapers, magazines, story books, newsletters and the other obvious document types as well as everything else from patient records to menus to building plans, anything in fact that contains text and or images, or music files, in fact an ePUB can contain any other type of file you can name.

The structure of an ePUB, being based on html, xml and their derivitives makes it incedibly powerful and flexible. Because these files types are familiar to virtually every programmer on the planet it means that adopting it as a standard is extremely easy and inevitible.

Imagine being able to read the one file on any device or program, no need to convert it from this or that using this program or another. It will happen, just as it did with music files, and the only format that is capable of making that happen is the ePUB format. Can you name any other format that has any kind of hope at all in doing so?

I don't want to offend anyone and I'm not actually suggestig that anyone throw their kindle in the bin.... not just yet anyway. But if you are looking at a new device and you want true freedom of choice then make sure it supports the ePUB format.

I have been involved in computers and consumer electronics for thirty years, and the pattern emerging in the document industry as a whole and by extension, the eletronic book industry is something I have seen before.

The publishing houses currently still have a hold on the majority of the the novel industry, just like the sony's of the world used to control the music industry. You'd be amazed how few of even the biggest artists and bands are ontrolled by any company. Most of them now own the rights to their music and are free to sell it any way they choose. It won't be long before the vast majority of authors, no matter how big or small will take control of their own intellectual property as many are already doing, and ePUBs give them unprecedented opportunity to do so.

The ePUB format is only in it's infancy, yet look at all the device manufacturers, platform and application developers that are scrabbling to support it. Ever heard of the domino effect?????

Both they, and we, the people that read their books will benefit, and the publishers.... well, they can go and another host to suck dry.


Cheers,

Steve.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by ondabeach

As far as PDF or any other format 'crowding out' the ePUB format, It's going to be the other way around. It may take a few years but the ePUB format will become the defacto standard for sharing virtually all types of electronic documentation.

No, it won't.

Because in a lot of the business and legal industries, the ability to print exact copy pages is very important, and ePub doesn't have that. PDF does. PDF will continue to dominate the legal industry (the way that tiff dominates the digital archive industry, and they are almost interchangeable at this point), because having digital "pages" is very important in a lot of legal situations.

Businesses will continue to use PDFs for other digital content because they're dealing with PDFs for legal content (contracts, copies of records). When they're not using PDFs, they'll continue to use Word (twitch) because the bulk of the typing is still done by people who are most comfortable with desktop publishing software, not web-editing software. Or they'll use Powerpoint (shudder, twitch twitch) because sales reps who are utterly baffled by Word's complex table options (I wish I were exaggerating about that) will be able to fill Powerpoint slides with info and occasionally pictures.

EPub may take over the books-for-entertainment industry, but it won't catch on in the business world; it's too malleable for legal uses, and too hard to make for standard office uses. Oh, and Windows machines don't come with create-read-edit ePub software.

The ePUB format is capable of so much more than any other format inherently due to it's structure. It can be used for novels, newspapers, magazines, story books, newsletters and the other obvious document types as well as everything else from patient records to menus to building plans, anything in fact that contains text and or images, or music files, in fact an ePUB can contain any other type of file you can name.

• Scanned images at 300dpi with searchable text included.
• Digital forms you fill out and print on the spot.
• Presentations that move from one slide to the next.
• Easy-to-edit contracts that can be printed in whole or in part for new clients.
• Files to be shared around and each reader adds their own annotations.

The structure of an ePUB, being based on html, xml and their derivitives makes it incedibly powerful and flexible.

Neither of those is really important in many business settings. They're almost drawbacks; they're codewords for "this filetype takes an hour or more of training to do anything with other than just read it."

Because these files types are familiar to virtually every programmer on the planet it means that adopting it as a standard is extremely easy and inevitible.

I work in an office of 30 people. I believe nobody in the office knows more HTML than I do. (On a good day, I can code simple tables. With background colors, even. I know no CSS at all.) Programmers are not as common in most business settings as you'd like to believe.

OTOH, everyone in the office knows how to make PDFs... you click the little button that says "convert to PDF" in whichever Microsoft Office program you have open!

Imagine being able to read the one file on any device or program, no need to convert it from this or that using this program or another. It will happen, just as it did with music files, and the only format that is capable of making that happen is the ePUB format. Can you name any other format that has any kind of hope at all in doing so?

That filetype, is PDF. Or txt. Microsoft could've turned Word Docs into that filetype, but they thought they could squeeze out the competition without allowing use of their code, and failed.

All of those formats have severe limitations, and I don't promote any of them as good ebook formats. But the best formats for ebooks are not the best for business and legal purposes, and fighting against PDF's encroachment into all digital document settings will take more than claims that ePub is more versatile. (It is. But PDF does some things that ePub doesn't, and those things are crucial to some very powerful industries.)