eBooks: An immature technology

[Kali Yuga]

I really don't see it as realistic for one document / ebook to produce the exact same results on all screens. Even trying to index the display for a screen type would become a Babelian task, since new display proportions are generated on a regular basis and users can alter the font at will.

E.g. if I'm reading Shakespeare on a smartphone, and I prefer to use a larger font size, I'm pretty much SOL no matter how it's formatted.

Some ebooks aren't formatted well, but on the other hand I've seen quite a few books with good formatting. IMO it has less to do with the tools than the expertise you bring to the task -- as well as holding realistic expectations given the diversity of display options.. Not that the current formats are stupendous, but I expect that once you get used to some of the quirks you'll gain more control over the process.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

I really don't see it as realistic for one document / ebook to produce the exact same results on all screens. Even trying to index the display for a screen type would become a Babelian task, since new display proportions are generated on a regular basis and users can alter the font at will.

E.g. if I'm reading Shakespeare on a smartphone, and I prefer to use a larger font size, I'm pretty much SOL no matter how it's formatted.

Some ebooks aren't formatted well, but on the other hand I've seen quite a few books with good formatting. IMO it has less to do with the tools than the expertise you bring to the task -- as well as holding realistic expectations given the diversity of display options.. Not that the current formats are stupendous, but I expect that once you get used to some of the quirks you'll gain more control over the process.

That's not the problem. Of course different size displays and different base font size choices and different line heights will result in text that looks different on different displays.

But text that;s coded to display smaller than the base font size should display smaller (or at least not bigger) than the base font size on all displays.

A paragraph that's set up with a hanging indent should have a hanging indent on all displays, not just a left indent.

Both these errors can happen with the Kindle file format and Kindle rendering software/firmware from Amazon.

[Rob87]

Originally Posted by JayCeeEll

Just to give you nightmares have you considered the html/css standards and how consistent the rendering is by all the major name players.

Don't go telling people ! in this case ignorance really is bliss.

[harryE123]

the tec is not only immature, it isn't maturing in any good pace either, and those responsible for bringing it to the public don't seem to have a real vision for it other than making money off it, right here and now.

[speakingtohe]

I expect current style ebook readers will be as defunct as Betamax in a very few years.
Luckily we aren't paying $1500 a pop in 1975 dollars.

I love my Sony Prs-600 but will be shopping for something better as soon as I am back in a town with more than one store

A 10% better display or better menu navigation will do it for me.

But wishes for improvement aside, we are all lucky to be in a brief period of time where the technology is not wide spread. This enables easy sale of our current e-readers when we wish to upgrade or they are appreciated gifts to family members.

Until very recently I was the only person I know who actually had an e-reader, and the one I know now bought one because they saw mine. And many of my friends are pretty tech savvy and gadget oriented.

[virtual_ink]

Glad to find this thread, even though its an oldie, in technological terms, much of the sentiment still rings true to my ears.

[rkomar]

I think the problem is that people are confusing the group who sets the standard with the many groups who implement the standard, each in their own way. I don't see anything wrong with the first group adding more features to the standard, as long as the whole standard continues to be self-consistent.

A problem with the implementers is that many do it with closed-source programs, and the piece of code by one implementer that correctly handles a difficult piece of the standard is kept hidden from the other implementers. The whole effort is duplicated every time, and different short cuts are taken by each group. Unfortunately, sharing doesn't come naturally in the world of commerce.

[Rob Lister]

rKomar, I think you nailed it. For hardware, all the makers (with one notable holdout) seem pretty much resolved to follow the epub standard. While you can say that one reader implements it better than others, you'd have to define the term 'better' in a lot of cases.

Wiki sez that for epub...

The only notable device lacking integrated support for the EPUB format is the Amazon Kindle, although there has recently been speculation that the Kindle will soon support this format.

[lindsayw]

I don't think that Amazon will EVER let the Kindle become an ePub-handling device. And they won't stop making all their eBooks available only in their own propietary format, either. So, for authors, the trick is learning how to best replace the 'Typesetter' skills of olden days with knowledge of xhtml and css, so that the middle line may be walked, allowing presentation in either MOBI or ePub to be acceptable to the end user. Sure, that means that in one format or the other (usually MOBI), some compromises have to be accepted, but reasonable and pleasing text formatting is possible with current technology. They will look a bit different in different different formats, just like they will look a bit different on different devices, or with different user-choices like font-size.

[FatDog]

So, for authors, the trick is learning how to best replace the 'Typesetter' skills of olden days with knowledge of xhtml and css, so that the middle line may be walked

That would help - but I don't like it. Authors should not be burdened by ... layout issues. It's almost a specialty in itself.

I remember one of the original promises of CSS was to separate content from appearance. Yet whenever I study markup or try to write PERL scripts to convert text to ePub - I am constantly hand-crafting tags inside the text trying to mimic the authors original concept.

With work - I can create something that can render on a web page, ePub or others, but I have to mark every line as being a type of paragraph/heading/etc. with a mind-numbing number of options.

Once I can do it by hand - I can automate the conversion .. but only until the next author gets more creative like embedding an email in the middle so they want every line of the email indented and justified into a perfect square, etc.

I suspect - we dont have tags/rules/techniques enough to markup the Guttenberg Bible let alone a modern short story.

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by FatDog

That would help - but I don't like it. Authors should not be burdened by ... layout issues. It's almost a specialty in itself.

But they've always been burdened by that to some extent. Whether you're final product is stone tablets or Sony tablets, everyone in the process has to be at least cognizant of each job in the process because they are certainly bound by it; author, proofer, editor and typesetter to name only a few. Everyone should be on the same page in terms of Best Practices for whatever the format or combination thereof. E-publishers are not an exception.

Originally Posted by Samuel Clemens

...
Now I come to an important matter--as I regard it. In the year '74 the young woman copied a considerable part of a book of mine on the machine. In a previous chapter of this Autobiography I have claimed that I was the first person in the world that ever had a telephone in the house for practical purposes; I will now claim-- until dispossess--that I was the first person in the world to apply the type-machine to literature. That book must have been The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I wrote the first half of it in '72, the rest of it in '74. My machinist type-copied a book for me in '74, so I concluded it was that one.

That early machine was full of caprices, full of defects--devilish ones. It had as many immoralities as the machine of today has virtues. After a year or two I found that it was degrading my character, so I thought I would give it to Howells. He was reluctant, for he was suspicious of novelties and unfriendly toward them, and he remains so to this day. But I persuaded him. He had great confidence in me, and I got him to believe things about the machine that I did not believe myself. He took it home to Boston, and my morals began to improve, but his have never recovered.

[rollercoaster]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Oh, yes. I'll get something done. It's just so frustrating to have to work around these bugs that shouldn't be there. Missing features I can bear, but inconsistent rendering drives me up the wall.

Welcome to the hell that is also know as 'Cross-Browser compatibility' for web developers.

[HappyMartin]

I notice we have this thread dealing with the immaturity of the trchnology and another dealing with its expected rapid demise.

Personally I think it is a technology with a way to go. Still I remember about 5 or 6 years ago reading about this new tech that was under development. I got so excited I couldn't sleep and for months bored all my friends to death telling them all about it. Friends that didn't even read. Sure it has some issues but it is heaven sent as far as I am concerned.