The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

There's a third group. Those who are "capable of editing the formatting of their ebooks themselves" and still choose to use KOReader because they find it more convenient.

I edit my epubs when absolutely necessary, but editing means typing, and that's something I try to avoid whenever possible, because typing means typos. So KOReader's 'edit by mouseclick' is easier, faster and much less error-prone.

Yes, of course. What I really meant was that there already is a reading app that lets you make detailed formatting decisions; and those who don't use it, but still want to deal with formatting issues, are the folks who edit their books. Creating another app with detailed formatting choices would add nothing that's not already in existence, just muddy the waters even more.

Apologies if my previous post seemed patronizing. That was not my intent - I'm well aware many highly intelligent and skilled people use KOReader. I just didn't consider my wording carefully enough.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

That's why I make own my ebooks as PDFs using LibreOffice: It's fun to format them, and they look exactly as intended on my e-reader. If something is badly formatted that is on me, it's not due to it being in the EPUB format or due to the Publisher.

Choosing PDF as the preferred format seems very odd to me, but YMMV. I would never use fixed layout myself, because I often reread something years later and my preferences might have changed by then. With reflowing formats I can still have the book look exactly as I want at the moment, but also be able to easily change things (such as font size or line spacing or margins) later without reformatting the entire book.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, of course. What I really meant was that there already is a reading app that lets you make detailed formatting decisions; and those who don't use it, but still want to deal with formatting issues, are the folks who edit their books. Creating another app with detailed formatting choices would add nothing that's not already in existence, just muddy the waters even more.

Apologies if my previous post seemed patronizing. That was not my intent - I'm well aware many highly intelligent and skilled people use KOReader. I just didn't consider my wording carefully enough.

Nope, I didn't think it patronising, just pointing out an option three.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Someone should tell it to the publishers...

If the publishers learned how to properly format eBooks, there would be no need for all of these fiddly settings.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

That's why I make own my ebooks as PDFs using LibreOffice: It's fun to format them, and they look exactly as intended on my e-reader. If something is badly formatted that is on me, it's not due to it being in the EPUB format or due to the Publisher.

ePub is not an issue. It's the code in the ePub.

[ownedbycats]

When the only cover found is a photograph of the book taken at a weird angle.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

When the only cover found is a photograph of the book taken at a weird angle.

Yeah. I've just created some generic cover in that case.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Choosing PDF as the preferred format seems very odd to me, but YMMV. I would never use fixed layout myself, because I often reread something years later and my preferences might have changed by then. With reflowing formats I can still have the book look exactly as I want at the moment, but also be able to easily change things (such as font size or line spacing or margins) later without reformatting the entire book.

My preference for PDF is mainly due to my experience. With PDF I can count on it looking on my ereader exactly as it looks on my computer when I set my word processor to Page View.

Often with other formats I can't count on what the ebook will actually look like. As an example, I had a Sony Reader that supported RTF. It looked like a no-brainer since I can easily create RTF ebooks since I used an RTF word processor at that time (Jarte) plus there are dozens of word processors that can save as RTF. Unfortunately, something as basic as reliably rendering a serif typeface (not a specific typeface, just have it appear in a serif typeface) was not reliable. Likewise for a san serif typeface.

The only other format I've had a good experience with as an ebook format is .pdb (the format used for ebooks on Palm PDAs). There was an application that allowed you to easily convert text files into ebooks for the Palm Reader and it was excellent. The reader itself was excellent too, keeping it simple and easy to use (the typeface wasn't embedded in the ebook, you selected it in the Palm Reader software).

[JSWolf]

What the heck is Women's Fiction as a genre? I've not seen Men's Fiction as a genre.

One of the books for Amazon First Reads is labeled as Women's Fiction.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by theducks

Except there are devices that do not support pseudo selectors.

That's what @media queries are for.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What the heck is Women's Fiction as a genre? I've not seen Men's Fiction as a genre.

One of the books for Amazon First Reads is labeled as Women's Fiction.

One possibility is that "Women's Fiction" is a general umbrella genre to indicate fiction that is specifically aimed towards a female audience regardless of the specific genre. Like with most genres* it is likely that it can include a wide range of different types of books.

To use movies as an example, "Gone With The Wind" might be considered "Women's Fiction" while "First Blood" (the first Rambo movie) could be considered "Men's Fiction."

*I checked on Wikipedia to find out how many genres there were and how they are defined so I could update my digital music library. There were literally hundreds of them with many genres very specific (such as Wonky Pop, Dream Pop, Death Metal, Drone Music, Lounge Music, Wizard Rock, and Psychobilly). It was so confusing I just went with general genres (such as Country, Pop, Jazz) and took my best guess.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If the publishers learned how to properly format eBooks, there would be no need for all of these fiddly settings.

I strongly agree, but I don't think things will change anytime soon. I think the only thing that would lead to change is if it starts to affect sales specifically because of formatting issues.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

That's what @media queries are for.

Sadly many of the same devices that do not support pseudo classes and elements do not support media queries. Many of the ePub renderers I have looked at support ePub2 which did not have media query support. The easy to tell if the renderer has any ePub3 compatibiliy is if they don't display the ToC when only the ePub2 navigation document is present without the NCX file.

Yeah, I know that ePub3 has been around since Oct. 2011 but many developers have not yet caught up with that news.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What the heck is Women's Fiction as a genre? I've not seen Men's Fiction as a genre.

One of the books for Amazon First Reads is labeled as Women's Fiction.

Polite way of writing "Chick Lit", which is not well defined either.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

That's what @media queries are for.

Media queries aren't always supported either.