A little disappointed

mrwrite · 05-04-2014, 08:27 PM

After spending quite a while building an animated gif for my book, and watching it perform well in Sigil, I discovered...

It does NOT animate using the Nook or the Nook for PC.
It DOES animate using Calibre.

Anyone know how the other readers view a gif file? Would they animate?

Freeshadow · 05-04-2014, 09:02 PM

Check here:

[ ] I give a s--t about reading the specs.

No animation in epub 2.x

Anyway the best way to animate a book is to throw its paper representation at the person requesting it animated.
Damn, it's a book.

cromag · 05-04-2014, 10:11 PM

I'm not interested in animating GIFs, myself. I do most of my reading with epubs on a JetBook Lite, but I've never seen an animated GIF -- and I'm not sure whether it would work on my device.

Since your problem, so far, is with the Nook, you might post a question in MR's Nook Developer's sub-forum, and see what those folks have to say.

eschwartz · 05-05-2014, 12:03 AM

Neither calibre nor Sigil are real ereaders. They both use the Webkit browser rendering engine to view ebooks as though they are web pages (because there is no reason whatsoever to write an ereader just for previewing in an editor) ... so of course they will show your pictures correctly, just like any other browser.

No ereader engine that I am aware of will do animations of any kind. (Except for iBooks maybe because they enjoy working differently from the rest of the known universe. It would be just like them to do something stupid like this.)

No one has put any effort into caring to try to support animations in ebooks any more than they have tried to do so for paper books.

For good reason.

If you want animations make an app.

gmw · 05-05-2014, 12:11 AM

A major factor and advantage of e-ink screens is that they do not need to refresh the page between turns, it's how they manage to be so power efficient. For most of us, for most of what we want to see on our e-readers, this is a good thing.

mrwrite · 05-05-2014, 05:13 AM

Thank you all. I understand about no animation in books. I just wanted to show the instructions together, rather than separate views over several pages. Animation seemed like a win, since illustrations needed so many page turns.

HarryT · 05-05-2014, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

No ereader engine that I am aware of will do animations of any kind. (Except for iBooks maybe because they enjoy working differently from the rest of the known universe. It would be just like them to do something stupid like this.)

Both iBooks and the Kindle (on devices like the Fire tablets) support embedded multimedia in books - sound and video. Although I agree that it's unnecessary for novels, there are certainly some types of book for which multimedia could be a genuine enhancement. Eg a bird recognition book could include audio of birdsong; a cookery book could include video clips.

05-04-2014, 08:27 PM	#1
mrwrite Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 300000 Join Date: Mar 2014 Device: Nook	A little disappointed After spending quite a while building an animated gif for my book, and watching it perform well in Sigil, I discovered... It does NOT animate using the Nook or the Nook for PC. It DOES animate using Calibre. Anyone know how the other readers view a gif file? Would they animate?

05-05-2014, 12:03 AM	#4
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,422 Karma: 85397180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	Neither calibre nor Sigil are real ereaders. They both use the Webkit browser rendering engine to view ebooks as though they are web pages (because there is no reason whatsoever to write an ereader just for previewing in an editor) ... so of course they will show your pictures correctly, just like any other browser. No ereader engine that I am aware of will do animations of any kind. (Except for iBooks maybe because they enjoy working differently from the rest of the known universe. It would be just like them to do something stupid like this.) No one has put any effort into caring to try to support animations in ebooks any more than they have tried to do so for paper books. For good reason. If you want animations make an app. Last edited by eschwartz; 05-05-2014 at 12:09 AM.

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05-04-2014, 09:02 PM	#2
Freeshadow temp. out of service Posts: 2,791 Karma: 24285242 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Duisburg (DE) Device: PB 623	Check here: [ ] I give a s--t about reading the specs. No animation in epub 2.x Anyway the best way to animate a book is to throw its paper representation at the person requesting it animated. Damn, it's a book.

05-04-2014, 10:11 PM	#3
cromag Surfin the alpha waves ~~ Posts: 24,289 Karma: 459220161 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: New Jersey Device: Jetbook Lite & Mini, Nook STR, Kobo, Hanvon N516, Kindle 2, Androids	I'm not interested in animating GIFs, myself. I do most of my reading with epubs on a JetBook Lite, but I've never seen an animated GIF -- and I'm not sure whether it would work on my device. Since your problem, so far, is with the Nook, you might post a question in MR's Nook Developer's sub-forum, and see what those folks have to say.

05-05-2014, 12:11 AM	#5
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,809 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	A major factor and advantage of e-ink screens is that they do not need to refresh the page between turns, it's how they manage to be so power efficient. For most of us, for most of what we want to see on our e-readers, this is a good thing.

05-05-2014, 05:13 AM	#6
mrwrite Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 300000 Join Date: Mar 2014 Device: Nook	Thank you all. I understand about no animation in books. I just wanted to show the instructions together, rather than separate views over several pages. Animation seemed like a win, since illustrations needed so many page turns.