A Comparison of format limitations based on The Hobbit

[All4Fun]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Hmm, these comparisons don't make it easier for me...

Do I buy the mobipocket one, which I can read without doing anything, or the microsoft reader one, which does have the larger images, but I must reformat first...

If you have the energy to perform the conversions, I would buy the .lit version. Keep in mind that the conversion to mobi will reduce the image sizes so you won't gain anything there. However, you would be well positioned if you end up with a future ebook device that doesn't support mobi along with the enhanced images in the .lit version.

Truth be told, I purchased the mobi version of The Hobbit and epub version of the trilogy. My purchase preference in this order is: epub/lit/mobi. Mind you, I don't think you lose much, if anything, purchasing any of these formats for books without images.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by All4Fun

Keep in mind that the conversion to mobi will reduce the image sizes so you won't gain anything there.

It depends on how you create the conversion. I create mobi files with mobiperl that don't have "reduced" images.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Jellby

I create mobi files with mobiperl that don't have "reduced" images.

Would a 1.5MB JPEG image work in a MOBI? As I reported in post #45, when I tried Calibre's any2mobi on the ePub it reduced the image filesize by about a factor of three but the resulting images still did not display in Windows MobiPocket Reader. When the same ePub is converted to MOBI using Windows MobiPocket Reader the image sizes are reduced drastically and this involves reducing the image dimensions in pixels as well as (presumably) increasing its JPEG compression.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Would a 1.5MB JPEG image work in a MOBI? As I reported in post #45, when I tried Calibre's any2mobi on the ePub it reduced the image filesize by about a factor of three but the resulting images still did not display in Windows MobiPocket Reader. When the same ePub is converted to MOBI using Windows MobiPocket Reader the image sizes are reduced drastically and this involves reducing the image dimensions in pixels as well as (presumably) increasing its JPEG compression.

Nope.

[carandol]

Hmm... I've bought the mobi versions of The Hobbit and The Children of Hurin, and discovered that the maps are too big to display on a Bebook -- I just get a blank screen, though the illustrations in The Hobbit turn up fine. This is kind of annoying, after complaining for months that fantasy novels always have maps too small to see! Guess I have to wait for an upgrade to the Bebook software.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Would a 1.5MB JPEG image work in a MOBI?

I don't know 1.5MB, but 300KB JPEGs work fine in my Cybook and in the desktop reader.

[wallcraft]

FictionWise has released a "quick" fix of the eReader version. The final version is due May 1st. This version seems to be more similar to the other ebook formats, and has fixed the words running together issue. I have updated Post #1, Post #7, and Post #44.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

FictionWise has released a "quick" fix of the eReader version. The final version is due May 1st. This version seems to be more similar to the other ebook formats, and has fixed the words running together issue. I have updated Post #1, Post #7, and Post #44.

It's better, but still nothing to write home about as the images are less then stellar (useless).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Would a 1.5MB JPEG image work in a MOBI? As I reported in post #45, when I tried Calibre's any2mobi on the ePub it reduced the image filesize by about a factor of three but the resulting images still did not display in Windows MobiPocket Reader. When the same ePub is converted to MOBI using Windows MobiPocket Reader the image sizes are reduced drastically and this involves reducing the image dimensions in pixels as well as (presumably) increasing its JPEG compression.

I know what the problem is. If you take the ePub and look and the two cover html files, you'll see they are using wonky code to treat the JPG images as SVG. Calibre mishandles this and the images do not come out properly. What you need to do to fix this is replace that SVG code with HTML code that centers the images as standard JPG. Then the conversion to Mobipocket will work fine.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Then the conversion to Mobipocket will work fine.

There is a also problem with the cover images, but this problem is with the large maps and they don't involve SVG. In the ePub, figure 1 is just:

   <body><div class="body">
      <p class="img1"><a id="fig_1"/><img alt="art" src="images/Art_Pviii00.jpg" width="100%"/></p>
   </div></body>

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

There is a also problem with the cover images, but this problem is with the large maps and they don't involve SVG. In the ePub, figure 1 is just:

   <body><div class="body">
      <p class="img1"><a id="fig_1"/><img alt="art" src="images/Art_Pviii00.jpg" width="100%"/></p>
   </div></body>

I just looked at the images and I do not have an image called Art_Pviii00.jpg. Which file references this and is this from the 3-in-1 LOTR ePub?

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I just looked at the images and I do not have an image called Art_Pviii00.jpg. Which file references this and is this from the 3-in-1 LOTR ePub?

It is from The Hobbit and this JPG is 778 KB, 1600 x 1249, referenced in Hobbit_map-1.html.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The six images are MOBI, LIT, eReader, ePub, LRX, and PDF.

As far as formatting goes, I prefer my own PDF version of The Hobbit

[Xerxes]

Wow... That's awesome.

[kjk]

Great comparisons, thanks for the post!