ebook - with or without pictures ?

[NASCARaddicted]

Hello

Currently I am scanning some old child/youth books of mine. I want to read them on my ebook reader (Bebook). Many of this books contain drawings in black and white. (About every 3rd to 4th page shows a small picture and text) Now I am thinking: Shall I also scan the graphics and include them in the ebook ? Or should I remove them ?

Many times, the drawings help you to get into the story. But on the other side, the ebook file also becomes much bigger. However, some (but not all) of this drawings are great art, removing them would be a shame. But recently I tried to read a book with many graphics on the Bebook and it was kinda strange when suddenly a picture comes, instead of the text.

So what is your opinion ?

[zelda_pinwheel]

personally, i love illustrated books, and i think the illustrations really add to the story, if they are well done, particularly for children's books. if you have access to the original illustrations i think by all means you should include them. well-optimised scans shouldn't add too much to the file-size (it will still be counted in mo, not go) and with the cheap storage we can get now it's really not a problem. i vote definitely to keep them.

[desertgrandma]

Madame Z. I like the pics, but it isn't a dealbreaker, so I really don't mind either way.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Madame Z. I like the pics, but it isn't a dealbreaker, so I really don't mind either way.

well, i'm not sure it's a case of "dealbreaker" or not... but in a situation where you are scanning a book, and you want to choose whether to scan the images or not, it seems to me it would really be a shame to leave out the illustrations. there are a few illustrated books available here and they are really nice ! in fact i've made one which i have to upload... must remember to do that tomorrow !

[rogue_ronin]

Always err on the side of more information; saying 'no' now doesn't allow anyone to say 'yes' later. Saying 'yes' now, however, doesn't stop anyone from suppressing the images (ie: locally removing them, or CSSing them from displaying) if they wish, or if their hardware requires it, or if their personal situation demands it (blind, etc.)

If you're going to all the effort of scanning, it's the finishing touches, like pictures, formatting, et al, that distinguish really high-quality work. Be exceptional!

Plus, art! Art rocks!

m a r

[Ankh]

As far as I am concerned, if the reading software can deal with it, I have no problems with the size of the book. The SD storage is not only cheap, it is also measured in Gigabytes, isn't it?

I would scan illustrations with at least 200 DPI (the best resolution for current generation of e-ink devices).

[JSWolf]

The eBook I've upload titled The Adventures of Mya the Bee has illustrations and I think it's the better for having them. Yes th story can be read and understood just fine without them. But it is nicer to have them.

[HarryT]

The illustrations are just as much a part of the book as is the text. Please do include them.

[Sabardeyn]

Please do consider including everything from the outside front cover to the outside back cover - and everything in between,

One of the reasons that PDF as a format has been so hugely popular, is because it is widely recognized, usable with minimal fuss, and supported features that almost every type of ebook could use. This includes text, image handling, search, TOC, indexing, etc. Until ePUB has all or more of the same features, it cannot displace PDF as the defacto standard. However, ePUB will not acquire these additional features until, and unless, their is a demonstrated need for them to be included.

No matter which format you plan to use, eventually its capabilities and limitations are recognized. Consumer reaction, positive or negative, has the most affect on manufacturers. Since the publishing industry is using ePUB internally, eventually anything any of the other formats need will be supplied through ePUB.

[NASCARaddicted]

well, I thought about using 3 different formats. Html or txt for the text itself. As far as I know, when it comes to text formatting, html is better.
Also, I want to save it as pdf - just like you said: it is widely recognized.

And the 3rd file would be mobi, for my ebook reader. However, I only have it since about 2 weeks, so I still have to check different file formats like lit or epub.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by NASCARaddicted

well, I thought about using 3 different formats. Html or txt for the text itself. As far as I know, when it comes to text formatting, html is better.
Also, I want to save it as pdf - just like you said: it is widely recognized.

And the 3rd file would be mobi, for my ebook reader. However, I only have it since about 2 weeks, so I still have to check different file formats like lit or epub.

definitely definitely use html instead of txt ! txt does not permit any formatting, nor images. html will be a far better source.

and, if you are working from html, it makes it very easy to create an epub book ; this is basically (x)html + css, but has the advantage (over basic html) of being *one* file with everything (images, text, etc.) contained inside, rather than having the images separate, and also being very safe and "future proof" for archival purposes. in fact, i see you have a bebook, i was under the impression that bebook can read epub natively ? in that case, no need to make a mobipocket file, unless this is a book in the public domain and you wanted to share it here.

[NASCARaddicted]

thanks for all the infos

Yes, I think the Bebook can handle epub. (I am not sure, but I think when it comes to different file formats, I think Bebook is the best. Some e-readers only support like 2-3 formats, Bebook can handle much more, right ?) But like I said, I am still pretty new when it comes to the Bebook, and so far I thought that mobi would be the best. I guess I should also take a longer look at epub. Especially since mobi seems to have problems with the page numberings (like I am on Page 490 of 551, turn one page ahead and then I am on page 551 of 551 ....) If epub can handle this better, I guess I will switch to epub. (by the way: does anyone of you like or dislike lit files ?)

[zelda_pinwheel]

i buy lit files for converting if no epub version is available, because lit is a very thin wrapper over an html core so usually gives good results. i don't have any experience with it on a device but i've heard it's not very well supported.

epub is a superior format to mobipocket for many reasons ; you should definitely prefer that for your personal use. there are many formatting options in epub which are not at all supported by mobipocket. also, mobipocket uses a lot of odd proprietary code, which it's best to avoid. epub is an open format and uses just xhtml and css, this means you can get excellent formatting results and not worry about your files becoming obsolete / inaccessible.

take a look in the epub forum for more info and don't hesitate to ask any questions, we have some real pros around here.

[netseeker]

if the original illustrations are available then the ebook should include the illustrations too imho.

[NASCARaddicted]

the reasons why I thought that mobi is better then epub is: the faq of Calibre.

In this faq it says: "What are the best source formats to convert?

In order of decreasing preference: LIT, MOBI, EPUB, HTML, PRC, RTF, TXT, PDF"

When I saw that I thought: if the 2nd best source is Mobi, then I guess it should also be pretty good as the output file. Well, my first ebook that I read on my Bebook was a conversation from lit to mobi. Like I said, the mobi file jumped from 490 to 551, but I think that is a mobi problem, so I am open for a change. Maybe I should take a look at the same book, on how it looks in epub.