Adobe's Efforts

Stephen Cole · 07-31-2008, 10:41 PM

JUST A NOTE about Adobe and its involvement with ebooks. Adobe has been an exemplary partner in the way it has approached its ebook strategy in recent years. I know Digital Editions cops some flak sometimes; for DRM and compatibility glitches and some missing functionality. But the company has stuck with the ebook model.

Adobe's small Digital Editions team is a brainy, enthusiastic bunch, and they have a clear development pathway which will result, ultimately, in an incredibly useful ebook format. Digital Editions is a totally new application that's being built from the ground up.

Importantly, they've managed to achieve "reflow" in old PDFs, to make them usable for devices like Sony Reader. We shouldn't underestimate the enormity of these achievements. Adobe deserves credit for making it possible for a huge amount of legacy material to be read on 21st century devices.

And they're listening to users, which is not an altogether common phenomenon. Ric Wright, Jim Lester, Bill McCoy and Bentley Wolfe -- key members of the Digital Editions team -- are listening to, digesting and responding to users' thoughts via this forum and many others. They're also listening to partners like eBooks.com and to authors and publishers alike. The demands from each of these constituencies are huge and often conflicting, and it's Adobe's challenge to try and distill all that into an development plan that will translate into a pleasing experience and a reasonable return on investment.

By all means, keep the heat on Adobe (no sense letting people rest on their laurels!) but the DE team should be congratulated for a job well done.

Stephen
CEO, eBooks.com

Nate the great · 07-31-2008, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephen Cole

...
Importantly, they've managed to achieve "reflow" in old PDFs, to make them usable for devices like Sony Reader. We shouldn't underestimate the enormity of these achievements. Adobe deserves credit for making it possible for a huge amount of legacy material to be read on 21st century devices.
...
Stephen
CEO, eBooks.com

I don' see why this is so amazing. uBook can also reflow PDFs, and it's available on multiple platforms.

TadW · 08-01-2008, 01:17 AM

Can I use uBook to read PDFs on any dedicated reading device? It's not really important what platforms it supports if there is no e-book reader out there it does support.

acidzebra · 08-01-2008, 03:30 AM

I've never been a big fan of PDFs, if only for Adobe's 'read for free, create for $$$' strategy (which was cut off at the knees with the advent of tools like pdfcreator et al), the 'bloatiness' of the tools and plugins, the lame encryption/protection scheme.

Plus I think the reflowed documents usually look pretty damn awful with regards to line and paragraph breaks. I'll take a modern, open format any time.

DaleDe · 08-01-2008, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I don' see why this is so amazing. uBook can also reflow PDFs, and it's available on multiple platforms.

Text yes, images not quite so good.

Dale

07-31-2008, 10:41 PM	#1
Stephen Cole New Member Posts: 21 Karma: 739 Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Perth, Western Australia Device: Samsung Galaxy S7	Adobe's Efforts JUST A NOTE about Adobe and its involvement with ebooks. Adobe has been an exemplary partner in the way it has approached its ebook strategy in recent years. I know Digital Editions cops some flak sometimes; for DRM and compatibility glitches and some missing functionality. But the company has stuck with the ebook model. Adobe's small Digital Editions team is a brainy, enthusiastic bunch, and they have a clear development pathway which will result, ultimately, in an incredibly useful ebook format. Digital Editions is a totally new application that's being built from the ground up. Importantly, they've managed to achieve "reflow" in old PDFs, to make them usable for devices like Sony Reader. We shouldn't underestimate the enormity of these achievements. Adobe deserves credit for making it possible for a huge amount of legacy material to be read on 21st century devices. And they're listening to users, which is not an altogether common phenomenon. Ric Wright, Jim Lester, Bill McCoy and Bentley Wolfe -- key members of the Digital Editions team -- are listening to, digesting and responding to users' thoughts via this forum and many others. They're also listening to partners like eBooks.com and to authors and publishers alike. The demands from each of these constituencies are huge and often conflicting, and it's Adobe's challenge to try and distill all that into an development plan that will translate into a pleasing experience and a reasonable return on investment. By all means, keep the heat on Adobe (no sense letting people rest on their laurels!) but the DE team should be congratulated for a job well done. Stephen CEO, eBooks.com Last edited by Stephen Cole; 07-31-2008 at 11:22 PM.

08-01-2008, 03:30 AM	#4
acidzebra Liseuse Lover Posts: 869 Karma: 1035404 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Netherlands Device: PRS-505	I've never been a big fan of PDFs, if only for Adobe's 'read for free, create for $$$' strategy (which was cut off at the knees with the advent of tools like pdfcreator et al), the 'bloatiness' of the tools and plugins, the lame encryption/protection scheme. Plus I think the reflowed documents usually look pretty damn awful with regards to line and paragraph breaks. I'll take a modern, open format any time. Last edited by acidzebra; 08-01-2008 at 03:33 AM.

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08-01-2008, 01:17 AM	#3
TadW Uebermensch Posts: 2,583 Karma: 1094606 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Italy Device: Kindle	Can I use uBook to read PDFs on any dedicated reading device? It's not really important what platforms it supports if there is no e-book reader out there it does support.

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