Buying a Sony, want to prepare

[garbanzo]

Greetings!

In about 6 weeks I'll be in the US, where I intend to pick up a PRS-600. In the meantime, I want to prepare my current collection.

I have a few hundred ebooks right now, all in TXT format. They are optimized for use on my PSP (ugh).

What I am interested in learning is how well the PRS-600 works with plain text, and whether or not I should consider converting to epub.

I don't care about TOC, images, fancy title pages, or any of the extended features that the epub format offers. I just want the words.

But I am particularly concerned about character encoding issues (especially quotation marks, dashes, non-Latin, etc) and formatting issues (line breaks, justification, etc), since these are the problems I experienced when formatting TXT for use on my PSP.

So the question is - keep in TXT or convert to epub?

Thanks!

(Also - how do Google's epub books look on the PRS-600? Do they work well 'out of the box' without additional tweaking?)

[dreams]

Welcome to MR, garbanzo. How exciting to be getting a new Reader. I don't have any experience with formatting, I just prefer to have it usable as soon as it is downloaded. Hopefully, a more experience member will be able to answer that for you. But, in the meantime...

I believe that you can go ahead and download the Sony Reader Library program to your computer to start setting up your ebooks. You can even explore using Calibre and Kovid, the creator, frequents the forums here. We even have a dedicated Calibre forum.

Did you know that MR has free ebooks? They have been beautifully handcrafted by some very dedicated MR members. (I believe that they are better formatted than Google books.)

BBeB (Sony lrf format) and ePub format

Free ebook sites

feedbooks.com
manybooks.net

Free and for purchase ebooks

smashwords.com
baen.com
Plus Baen has a great free library

Have fun exploring the forums and ask if you have any questions.

[Bremen Cole]

I join dreams in welcoming you to mobilereads

I also second the idea of getting Calibre. If you plan to buy ebooks from the Sony store then you would need to install the Sony software, if not then just use Calibre. Calibre can format your books nicely into ePubs. Note in the convert setup you can set the margins, and be sure to select your PRS-600 has the output to format too. Just play with a few books to set it up the way you like, and then you can bulk format.

Since you have a PSP, you probably have an AC charger that will also charge your new reader. If your current charger has the round "barrel" type connection, it will also work on your reader. It is preferred to charge it that way, as opposed to the USB.

I do not where you are located, but i assume outside the US. Booksonboard is a good shop (adding too the ones dream suggested) and Kobo is good, but not aware if you will be able to buy from them being outside the US.

Have fun getting all set up!

[Dr. Drib]

Welcome Garbanzo.

Dreams has provided you with a wonderful source of information, all in one post, for which I want to thank her.

If you have any questions, ask away!

Don
(Moderator)

[ficbot]

I have found that I get the best results in Calibre if I convert from HTML. I too had plain text files and here is what I have found words well:

1) Cut and paste all the text from the text document into a word document
2) Save it as HTML
3) Open it in Firefox and cut all text again (this removes any funky formatting from Word)
4) Paste this into a plain HTML document (I use the free program Kompozer) and save
5) Open with free program Test Wrangler; search for <br><br><br> and replace with <br><br> (this removes extra line breaks between paragraphs
6) Save and import into Calibre; converts well to any format at this point

[garbanzo]

Wow, what a wonderfully friendly forum, that's a rarity these days

Thanks to all who replied, there is some useful information here. I'm realizing though that I really can't do much until i have the Reader in my hands so I can see which format works best for me. I've been reading the forum all day trying to sort things out - there is a lot to learn.

From what I've read, I might try to work with RTF format. It seems it would give me a bit more control over formatting than TXT. EPUB sounds nice, but all this talk about mystery line numbers is scaring me off. No other formats are very appealing right now.

So I guess I just sit tight until mid-March when I can actually load up some books and experiment! Who knows, maybe my TXT files will look good straight away...

Thanks again!

[tnronin]

Garbanzo welcome!

Here is some food for thought, check the forum for support issues for sony ereaders purchased in the states with followup for support outside of the US. I realize you might save some bucks, but in the long run these devices are built by men and support will be required. It hasn't been an issue for me but I did read a couple posts related to location of purchase and support outside the US. HTH

[garbanzo]

You're right tnronin, that's something I need to consider.

We do have Sony stores here (Budapest), and in fact I could easily buy the device here, but I save quite a lot of money buying it in the US. Plus, since I'm a US citizen, I can 'import' it without having to worry about duties

[tnronin]

Originally Posted by garbanzo

You're right tnronin, that's something I need to consider.

We do have Sony stores here (Budapest), and in fact I could easily buy the device here, but I save quite a lot of money buying it in the US. Plus, since I'm a US citizen, I can 'import' it without having to worry about duties

I guess if you have a "residence" to "use" here in the states you should be ok.

[chainring]

I'll echo the recommendations to convert txt > html > ePub or lrf. Where I differ is the use of Word for that task. Word creates incredibly bloated html, or at least it did up through the 2003 line. I recommend the free Amaya editor for html duties. It outputs clean html and is a fairly small installation.

[RonF]

Originally Posted by garbanzo

Wow, what a wonderfully friendly forum, that's a rarity these days

Just don't read any threads that have either DRM or Piracy in the titles and you will keep that sentiment <--- notice tongue in cheek

Originally Posted by garbanzo

From what I've read, I might try to work with RTF format. It seems it would give me a bit more control over formatting than TXT. EPUB sounds nice, but all this talk about mystery line numbers is scaring me off. No other formats are very appealing right now.

Thanks again!

Don't write off any format until you actually see them yourself on your reader. For every 1 that dislikes ePub, you'll find 10 that love it. For every 1 that loves ePub, you'll find 10 that don't

And as far as the page numbers, I've enclosed a couple of pics showing the numbers. The screenshots show the page numbers a little darker than how it appears on the reader. I don't have any issues at all with the page numbers, but can understand why some do. I can ignore them easily enough. I also like the ePub formatting, but I tend to filter it through Calibre to get the right text size for myself. It is far from perfect, but not bad at all. Full justification would go a long way to making it the format of choice for many Sony readers.