05-07-2009, 09:15 AM | #16 | |
The curious one!
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To take a clue from my personal experience - For quite some time I did not think PDF was a good format, not reflowable and all that, I used to convert many of my pdf articles into mobi (figures and diagrams not being very essential for me) but the day I sat down to write an academic paper I realised that to provide quotes and cite references I had to quote a page number and reflow became a problem. The non-reflow nature of PDF which used to be the 'problem' became an 'advantage'. So, I had to admit to myself that PDF does have certain characterstics which is keeping it a defacto standard in professional and academic world. I guess, Amazon realized that KDX cannot do without it...while it can easily avoid epub. |
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05-07-2009, 09:18 AM | #17 |
reader
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The PDF viewer is incredibly basic, I don’t know why they needed Adobe Digital Editions SDK. All the PDF viewer does is clip the margins in portrait mode and clip the margins with continuous view in landscape mode (i.e. parts of two pages could be on the screen at once in landscape). This could easily have been done with open source code.
What is strange is no support for device wide PDF search (as there is for MOBI and Amazon ebooks). PDF to text is widely available (open source again), and this is needed for within-document search (which it has for PDFs and all other document types). The problem may be specifying locations accurately, because the DX also lacks note taking within PDFs - perhaps for the same reason. You don't need locations and context for within-document search because you just display the page on the screen (with highlighting). |
05-07-2009, 09:21 AM | #18 | |
Guru
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05-07-2009, 09:53 AM | #19 | |
Publishers are evil!
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I prefer ePub over mobi when it comes to a reflowable format, but I believe PDF files have their advantages as well. |
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05-07-2009, 10:00 AM | #20 |
reader
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Amazon may feel they have better legal cover buying PDF technology from Adobe. I have seen this from large companies before, it is easier to buy a cheap license now than get hit by lawsuits later. I don't think there are any lawsuits possible about PDF, but better safe than sorry.
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05-07-2009, 10:04 AM | #21 | |
Literacy = Understanding
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The status of Amazon in 10 years as regards ebooks and ebook reading devices is as speculative as whether iRex will be around in 10 years. |
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05-07-2009, 10:11 AM | #22 | |
Literacy = Understanding
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Besides, PDF has one advantage over all the other formats, especially for for nonfiction and technical books: it is exceedingly easy to create and thus reduces the costs. It is very costly to have to convert graphic-laden books to ePub or other formats as one has to then try to fix the errors that occur in the conversion, such as graphics shifting. |
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05-07-2009, 12:37 PM | #23 |
Guru
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But, Kindle was NEVER marketed as a generic e-book reader device. Those pieces of hardware were forever designed and sold as a ticket to Amazon service. Amazon does not care about interoperability with the rest of the world, nor does he, truth to be told, lie to us that it is otherwise.
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05-07-2009, 12:56 PM | #24 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Dale |
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05-07-2009, 01:37 PM | #25 |
Apeist
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Can someone explain, why so many are clamoring for EPUB?
It's a sincere question: I really don't know much about it, but from what I know, I don't see a reason for it. A PDF gives an accurate representation of a page on screen, preserving both fonts and design. It is as close as one gets to the printed page, and I believe, the best way to replace a printed page. I personally would rather see screen size standardization, showing pages as meant to be shown by the publisher, then reflowing. There is standardization for paper sizes, why not for screen sizes? But for those who desire, the new PDF SDK allows reflowing. In addition, PDF is already an established standard on the desktop. And, at least on a desktop, a PDF can be annotated, searched, stickies can be placed on it, and so on. Not sure if the current mobile version allows this, but if it doesn't, I'd imagine it will soon. So, again, isn't it better to establish a standard (and PDF currently seems to be the best one I've seen), instead of fragmenting an already confused market with new formats, like EPUB? |
05-07-2009, 01:39 PM | #26 | |
zeldinha zippy zeldissima
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you can just read the first page to get most of the pertinent information, i think. epub is really far superior to pdf for most ebook uses (there are some obvious exceptions, of course) in every way. |
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05-07-2009, 02:56 PM | #27 |
Wizard
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In what way it has a better screen? The resolution is smaller and the size is smaller. Both are e-ink ...
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05-07-2009, 02:58 PM | #28 | |
Wizard
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05-07-2009, 03:00 PM | #29 |
Grand Sorcerer
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05-07-2009, 03:16 PM | #30 | |
reader
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Last edited by wallcraft; 05-07-2009 at 04:31 PM. |
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