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Old 02-07-2011, 10:47 PM   #1
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How come ebooks are "shorter" than pbooks?

I've noticed that the ebook "page" count is usually shorter than the corresponding pbook edition of the book. Does anyone know why this is? I think it's a little odd!
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Old 02-07-2011, 10:50 PM   #2
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It's a secret conspiracy; a ghost of Reader's Digest Condensed Books back from the '70s to save e-publishers a few bytes.

I think they thought you'd never notice...
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Old 02-08-2011, 12:46 AM   #3
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Numbers of pages are pretty arbitrary on paper books. They're competely meaningless on an ebook. I wish there was a way of getting number of screens of text, but even that's arbitrary when you can change the font size.
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Old 02-08-2011, 01:35 AM   #4
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Probably it is just the extra pages in a pbook - mostly they have a few pages at the start and end which are blank or have publishers information. But I think the Readers Digest solution above sounds most convincing!
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Old 02-08-2011, 02:22 AM   #5
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From what I hear, the page numbers in ebooks are somehow calculated... every X characters, or something like that. So the result of that would be different from the paper book (which isn't written in stone, anyway; it may differ between editions).
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Old 02-08-2011, 07:44 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jessicalynn View Post
I've noticed that the ebook "page" count is usually shorter than the corresponding pbook edition of the book. Does anyone know why this is? I think it's a little odd!
Really? All my ebooks are thousands of pages long.

Of course, I'm reading on my phone.
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Old 02-08-2011, 10:35 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by taustin View Post
Numbers of pages are pretty arbitrary on paper books. They're competely meaningless on an ebook. I wish there was a way of getting number of screens of text, but even that's arbitrary when you can change the font size.
That's one thing I like about my Sony 505 - if I'm reading a book in LRF format, page numbers do correspond to screens of text - and yes, it changes depending on font size.
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Old 02-08-2011, 02:37 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by Lemurion View Post
That's one thing I like about my Sony 505 - if I'm reading a book in LRF format, page numbers do correspond to screens of text - and yes, it changes depending on font size.
Score one over the Nook, then, I guess. Unfortunately, the page numbers seem to be hard-coded in to the .epub file. Fortunately, I don't actually care all that much.
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Old 02-08-2011, 03:42 PM   #9
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The nice thing about having the page numbers at set points in the book (like on the nook) is that I can move between my iPhone and Nook and easily find the place I left off on. I keep the font sizes different on each, so page numbers based on screens wouldn't allow me to do this. (I also keep the wi-fi off on my nook, so that syncing feature doesn't work)

As far as why the page numbers are different, the eBook edition might be based off the hardcover edition so the page numbering would be different from the paperback edition or any other editions that come out.
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Old 02-08-2011, 03:44 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jessicalynn View Post
I've noticed that the ebook "page" count is usually shorter than the corresponding pbook edition of the book. Does anyone know why this is? I think it's a little odd!
I'm not sure what you mean by "shorter"...? Are you talking about the number of pages you "turn" on your Nook? If that's the case, it could just be because you're reading at a smaller font size, so you'll have fewer pages than the pbook counterpart. Or are you talking about actual page numbers?
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Old 02-08-2011, 04:52 PM   #11
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Really? All my ebooks are thousands of pages long.

Of course, I'm reading on my phone.
I know, Passage by Justin Cronin, was like 5000 pages. LOL
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Old 02-09-2011, 05:28 AM   #12
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paperbacks

I know that in paperbacks, due to the binding process, there is certain numbers of pages that are more beneficial, ie waste less space. There is also font and layout differences. That is why when you look at the same classic paperback book there can be pretty big differences in size.

I would say word count is a better judgement of actual length.


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Old 02-09-2011, 07:29 AM   #13
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Unfortunately, the page numbers seem to be hard-coded in to the .epub file.
Usually that's not the case. The "page" numbers are computed by the reader in a fixed way (independent of screen, font or margin size), the .epub file itself has nothing about page numbers. This is true for Adobe-based readers and, although Adobe has some proprietary way to actually code page numbers into the .epub, I don't think there are many files around using it.
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Old 02-09-2011, 11:53 AM   #14
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Originally Posted by queentess View Post
I'm not sure what you mean by "shorter"...? Are you talking about the number of pages you "turn" on your Nook? If that's the case, it could just be because you're reading at a smaller font size, so you'll have fewer pages than the pbook counterpart. Or are you talking about actual page numbers?
I mean the actual page numbers. I noticed it when I was updating my status on goodreads a few times. The book would say it was 300 something on my nook and the paper version would say it was 450 pages or something like that.
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Old 02-16-2011, 11:27 AM   #15
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That's one thing I like about my Sony 505 - if I'm reading a book in LRF format, page numbers do correspond to screens of text - and yes, it changes depending on font size.
This also works with plain text and RTF on the Sony 505. When it comes to page numbering, I prefer it to refer to pages of text.

Since page reformatting has such an effect on the length of an ebook, I think a better way to indicate a position in an ebook is to use a percentage number, taken to two decimal places. Regardess of the way the ebook is formatted, the percentage number indicates the position of the top line on the page. As an example, "75.35%" would indicate that the top line on the screen is roughly three-quarters of the way through the ebook.

The advantage of using a percentage figure is that it is easily understood, and allows you to access the same point on the ebook between various ereader. It can also be calculated independent of the specific ebook format.
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