Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Formats > Workshop

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 11-28-2011, 12:42 PM   #1
HarryT
eBook Enthusiast
HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
HarryT's Avatar
 
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
The importance of proofing against printed texts

My experiences in proof-reading Edgar Rice Burroughs's "A Princess of Mars" provide a good illustration of the importance of proofing against a printed text (or, at least, a decent scanned PDF of a printed edition). Although the Project Gutenberg text of this book is, from a nominal reading, in very good shape, I've so far come across two instances where words are missing from the book; in both cases it appears that a complete line has been omitted. Neither case could have been detected simply by reading the eBook, since it just so happens that the sentences concerned make sense without the text that's missing.

So, the moral of the story is to ALWAYS proof against printed editions!

What I generally do myself, if I can't find a scan at Google Books or archive.org, is to buy the cheapest 2nd-hand edition I can on eBay or Amazon, proof-read against it, and then re-sell it.
HarryT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-28-2011, 02:21 PM   #2
dynabook
Techno-geek
dynabook ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dynabook ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dynabook ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dynabook ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dynabook ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dynabook ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dynabook ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dynabook ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dynabook ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dynabook ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dynabook ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 225
Karma: 1116651
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Mississippi, USA
Device: PRS-T1 (Black), PRS-T3S (Black), Kobo Aura ONE
I, for one, appreciate all the effort you put into your editions HarryT. Isn't it a sad commentary that we have to buy printed (dead-tree) books to correct e-editions?
--MH
dynabook is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 11-28-2011, 02:45 PM   #3
HarryT
eBook Enthusiast
HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
HarryT's Avatar
 
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
Not really, no. PG texts are, after all, created from printed books. What, other than a printed book, could they be proof-read against?
HarryT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-06-2011, 04:28 AM   #4
SBT
Fanatic
SBT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.SBT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.SBT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.SBT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.SBT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.SBT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.SBT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.SBT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.SBT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.SBT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.SBT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
SBT's Avatar
 
Posts: 580
Karma: 810184
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Norway
Device: prs-t1, tablet, Nook Simple, assorted kindles, iPad
I like making an HTML two-column table and putting page scans in the left column and the OCR text in the right. Then I can import it into LibreOffice and proofread it there. I'm in the process of describing how I do it over in this thread.
Are there any proof-reading solutions that does something similar?
SBT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-09-2011, 06:43 AM   #5
Karl Murks
Member
Karl Murks began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 10
Karma: 10
Join Date: Dec 2011
Device: none
Uh.. so what?

Printed books occasionally miss lines, too.

I recently came across a book where I had two different editions, one I knew was abridged. And guess what: In the supposedly original edition I also found two places where single lines were missing!

So I guess it's obvious what happened here: The book was scanned from an edition where some printing error happened.
Karl Murks is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 12-09-2011, 06:57 AM   #6
HarryT
eBook Enthusiast
HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
HarryT's Avatar
 
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karl Murks View Post
Uh.. so what?
So, some people like to have the complete text. If you don't, that's fine and dandy, but I do.
HarryT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-15-2011, 03:19 PM   #7
Karl Murks
Member
Karl Murks began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 10
Karma: 10
Join Date: Dec 2011
Device: none
There's no guarantee that any printed version you get is complete as well. Mistakes happen. If you get 3 versions of a text you most likely will get 3 different sets of accidental omissions.

You draw the completely wrong conclusion from this because you only can guarantee that you proofed against the one version of the text you have but how do you know that this version is complete?
Karl Murks is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-16-2011, 03:39 AM   #8
HarryT
eBook Enthusiast
HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
HarryT's Avatar
 
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karl Murks View Post
You draw the completely wrong conclusion from this because you only can guarantee that you proofed against the one version of the text you have but how do you know that this version is complete?
I don't, of course, but a commercially published book is unlikely to have the issue with missing text that plagued the early "Project Gutenberg" texts that were typed in by hand, where the transcriber would not infrequently skip over sentences, paragraphs, or even complete pages.

For example, when I was proofing my eBook edition of Charles Dickens's "The Old Curiosity Shop" I found two places in the book where a complete double page of text had been omitted. Nearly all the free or low-cost eBook editions you'll find of "The Old Curiosity Shop" have this error in them.
HarryT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-16-2011, 10:24 AM   #9
Jellby
frumious Bandersnatch
Jellby ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Jellby ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Jellby ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Jellby ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Jellby ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Jellby ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Jellby ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Jellby ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Jellby ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Jellby ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Jellby ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Jellby's Avatar
 
Posts: 7,514
Karma: 18512745
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Spaniard in Sweden
Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura
Besides, corrections should always be applied with a minimum of critical thought. If I see a difference between a printed book and an electronic text, I'll choose whatever looks more likely to be correct. It will often be the printed book, but not necessarily always.
Jellby is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-16-2011, 10:46 AM   #10
HarryT
eBook Enthusiast
HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
HarryT's Avatar
 
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jellby View Post
Besides, corrections should always be applied with a minimum of critical thought. If I see a difference between a printed book and an electronic text, I'll choose whatever looks more likely to be correct. It will often be the printed book, but not necessarily always.
Absolutely. One should never apply corrections blindly.
HarryT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-17-2011, 09:11 AM   #11
Rob Lister
Fanatic
Rob Lister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rob Lister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rob Lister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rob Lister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rob Lister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rob Lister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rob Lister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rob Lister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rob Lister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rob Lister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rob Lister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 532
Karma: 3293888
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Virginia
Device: Nook Simple Touch
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
My experiences in proof-reading Edgar Rice Burroughs's "A Princess of Mars" provide a good illustration of the importance of proofing against a printed text (or, at least, a decent scanned PDF of a printed edition). Although the Project Gutenberg text of this book is, from a nominal reading, in very good shape, I've so far come across two instances where words are missing from the book; in both cases it appears that a complete line has been omitted. Neither case could have been detected simply by reading the eBook, since it just so happens that the sentences concerned make sense without the text that's missing.

So, the moral of the story is to ALWAYS proof against printed editions!

What I generally do myself, if I can't find a scan at Google Books or archive.org, is to buy the cheapest 2nd-hand edition I can on eBay or Amazon, proof-read against it, and then re-sell it.
Did you submit an errata to PG? I looked through the archives of 'other files' at PG and ... wow, that was an early one! I didn't know we had computers back then. I see nothing on DP so the transcription presumably didn't come from them.
Rob Lister is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-17-2011, 03:53 PM   #12
DaleDe
Grand Sorcerer
DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
DaleDe's Avatar
 
Posts: 11,470
Karma: 13095790
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Grass Valley, CA
Device: EB 1150, EZ Reader, Literati, iPad 2 & Air 2, iPhone 7
The first Project Gutenberg book was produced in 1971. It was hand typed in.
DaleDe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-17-2011, 10:53 PM   #13
Elfwreck
Grand Sorcerer
Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Elfwreck's Avatar
 
Posts: 5,185
Karma: 25133758
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA
Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3 (Past: Kobo Mini, PEZ, PRS-505, Clié)
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
For example, when I was proofing my eBook edition of Charles Dickens's "The Old Curiosity Shop" I found two places in the book where a complete double page of text had been omitted. Nearly all the free or low-cost eBook editions you'll find of "The Old Curiosity Shop" have this error in them.
I recently got a copy of "The Uncommercial Traveller" that has every single page folded at the top--they weren't cropped properly, and it's effectively unreadable. I know that some printings will have one or two pages that fail to be cropped, and those will stick together in scanners. (Well. Those would stick together in scanners eight to twelve years ago. Today's scanners tend to be more sensitive.)

The Gutenberg edition of "Fanny Hill" is packed with typos. A lot of the earlier books got barely any proofreading; while the recent ones tend to be great, the earlier ones--which means, any very popular classic--are all questionable & should be checked against hard copy. They can be checked against image scans, which will cover everything except pages that weren't scanned, or were missing in the original.
Elfwreck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-18-2011, 04:03 AM   #14
HarryT
eBook Enthusiast
HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
HarryT's Avatar
 
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
Yes, unfortunately it's the extremely popular classics that tend to have the most errors at PG, since they were manually typed in, not scanned. That was the prime motivation for my on-going "complete works of Dickens" project here at MR: the fact that most Dickens at PG is in very poor shape.
HarryT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-20-2011, 02:56 PM   #15
mikaelalind
Fanatic
mikaelalind ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mikaelalind ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mikaelalind ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mikaelalind ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mikaelalind ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mikaelalind ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mikaelalind ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mikaelalind ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mikaelalind ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mikaelalind ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mikaelalind ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
mikaelalind's Avatar
 
Posts: 590
Karma: 788068
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Sweden
Device: Sony PRS 505, Cybook Odessey
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
Absolutely. One should never apply corrections blindly.
And that is the problem I am having with a book I am proofreading. There is one word that have lost the first three letters. And the remaining four doesn't help. sigh.
And the book is out of print, and not even the royal library has it. Right now, I am tempted to leave the typo.
mikaelalind is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Proofing Term Papers Mjaydakid Amazon Kindle 3 05-06-2011 11:17 AM
DRM and future proofing in the UK spinningdoc Which one should I buy? 11 05-03-2011 06:34 PM
Future-proofing my username... bornagainpenguin Introduce Yourself 6 01-18-2010 02:26 AM
OK to use a recent edition for proofing? Sparrow Workshop 5 07-16-2009 10:30 AM
Future proofing and LRF... Student1 Calibre 5 03-26-2009 08:11 AM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:54 PM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.