Crappy images within books

jswinden · 06-19-2012, 04:58 PM

I attached a sample page from a book I recently purchased. This is a screen capture taken off of my Kindle Touch. The book is Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea by Noah Andre Trudeau. It is a history book of the American Civil War with lots of maps included. Unfortunately, not one of these maps is readable on my Kindle. The publisher is HarperCollins Publishers and those jerks should know how to create ebooks, though they obviously don't, or don't give a hoot. Not only have they screwed up the table of contents by using separate paragraphs for chapter numbers and chapter titles which causes only the numbers to appear in the TOC, they have screwed up every image in the book (so far). The images seem to be way undersized and thus zoomed during the compiling process. A publisher like HarperCollins Publishers should know better and they should hire competent technicians to build their ebooks. The book cost $12.99 USD before taxes.

Other than the poor quality of images the book itself--the text--is really good.

Jessica Lares · 06-19-2012, 07:35 PM

Wow... They look as bad as that in the Cloud Reader. That is a shame.

wallcraft · 06-19-2012, 07:45 PM

Sometimes the ePub has better images, but in this case the ePub version is bad too.

JSWolf · 06-19-2012, 08:28 PM

I downloaded the sample from B&N to check out the ePub. But the sample cuts out before any of the maps are actually shown.

jswinden · 06-19-2012, 08:53 PM

I haven't deDRMed the mobi, but I suspect the publisher used undersized images and then they got sized up during the compile process. I've got a couple math books on Amazon.com which make extensive use of images for equations. If you use images that are too small, say 200 pixels wide, they will get resized and start to look pixelated. I find using images that are around 500 px wide keeps this from occuring and the images look clean and sharp in the book--that is assuming they were clean and sharp to begin with. I would not be surprised if the images in this history book were low grade to begin with. Perhaps they were scanned and converted as well as being undersized. At any rate, the publisher should be ashamed of such sloppy work.

RainingLemur · 06-20-2012, 12:10 AM

Wow. That's pretty crappy, pardon my French.

And, even more-so for what the Cloud-reader displays. I have a book that is HEAVY with images, and they look really good (albeit small, considering the screen size) on the Kindle and fantastic in the Cloud reader.

AnemicOak · 06-20-2012, 12:38 AM

Those are really bad. Too bad, sounds like a book I'd like to read.

Here's just the image from the sample, really very poor. They should be ashamed for selling such complete crap.

06-19-2012, 04:58 PM	#1
jswinden Nameless Being	Crappy images within books I attached a sample page from a book I recently purchased. This is a screen capture taken off of my Kindle Touch. The book is Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea by Noah Andre Trudeau. It is a history book of the American Civil War with lots of maps included. Unfortunately, not one of these maps is readable on my Kindle. The publisher is HarperCollins Publishers and those jerks should know how to create ebooks, though they obviously don't, or don't give a hoot. Not only have they screwed up the table of contents by using separate paragraphs for chapter numbers and chapter titles which causes only the numbers to appear in the TOC, they have screwed up every image in the book (so far). The images seem to be way undersized and thus zoomed during the compiling process. A publisher like HarperCollins Publishers should know better and they should hire competent technicians to build their ebooks. The book cost $12.99 USD before taxes. Other than the poor quality of images the book itself--the text--is really good. Attached Thumbnails

06-19-2012, 07:35 PM	#2
Jessica Lares Wizard Posts: 2,240 Karma: 5759170 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Near Dallas, Texas, USA Device: iPad Mini, iPod Touch (5th gen)	Wow... They look as bad as that in the Cloud Reader. That is a shame. Attached Thumbnails

06-20-2012, 12:38 AM	#7
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	Those are really bad. Too bad, sounds like a book I'd like to read. Here's just the image from the sample, really very poor. They should be ashamed for selling such complete crap. Attached Thumbnails

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
pdfmanipulate is crappy	Bryan Higgins	Calibre	8	11-11-2011 01:43 AM
Crappy epub font - any way to change?	thinkpad	ePub	6	12-04-2010 04:12 AM
Images in books not loading?	KyCowboy	Sony Reader	3	05-20-2010 06:09 AM
What do you when someone gives you a REALLY crappy Christmas present?	HarryT	Lounge	26	01-02-2010 10:41 PM
Penguin Producing Crappy eBooks?	Gideon	News	39	08-15-2009 10:37 PM

06-19-2012, 07:45 PM	#3
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,977 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	Sometimes the ePub has better images, but in this case the ePub version is bad too.

06-19-2012, 08:28 PM	#4
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,732 Karma: 145864619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I downloaded the sample from B&N to check out the ePub. But the sample cuts out before any of the maps are actually shown.

06-19-2012, 08:53 PM	#5
jswinden Nameless Being	I haven't deDRMed the mobi, but I suspect the publisher used undersized images and then they got sized up during the compile process. I've got a couple math books on Amazon.com which make extensive use of images for equations. If you use images that are too small, say 200 pixels wide, they will get resized and start to look pixelated. I find using images that are around 500 px wide keeps this from occuring and the images look clean and sharp in the book--that is assuming they were clean and sharp to begin with. I would not be surprised if the images in this history book were low grade to begin with. Perhaps they were scanned and converted as well as being undersized. At any rate, the publisher should be ashamed of such sloppy work.

06-20-2012, 12:10 AM	#6
RainingLemur Spork Connoisseur Posts: 2,355 Karma: 16780603 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: Nook Color	Wow. That's pretty crappy, pardon my French. And, even more-so for what the Cloud-reader displays. I have a book that is HEAVY with images, and they look really good (albeit small, considering the screen size) on the Kindle and fantastic in the Cloud reader.

Advert

Advert