tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8903848080840259127.post6828024706387872653..comments2024-02-16T14:10:12.166+08:00Comments on Bibliophile Stalker: Essay: The Politics of eBook FormatsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8903848080840259127.post-16021275733634000242011-02-18T06:54:24.799+08:002011-02-18T06:54:24.799+08:00And at the end of the day, I don't have a solu...And at the end of the day, I don't have a solution (i.e. if we don't use .epub, what do we use?).Charleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02773038335190893557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8903848080840259127.post-49790683552191349292011-02-18T06:23:30.709+08:002011-02-18T06:23:30.709+08:00Hi Cheryl. I'm not against ePub per se, althou...Hi Cheryl. I'm not against ePub per se, although I do know its limits, depending on the type of book you're trying to put out. (I read ePub too.)<br /><br />Oh, in terms of layout, I agree with you (ePub vs. PDF). You need an actual graphic designer for the latter, at least if you want it to look good and not something that came out of Microsoft Word, while ePub simply involves coding on your part.Charleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02773038335190893557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8903848080840259127.post-40684554301225612182011-02-18T06:16:10.436+08:002011-02-18T06:16:10.436+08:00Hi Charles,
I understand where you are coming fro...Hi Charles,<br /><br />I understand where you are coming from here, and you are absolutely right that existing ebook formats are only useful for certain types of book, but I fail to understand why you are so down on EPUB.<br /><br />Doc and PDF are both proprietary formats, though you can get free readers for both. RTF is an open standard, and you can sort of read it in a text editor. EPUB is also an open standard. Again you can get a variety of free programs that will read it. And if you have access to something that can unzip a file then you can decompose it to the component HTML very easily. As long as the file is DRM-free, there's no great barrier to reading it except owning a computer, but that's true for any file format.<br /><br />MOBI is a different matter, of course. Amazon wants lock-in.<br /><br />I'll grant there is education required. As Alisa and I discussed, many people don't know that they can read an EPUB on any PC. But in that case why not try to educate people rather than making EPUB out to be something evil that people need to avoid?<br /><br />Oh,and you don't need to hire a graphic designer to make an EPUB for a text-only book. If you can write simple HTML you can make an ebook. One of many reasons why I don't do PDF is the enormous extra cost of doing a decent job.Cherylhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09328347167113836522noreply@blogger.com