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Author Topic: Book Formats - Why is this forum stick in PDF mode?  (Read 56121 times)

Offline Mr. Greyfox

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Book Formats - Why is this forum stick in PDF mode?
« on: August 24, 2011, 04:52 PM »
I've been collecting eBooks ever since the Franklin eBookman came out (read: for ages) and in all my travels through legit, questionable, or downright illegal channels, people seem to understand the NEED for reflowable text, able to be converted LOSSLESSLY between formats. 

Except you guys.

Now, I probably don't need to say this, but ... Reflowable text is to like a vector-based image: you can manipulate it, re-size it, and -most importantly- convert it between formats for use on different devices without losses in fidelity or cascading artifacts. Once a book is rendered to PDF it is forever bound to the hard line breaks, page-breaks, hyphenation, and, in some extreme cases, interspersed headers and footers created during the conversion process.  Any attempt to convert it back, even with Calibre's heuristic processing or XY-based mashing, results in HUGE losses in formatting and line-break issues that make it either unreadable or too undesirable to read. 

So, I ask:
Why does this form seem so attached to PDF? Why not Why not upload in a rich, convertible format and let people irreversibly render the books to PDF if they so choose? I'm not asking anyone to cater to any particular format or device... just that more versatile, convertible formats be posted if you have them. 

UPDATE: 8 months later...:
Since I posted this, the balance of PDF's to more modern, reflowable formats like mobi and epub has been slowly shifting towards the latter.  I'd like to pretend I had something to do with it ;) but I know it's more likely just a result of a broader, internet-wide adoption of the formats.  As more people use them, they're easier to find, and therefore easier to share. Still, if you haven't made the switch from PDF to ePub or Mobi, I BEG you to pull your head from your ass and see what you've been missing. Not only are they easier to share, they offer a re-sizable and flat-out better reading experience (well, except for text books, but that's another thing ;) ).

As nikkimiller01 suggested, here's some information which should help you make the switch, originally posted by Jessadia: 

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Honestly, if you can read a PDF on your computer, then you can certainly read an ePub or Mobi file. What do you currently have downloaded as your reading program? Adobe Reader? If you like that one Adobe also has a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login download for free that allows you to view ePubs seamlessly (unlike with PDF's) and its FREE. There's also You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login a free Mobi reader from Amazon (no kindle necessary), a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login that allows you to read ePubs (also free), a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login (again- FREE!) and you can also both convert and read ANY FORMAT with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login that's (yes, again) FREE!!!

And if you really want to read PDF (WHY?!) you can download Calibre and convert it yourself or you can go You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login and (again) convert it yourself online (no downloads necessary).
« Last Edit: April 15, 2012, 01:28 AM by greyfox »
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madambutterfly

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Re: Book Formats - Why is this forum stick in PDF mode?
« Reply #41 on: May 06, 2015, 05:39 AM »
I read all formats of e-book and found a handy little prog called Sumatra to be very good with pdf, epub and mobi :)
 

Offline Ellachanted

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Re: Book Formats - Why is this forum stick in PDF mode?
« Reply #42 on: May 08, 2015, 04:31 PM »
*whispers* I have been complaining about this since I started here.  And on Facebook. I mostly read fanfiction and I started with mobi format for my Kindle but everyone else downloaded PDF. It was almost unreadable when I would convert them. If they convert. Half the early ones were just pictures of the pages. So not actual text that could be converted. Enter calibre and the fanfiction downloader. Suddenly people are using epubs more because you can grab all sorts of wonderful metadata with it but only in the epubs format. Epubs easily convert to almost anything. I love epubs. They are smaller in file size, so they take less space on your computer.  And I can read them on everything but my Kindle. I can easily change text size when reading. It is really a perfect format. 

I really hate PDFs.   :P
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Offline Matron

Re: Book Formats - Why is this forum stick in PDF mode?
« Reply #43 on: May 10, 2015, 07:40 PM »
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*whispers* I have been complaining about this since I started here.  And on Facebook. I mostly read fanfiction and I started with mobi format for my Kindle but everyone else downloaded PDF. It was almost unreadable when I would convert them. If they convert. Half the early ones were just pictures of the pages. So not actual text that could be converted. Enter calibre and the fanfiction downloader. Suddenly people are using epubs more because you can grab all sorts of wonderful metadata with it but only in the epubs format. Epubs easily convert to almost anything. I love epubs. They are smaller in file size, so they take less space on your computer.  And I can read them on everything but my Kindle. I can easily change text size when reading. It is really a perfect format. 

I really hate PDFs.   :P

Same PDFs. They don't convert well, and I have yet to find an app for my tablet that displays them properly, and lets me do things like change the font size and background color to something easier on the eyes.
 
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Offline Ellachanted

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Re: Book Formats - Why is this forum stick in PDF mode?
« Reply #44 on: May 11, 2015, 10:18 AM »
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Same PDFs. They don't convert well, and I have yet to find an app for my tablet that displays them properly, and lets me do things like change the font size and background color to something easier on the eyes.
I know what you mean.  I am still looking for one. 
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