>> Ascerbic Levine
>>The reader is the one with the final control over how an EPUB looks, not the developer.
>>The reader picks the fonts, the reader picks the size, the reader picks the orientation of the device.
Nonsense. The developer chooses the sizes and positions of the images, whether the text flows past images, the relative sizes of the text, the type of font, the italisation or boldness of fonts, whether the Greek and Hebrew fonts are presented correctly (as images!), the positions of hieroglyps in the text, the justification of headings and text, lines and line-spacing, the indentation of text etc: etc: etc: etc:
The developer can and will destroy the presentation and layout of a book in one easy move - and sorting out these many problems and errors at arms length, with someone who knows nothing about literature or publishing, is a nightmare of biblical proportions.
>>Jongware
>> This already exists. It's called "PDF" (a funny side note in that is that's an Adobe invention). There is no
>>"straight translation" possible from book to e-book. If you think there is, use a PDF, because
>>that is a flat out translation.
Yes, and if Apple and Kindle had chosed PDFs as the standard file type for ebooks, there would be no problems. We can control the layout of a PDF through InDesign, and the iPad will display a PDF book exactly as we design it - INCLUDING ALL OUR STRANGE FONTS AND HIEROGLYPS. A pdf is the perfect solution, and there is only one small problem with this ebook Nirvana - both Apple and Kindle will not sell straight PDFs.....
As an aside, why the hell cannot epub display strange fonts, when pdf can? Why is this basic function such an insurmountable problem?
>>Jongware
>>The reason it is not possible is because an e-pub is reflowable, resizable, reformattable,
>>reviewable, etc. etc., as Bob, possibly ascerbic or carping, but yet entirely correctly, remarks.
>>It is a different kind of text, with its own set of features -- and limitations as well.
We don't care if epubs are flowable or resizeable (PDFs are also rezieable, you just increase the magnification). In fact, a well-made epub book is quite a good platform for reading books (except it is crap at tabbing and tables).
What we do care about, is that if I say to InDesign - 'make epub' - it will not translate Greek or Hebrew fonts, it sticks the hieroglips from chapter 3 into chapter 4, it puts page numbers into a flowable text, it cannot understand indents, tables or italisation, it left justifies center justified text, and then to add insult to injury it center justifies left justified text. It cannot understand superscript references, it will not link to references to the references section, it cannot flow text around images, all the images are the wrong size, it does not even realise that you have cropped an image, and it turns bold text into underline text.
In short, the epub translator within InDesign (and most other packages) is a joke. If epub translation worked (and I have to say that most of these errors are easily fixable) we would have no problem with epub as the industry standard for ebooks. But at present, it looks like the major tablet producers have chosen the turkey (epub) instead of the eagle (pdf). Just because Kindle chose a reflowable text, to fit on its microscopic tablet, why did Apple follow suit? An iPad will easily display a 234 x 156 pdf page (royal format), in all its glory.
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