eBook Formats and Readers ?'s

[JD]

The only issue I've had with the Nookbooks, is that all of the paragraphs have the exact same space between them, so I wasn't always sure if there was a time or setting change until I was a couple paragraphs into the scene.

 

[ares93]

^ no clue on the nooks, but i did some digging. apparently formatting issues are fairly common on the kindle iphone/ipad apps.

 

[sfroth]

The only issue I've had with the Nookbooks, is that all of the paragraphs have the exact same space between them, so I wasn't always sure if there was a time or setting change until I was a couple paragraphs into the scene.

I've had that problem, as well, with books from multiple publishers. With Trek books, they used to put stars in all section breaks (Star Wars books did, too, but I haven't bought one in years, so I don't know if they still do). I got pretty pissed when they stopped doing that. The first book I remember reading in the new style was Losing the Peace, and I was continually frustrated by realizing that I'd shifted scenes 3 paragraphs ago. Some books with have clues, like new scenes not being indented, while the rest of the paragraphs are, but even that is inconsistent within a book, let alone between books.

 

[JWolf]

It is not just Star Trek eBooks but a lot of them have this spacing between paragraphs. They can also have wide margins, small default font, no indents or wide indents, huge section break space due to having to be huge to make up for the extra line spaces, and chapters starting too far down the screen. And with S&S Trek eBooks, it seems if they've used an embedded font, it will have to be fixed in the CSS to work.

Basically, I end up fixing most eBooks so they look nice. Wish I didn't have to, but that's the reality of it all.

 

[JD]

Is embedded font when you change the font? Because I just remembered, Immortal Coil wouldn't let me change it's font. I would hit the button for the font or size I wanted but it wouldn't change.

 

[JWolf]

Is embedded font when you change the font? Because I just remembered, Immortal Coil wouldn't let me change it's font. I would hit the button for the font or size I wanted but it wouldn't change.

Embedded font is when the ePub displays font(s) other then the default ADE font. The font file(s) are inside the ePub container.

 

[bfollowell]

It is not just Star Trek eBooks but a lot of them have this spacing between paragraphs. They can also have wide margins, small default font, no indents or wide indents, huge section break space due to having to be huge to make up for the extra line spaces, and chapters starting too far down the screen. And with S&S Trek eBooks, it seems if they've used an embedded font, it will have to be fixed in the CSS to work.

Basically, I end up fixing most eBooks so they look nice. Wish I didn't have to, but that's the reality of it all.

Yes, I can confirm all of the same problems JWolf is seeing. I wind up having to fix a lot too, even when they aren't blatant mistakes per se. I don't like it when a chapter starts two-thirds of the way down my Kindle's screen. It just seems like a total waste of real estate. I also despise having an extra line between paragraphs, though I know there's plenty of people that like that. I usually wind up editing mine and changing them to about 0.25em between each paragraph and it looks great to me. That's not to mention just plain old blatant mistakes like no toc, misspellings that aren't in the print version, etc.

I have to tweak mine so much that I'm considering buying epubs in the first place just to save me a step. Otherwise I have to buy from Amazon, dedrm, convert to epub, edit in Sigil, convert back to mobi. I guess it would just save me the first conversion step, but still...

- Byron

 

[ST-One]

It is not just Star Trek eBooks but a lot of them have this spacing between paragraphs. They can also have wide margins, small default font, no indents or wide indents, huge section break space due to having to be huge to make up for the extra line spaces, and chapters starting too far down the screen. And with S&S Trek eBooks, it seems if they've used an embedded font, it will have to be fixed in the CSS to work.

Basically, I end up fixing most eBooks so they look nice. Wish I didn't have to, but that's the reality of it all.

Yes, I can confirm all of the same problems JWolf is seeing. I wind up having to fix a lot too, even when they aren't blatant mistakes per se. I don't like it when a chapter starts two-thirds of the way down my Kindle's screen. It just seems like a total waste of real estate. I also despise having an extra line between paragraphs, though I know there's plenty of people that like that. I usually wind up editing mine and changing them to about 0.25em between each paragraph and it looks great to me. That's not to mention just plain old blatant mistakes like no toc, misspellings that aren't in the print version, etc.

I have to tweak mine so much that I'm considering buying epubs in the first place just to save me a step. Otherwise I have to buy from Amazon, dedrm, convert to epub, edit in Sigil, convert back to mobi. I guess it would just save me the first conversion step, but still...

- Byron

Well, from what I've seen so far, many ePubs have these ridiculously large spacings between paragraphs too.
But from time to time you can come across a nicely formatted ebook.

 

[bfollowell]

Something else that I almost always do is remove the capital letters at the beginning of a chapter. It's not a mistake, just more of a pet peeve. I forget what they call it but you guys know what I'm talking about. The first letter is larger than the others, sometimes the first fix or six words is in all caps. It looks fine to me in a print book but not so much in an ebook; definitely not my Kindle.

- Byron

 

[JWolf]

It is not just Star Trek eBooks but a lot of them have this spacing between paragraphs. They can also have wide margins, small default font, no indents or wide indents, huge section break space due to having to be huge to make up for the extra line spaces, and chapters starting too far down the screen. And with S&S Trek eBooks, it seems if they've used an embedded font, it will have to be fixed in the CSS to work.

Basically, I end up fixing most eBooks so they look nice. Wish I didn't have to, but that's the reality of it all.

Yes, I can confirm all of the same problems JWolf is seeing. I wind up having to fix a lot too, even when they aren't blatant mistakes per se. I don't like it when a chapter starts two-thirds of the way down my Kindle's screen. It just seems like a total waste of real estate. I also despise having an extra line between paragraphs, though I know there's plenty of people that like that. I usually wind up editing mine and changing them to about 0.25em between each paragraph and it looks great to me. That's not to mention just plain old blatant mistakes like no toc, misspellings that aren't in the print version, etc.

I have to tweak mine so much that I'm considering buying epubs in the first place just to save me a step. Otherwise I have to buy from Amazon, dedrm, convert to epub, edit in Sigil, convert back to mobi. I guess it would just save me the first conversion step, but still...

- Byron

Well, from what I've seen so far, many ePubs have these ridiculously large spacings between paragraphs too.
But from time to time you can come across a nicely formatted ebook.

I still go into the ePub to fix it even if it is mostly OK. I like to have no margins and I like to have no widows and no orphans. Plus I also set the ePub to display the font I want if there is no already embedded font. Sometimes it takes almost no time to fix and sometimes a little bit longer. But in the end, if the book is worth reading, it's worth looking good.

 

[BrotherBenny]

In a super-amazing turn of events, my boss got me a Kindle for all my hard work.

I am also getting an Xmas bonus, but that's going on defraying the costs of having my parents over from the UK for two weeks over the holidays.

I'll bet no one can guess how happy I am?

 

[Smitty]

In a super-amazing turn of events, my boss got me a Kindle for all my hard work.

I am also getting an Xmas bonus, but that's going on defraying the costs of having my parents over from the UK for two weeks over the holidays.

I'll bet no one can guess how happy I am?

Wow! How cool is that. A Kindle and a Christmas bonus both! I love my Kindle and it makes having your books with you a little lighter.

 

[JD]

In a super-amazing turn of events, my boss got me a Kindle for all my hard work.

I am also getting an Xmas bonus, but that's going on defraying the costs of having my parents over from the UK for two weeks over the holidays.

I'll bet no one can guess how happy I am?

Wow, I think I want to come work for your boss.

 

[BrotherBenny]

In a super-amazing turn of events, my boss got me a Kindle for all my hard work.

I am also getting an Xmas bonus, but that's going on defraying the costs of having my parents over from the UK for two weeks over the holidays.

I'll bet no one can guess how happy I am?

Wow, I think I want to come work for your boss.

You don't. You really, really, don't.

This year has been a really tough one for her, in many ways, and I have helped to ease the burden. I enjoy the job, so this is just a bonus.

The only problem is that I want so many books, I can't afford to get them and I have to ration out the ones I'll be able to get. At least my birthday present will be easy.

 

[JWolf]

In a super-amazing turn of events, my boss got me a Kindle for all my hard work.

I am also getting an Xmas bonus, but that's going on defraying the costs of having my parents over from the UK for two weeks over the holidays.

I'll bet no one can guess how happy I am?

Congratulations! You'll love reading using your Kindle. One thing I can suggest is to join MobileRead. You'll be able to find out a lot of useful information about your Kindle.

So what is the first Star Trek eBook you plan to purchase?

 

[BrotherBenny]

In a super-amazing turn of events, my boss got me a Kindle for all my hard work.

I am also getting an Xmas bonus, but that's going on defraying the costs of having my parents over from the UK for two weeks over the holidays.

I'll bet no one can guess how happy I am?

Congratulations! You'll love reading using your Kindle. One thing I can suggest is to join MobileRead. You'll be able to find out a lot of useful information about your Kindle.

So what is the first Star Trek eBook you plan to purchase?

Zero Sum Game once I get the Amazon giftcard for Christmas. I really can't afford to buy that many books, at least at the moment, so I'm rationing them and buying the ones I want to keep. The other books I want I may borrow from the library.

 

[JWolf]

In a super-amazing turn of events, my boss got me a Kindle for all my hard work.

I am also getting an Xmas bonus, but that's going on defraying the costs of having my parents over from the UK for two weeks over the holidays.

I'll bet no one can guess how happy I am?

Congratulations! You'll love reading using your Kindle. One thing I can suggest is to join MobileRead. You'll be able to find out a lot of useful information about your Kindle.

So what is the first Star Trek eBook you plan to purchase?

Zero Sum Game once I get the Amazon giftcard for Christmas. I really can't afford to buy that many books, at least at the moment, so I'm rationing them and buying the ones I want to keep. The other books I want I may borrow from the library.

Bad news. Library eBooks are not compatible with the Kindle.

 

[BrotherBenny]

So what is the first Star Trek eBook you plan to purchase?

I really can't afford to buy that many books, at least at the moment, so I'm rationing them and buying the ones I want to keep. The other books I want I may borrow from the library.

Bad news. Library eBooks are not compatible with the Kindle.

I know, I plan to borrow them in dead tree format.

Not ideal, but better than spending money I don't have.

 

[ConRefit79]

My Grandmother bought me a graphite Kindle for Christmas, and I'm loving it. Seems faster at displaying new pages than the nooks I tried at the store. I haven't purchased a Trek novel yet. I'm currently reading The Lord of the Rings and Kill Bin Laden.
Another plus is a huge selection of free classics available through Amazon.

 

[JD]

The Nook has alot of free classics too.