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Comment by alister | Hacker News Reader

Can someone who has actually bought this tell us whether this is as good as the print versions? Things like all the diagrams and photos being present, having good resolution, etc.

I've heard so many horror stories about how great technical books get mangled when they're made into ebook versions (frankly I'd be quite happy with a proper PDF version).

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I bought one of the previous Make Magazine bundles, and the PDF's were very high quality. Definitely recommended over the ebook versions, as there's a lot of formatting.

I buy all their bundles. The PDF quality is usually good but that could also mean that the files are too big to be read on a tablet or a phone. The mobi & epub versions are sometimes just a dump of the PDF file.

Speaking of quality, their Android bundles are unfortunately pure garbage. They used to be great but now they are just garbage. If someone from the humblebundle team is reading this: what the hell is going on there?

As far as I know, all of the Humble Bundles offer PDF, MOBI, and EPUB format. (DRM-free, of course.) The PDFs are all fully-formatted pages, the way the publisher intended.

One of the reasons I buy these. PDFs rock.

Are there any services that are easy to use and cheap that will print and bind a pdf for you? I'd love to get spiral-bound programming books or textbooks that actually stay open on a desk without having to pin them or destroy the spines.

Although that's probably breaking copyright laws...

lulu is pretty cheap, although the wirebound options are pretty limited.

I'm pretty sure copies for personal use are allowed explicitly by Fair Use laws. As long as you aren't giving it away or selling it, I think it's acceptable.

...if you're in the US. Unfortunately most countries do not have the idea of fair use.

I've had Fedex Office do this for me before.

  cheap that will print and bind a pdf for you

Google for thesis / dissertation printing. There's an entire industry dedicated to printing and binding one or two copies of PDFs :)

I bought the last couple of Make bundles and they come with a couple of ebook formats plus PDFs, with HQ PDFs for some titles. I definitely recommend the PDFs, but it's nice to have options.

in some cases, my kindle is far more readable with a properly produce mobi file -- full margins, etc.

I've bought them, can confirm the PDFs are print quality. Haven't checked the .epubs or .mobis yet but based on their file sizes they contain high-res images.

Does anyone know what the best book is to start with? I'm kinda new to electronics, but know some ( to little to mention it actually) basics...

"Make electronics" would be a very good start so. Your basics will be refreshed, and then you'll be confident in the next steps.

The more specific (by theme) Make book won't explain those basics most of the time, they're more like paint by the number, which can be good. Still, being able to understand the underlying will allow you to change and evolve them.

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