epub I believe are essentially what we as programmers would come up with, xml, html, and style sheets
disclaimer: this is only partially informed speculation
I'm not quite sure what you are saying: PDFs of course provide "properly typeset digital documents" to consumers. Do you mean that consumers don't need or want those? I think they do - look how much effort is put into presentation in every format on every platform.
I think, more importantly, PDF also provides consumers with a high-quality document they know they can read every easily, anywhere - any platform, any time, etc. - with just a click. What other format comes close? Imagine not having it - do you have the app to open the document? will it look like the original? when someone refers to the diagram on page 54, is the pagination the same for your copy/platform/etc.?
Also there is annotation, long-term presrvation, authentication (signatures), etc. but I don't want to sound like a broken record.
Actually that's exactly what I feel like PDFs don't give me. When I come across a PDF report, I immediately know it'll be a massive pain to read on a phone, on my e-reader, etc. and I'll have to wait til I get on a desktop. And even once I do, I have little control over the reading experience (I often use reader mode for websites to strip out daft decisions by designers, or even just to normalise font sizes to something I'm comfortable with).
Page 54 from the original is also trivial to preserve with any reader's pagination, it's just a numeric separator
> Page 54 from the original is also trivial to preserve with any reader's pagination, it's just a numeric separator
Pagination changes in different readers. That's why PDFs work so hard to be consistent.
That's what I said, but this doesn't matter much, you can have the original page 54 span for 4 reader's pages if the reader has a small screen with each of those 4 pages having the same number 54 so you can maintain the reference to the unmarked diagram
* User is on p.54, turns the page, and now they are on ... ?
* User tells a friend: 'Look at the second paragraph of p.54'. Friend: 'I'm looking, I don't see it'. User: 'Oh, the other p.54' ...
But the same issues exist today with PDF since you have page count (more visible since it's usually permanently visible in the app) and page labels, which are often different and thus can confuse your friend (by the way, does 2nd paragraph count include the last line of the previous paragraph at the top or does it start count at first full paragraph?)
(The better solution of more precise, e.g., per-paragraph, marks is, I think, also easier outside of PDF since PDFs don't retain text structure, only its visual position)
I don't think most end-users will like that.
> But the same issues exist today with PDF since you have page count (more visible since it's usually permanently visible in the app) and page labels
Yes, not a good situation, so why duplicate it elsewhere? Anyway, if I say 'page 545', IME people understand it's the document's page number and not the PDF page count.
But you don't need to duplicate it, all I was saying is PDF as exists has no benefits here.
Also, speaking of columns, when you reflow page to fit the narrow screen, you can simply make the same page longer instead of splitying, then you can have your same single writer page number. Basically, it's a non-issue for format comparison purposes, you can make UI whatever you like (unless it's PDF where nothing can reflow)
> when you reflow page to fit the narrow screen, you can simply make the same page longer instead of splitying, then you can have your same single writer page number.
You could do that, but IME, formats/apps besides PDF don't preserve pagination. Consistency across platforms, applications, etc. is hard.
In other cases, the information may not be destroyed entirely but much harder for people to see. For instance, automatically reflowing the London tube map would make it look totally unfamiliar.
epub is already a very widely used option ?
If it renders the same then it is not fit for purpose that is reading on a screen.
There are reasons to use pdf if the document must be the same on all devices but you need more than a plain pdf as you could edit a pdf to change 1s to 9s.
No technology is a universal answer. You want to understand the job and then find the right tool.
I suspect Fbreader might be OK - its earlier versions were but I have stopped using it after it added things.
Plus the basic unzip the file and just look at the files with a web browser.
These are just ones I have on my machine now.