Technical eBooks part II

In the previous post I mentioned the epub format in passing, saying it also had issues. However, I didn't bother to qualify that, nor did I give an epub sample.

When I went back to create the sample, I discovered that the 1.5 release of Adobe Digital Editions no longer worked with the epubs generated by our toolchain (and, by no longer worked, I mean looped-burning-up-CPU-until-crashing no longer worked—DE is a remarkably fragile piece of software.)

Anyway, I fixed that up (and, in the process, discovered that while id="fig:one" should be perfectly valid xhtml, epubcheck and DE both say not. Sigh).

So, here's the complete list of the versions of that sample chapter.

• In PDF format.
• In a rough-and-ready HTML format
• In .mobi format (which is suitable for the Kindle—just copy it to your Kindle's documents folder). You'll want to right-click and "Save As" to download this link.
• In .epub format (which I've only tested in DE). Again, you'll want to right-click and "Save As" to download this link.

epub is clearly better than mobi for formatting, but still has issues. But, I thought I'd post them all here for comparison purposes.

Comments

[Marshall T. Vandegrift]

Two comments about the EPUB version:

(1) Even though the file displays in DE, it is technically malformed. The OCF spec states that: "The first file in the ZIP Container MUST be a file by the ASCII name of 'mimetype' which holds the MIME type for the ZIP Container (i.e., 'application/epub+zip' as an ASCII string; no padding, white-space or case change)."

(2) The margins make this completely illegible on the Sony Reader. To test the Reader, you can download Sony's "eBook Library Software." The latest version will render EPUB files exactly as the Reader will render them.

[Dave Thomas]

Marshall:

Absoliutely. The mimetype file is a PITA, because it shouldn't be compressed. I wanted to get something out now just to show the concept.

There's also been no thought whatsoever as to layout: I just wanted to illustrate the concepts. If and when we decide to go with this, we'll get someone who knows what they are doing to create decent CSS for us.

Thanks for the feedback

Dave

[Dave Thomas]

I spent a few hours tidying up the .epub file. Although epubcheck still complains abot the mimetype type, I'm not sure I see what's wrong. But I think you'll find the layout works better on a real Sony reader.

Dave

[Norm Smith]

While the PDF file looks great on my monster screen at work, it is WAY too small for reading when when displayed on my Sony PRS-505 Book Reader to be readable! There is a style suggestion for page size on the Mobile Reader web site (www.mobilereader.com). Also, there is an OpenOffice plugin that formats documents into PDF with font sizes/margins set to work well with the Sony. I'll post links as soon as I can dig them out...

Norm

[Dave Thomas]

Norm:

I think you;re way better off reading ePub format on the Sony. If we decide to go that way, ePub will be an option for our titles.

Dave

[Norm Smith]

FYI, the epub version displays in DE fine. When I move it from DE to my Sony, the book does not show up in the book list. It is in the DE directory. The Sony supports PDF files and epub when loaded via DE.

[Dave Thomas]

Norm:

I never tried using DE to load it: I've used the Sony Reader software, and it appears fine. I think you can also just copy it direct to the device via the mounted filesystem.

I've not been too happy with DE, and I'm not particularly surprised.

Dave

[Norm Smith]

The link to a document for generating PDFs compatible with the Sony is http://www.mobileread.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=15647&d=1219778389

[Norm Smith]

Dave,

I found the epub test book on my Sony last night. The Sony decided the name of the book is "Stripes", which I missed because the PDF version was named the filename. The ePub version is much easier to read on the Sony and bumping the font size up retains the formatting.

Thanks for caring enough to put forth the effort to produce ebooks!

Norm

[Kim Falk]

Dave,

Could you write something about what the status of this ebook generation project is. I am considering buying a ereader, but mainly to read technical books, like yours.

So is the project back on the shelf or is something coming out soon. And if so, which ereader will support it.

Being from Europe the Kindle is not really an option.

-Kim

[Dave Thomas]

Kim:

We have no immediate plans. If we do go ahead, we're more likely to choose epub over mobi, so the Kindle is not likely to be a target as is stands. This may change should Amazon upgrade the specs to give the Kindle something approaching the 505's display capabilities.

Dave

[Andrew Carter]

Dave,

I'm a Sony Reader owner (505) and an avid PragProg book reader. I'm hoping to see you guys formally support epub. In absence of that, is there any way that you might consider a streamlined PDF version? Like text only with no extra formatting and scaled to fit mobile reader sizes? The reader has decent PDF support if it is properly sized. The major problem now is that the scale of the PDF's is out of proportion to the reader's page size.

My dream is to carry around my whole pragprog and O'Reilly library on my reader. That would be really cool.

[J. Aaron Farr]

I know this post is pretty old now, but I thought I'd results of viewing the epub file on the iPhone via Stanza:

In general, the document looked good. The main issue was that some code samples were too wide for the screen and cut off. Had to hold the iphone in landscape mode to see everything. Also several of the xml elements did not display at all. This is all likely issues with Stanza more than your document (the elements did show in the Stanza desktop app).

Anyway, add one more fan of PDF alternatives.