Ebook RPG Books

[jaerdaph]

Maybe somebody has already covered this, but doesn't it make more sense that niche hardware (ebook readers) be built to recognize the most widely used electronic document format (PDF at the present time), rather than expecting the world to dump the most widely used electronic document format in favor of one currently only used on niche hardware (ebook readers)?

Exactly - I don't get it either.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Maybe somebody has already covered this, but doesn't it make more sense that niche hardware (ebook readers) be built to recognize the most widely used electronic document format (PDF at the present time), rather than expecting the world to dump the most widely used electronic document format in favor of one currently only used on niche hardware (ebook readers)?

Well, the most widely used electronic document format doesn't scale with the screen... I'd rather have a not yet so widely used format which allows me to read text in my preferred font size on the screen of my reading device without having to scroll left and right. Even very old formats like plain HTML or Microsoft's CHM is much more usable than PDF, which is essentially a printer-like format delivered as a file.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You guys should know that, unlike most of the competition, the latest versions of the Sony eReader (or whatever they call it) can display Adobe PDFs, ePub format, personal documents, blogs, RSS newsfeeds, JPEGs, and Sony's proprietary BBeB ("BroadBand eBook") format, can play MP3 and unencrypted AAC audio files.

You can also check out material from the library on it.

And while you can't really share stuff with a whole bunch of other people- its got a built-in way to thwart piracy- you can have up to 5 of the things registered to share documents between them.

Which is why I'm giving them a hard look. About the only thing it doesn't have is color.

 

[drothgery]

(Microsoft works is still around, I guess just not for the mac. )

Not for long. It's being replaced by an ad-supported version of Office 2010.

On Windows, Works stuck around as something cheap for OEMs to bundle instead of Office. On the Mac, Apple would rather bundle iLife apps.

 

[jmucchiello]

- Edit and create documents directly on device, even if only pure text (I think many people overlooks this, but for me this would be a win feature).

Current ePaper will never allow this. However there is work on printable electronic circuits so the future of ePaper might be paper. (And no I don't know the environmental effect )

Heh. The battery issue does bug me. Luckily, they're putting money into that tech in a few countries, so improvements are coming down the pipeline quickly. Batteries that can be recharged over and over again forever are theoretically quite possible. We'll see how they do and if they're permitted to bring them to market.

Um, 2nd law of thermodynamics? Entropy? Have you heard of these things? What you are proposing is the possibility of a perpetual motion machine. Not possible. And that last sentence is just a tad too "tin-foil hat"ish.

The ubiquity of the internet and open source formats and communities is solving this problem, though. pdf, mp3, etc.

Neither of those are "open" formats. Adobe owns PDF. There are patents on mp3 (though they expire soonish). If you REALLY want open formats: for text documents look into OpenOffice. And for sound, try Ogg Vorbis.

 

[jmucchiello]

And data storage has become so absurdly cheap that keeping one's files in multiple backup media is very easy indeed. Especially if you want to store electronic books or text documents, which barely require any memory at all by modern standards.

Yes, every computer you will ever buy in the future will have more storage than 20 of your previous models. So just copy the data up and be aware of formats.

Maybe somebody has already covered this, but doesn't it make more sense that niche hardware (ebook readers) be built to recognize the most widely used electronic document format (PDF at the present time), rather than expecting the world to dump the most widely used electronic document format in favor of one currently only used on niche hardware (ebook readers)?

Licensing. Lock in. DRM. Those would be the top three. Not invented here might be involved too.

Well, the most widely used electronic document format doesn't scale with the screen...

Well, yes, PDF can scale infinitely large or small. It is essentially a vector format except for rasterized images. The problem is the DPI rating of the ePaper is insufficient to rescale the page in a readable way. The other flaw is the fault of the PDF producer. PDFs can contain reflowing text but doing so takes extra effort. So unless your PDF comes from someone who wants to see it on an ePreader, they probably won't take the extra effort to make it possible.

Sony eReader

Sony and "open" have never, ever mixed in the past. There must be a catch.

 

[nedjer]

There was a recent poll/discussion over at RPGNet related to this:

Best electronic format? - RPGnet Forums

Personally, I want my eBooks to "look" like the hard copy book (in addition to being able to comfortably read them at the same or similar size). And I want PDFs, not HTML, specifically PDFs that take full advantage of bookmarks and page jumps etc.

I posted that poll to try to solve a debate about different versions of the Treasure RPG:

The designers: 'you can customise everything in html, it's the way forward, we can use xml and svg to integrate with touch devices and design interactively. What's not to like.'

Me: 'the electronic format of choice is PDF for now. Put out a PDF and you'll get more players and more interest in the html kit.'

The reply, particularly after the poll was, 'if you can find the time go right ahead.'

A few weeks after making the PDF the outcome is clear. Downloads basically quadrupled overnight and I've had to put the Treasure material on to a faster server. So, PDF seems the format of choice for now.

I reckon touch tablets will go with that, as the 10.1 inch screens planned for some of these devices should give a good match between being readable and easy to pass round.

 

[jmucchiello]

I posted that poll to try to solve a debate about different versions of the Treasure RPG:

The designers: 'you can customise everything in html, it's the way forward, we can use xml and svg to integrate with touch devices and design interactively. What's not to like.'

Your designers are a year or two too early. There is a web specification for Web Widgets that fits the criteria for "eBook" that is still in committee at the w3 consortium. Basically it allows you to package HTML/CSS/javascript images sound files etc. into a zip with config.xml file to explain how to "launch" the package. Once ratified support in browsers will quickly follow and you'll be able to download a single .wgt file containing an application. Application may be overkill for an eBook but just being able to package it like that is huge. And you'd be able include a "printable" copy by stuffing the .pdf into the archive

 

[nedjer]

Your designers are a year or two too early.

I'm driven to distraction at times. They're constantly a year or two too early:

Me: 'Do you mean graphic like WFRP3: extra pictures?'
Them: 'Oh no, play it in text or play it in graphics - should be the same. It has to be a graphic language.'

Me: 'Could we speed things up with more jpgs instead of vectors?'
Them: 'Get more out of the vectors in the long run.'

Me: 'Most committed players like some solid startup crunch.'
Them: 'Crunch has to be optional. There's as much crunch there as you want to switch on.'

I've kind of adapted to/ like this but its not what I'm used to

 

[Mercule]

Sony and "open" have never, ever mixed in the past. There must be a catch.

A friend of mine, commenting on the Kindle: Amazon is the only proprietary e-book format (I've not verified that claim). They should probably recognize that even Sony isn't proprietary and meditate on this truth.

Since he owns two Sony readers and was extolling their virtues, I'm going with there not being a catch.