4 ms·
> The "best" format for reading books is epub, as it is an opwn format which does not try to adapt a paper format. There are many free readers available for it.
by azalemeth 4y ago
> The "best" format for reading books is epub, as it is an opwn format which does not try to adapt a paper format. There are many free readers available for it.
I disagree. ePub assumes that the thing you are reading can easily be reformatted – for mathematics, technical documents, or similar, this is really not true. I've got a few technical books where the publisher released them as either a LaTeX'd pdf or an epub and on my iPad reading the ePub is _awful_ -- the layout is worse, it's very distracting, and the effort that the author put into ideally putting "this equation" and "this text referring to this equation" together has been lost.
- maweki 4y agoI haaaaate recipe books in ePub with a passion. They always look cheap and the images unapetizing and the formatting of the preparation steps never looks good.
- Tepix 4y agoI'm pretty sure it's not EPUB that's at fault. I've seen very attractive EPUB books.
- constantcrying 4y agoEpub pushes the duty of layout onto the reader, it is very similar to a website. With epub you can freely change font, spacing, etc. (great accesibility feature). PDF is a representation of paper. LaTeX files look good as a PDF because LaTeX files are created to be printed or viewed as a PDF. A digital book should not enforce layout. Yes, epub has flaws, especially if it is not seen as the main target for publication.