>>>I can read a PDF on my laptop, desktop, phone, and e-reader When MobiPocket (the basis for Kindle format) and ePub were specced, the world looked like this:

>>>I can read a PDF on my laptop, desktop, phone, and e-reader When MobiPocket (the basis for Kindle format) and ePub were specced, the world looked like this: >>>I can read a PDF on my laptop, desktop Expensive hardware with powerful CPUs. Kindle/ePub were designed for weak CPUs that could basically handle text (K/ePub -- tarted-up text files) well. Back then, these were PDAs. It's only been really recently -- with iPad 4 -- that monster PDFs, such as those from Google Books (scans of original book/magazine pages), can be read without wanting to toss the hardware against the wall.