4 ms·

Part of the reason for this is that ebook formatting/typesetting tends to be terrible in logographic languages. I don't know why, but typesetting in the ebook w

Part of the reason for this is that ebook formatting/typesetting tends to be terrible in logographic languages. I don't know why, but typesetting in the ebook world is much worse there. I have a Japanese friend who complains constantly about any ebook she gets.

ekianjo 12y ago
I have bought several ebooks in Japanese and had no problem whatsoever with the formatting. You can actually adjust about everything in the kindle as long as it comes with a mobi file.
- AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
  She may be running into bad luck, or she might just be technologically illiterate on the ebook front. I've never really dug into her issues with ebooks as I wouldn't know where to start.
  - krick 12y ago
    Or maybe she is just more aesthetically sensitive. Good book typography is pretty complicated thing and is done manually, so it couldn't be done adjusting stuff like line height and font size in the settings of your ebook. I don't really give much attention to such things, but if you'll show your ebook reader to some typography-savvy friend of yours, he could point out quite a lot moments about "why this kind of typography sucks". Or, well, you could just take some old book with good typesetting and carefully compare it yourself to what you see on the screen of your ebook reader. Difference is pretty obvious.
    - cptn_brittish 12y ago
      Isn't that the reason TeX was created though to be able to automatically generate good typography for a document? Couldnt the algorithims used in TeX to decide these features just be used by eBook readers?
barrkel 12y ago
Typesetting for English language ebooks is pretty dreadful too. And for older titles, they're usually littered with OCR errors too. I'd be surprised if they receive more than a couple of hours of QA.
- intopieces 12y ago
  I am pleased that someone else has noticed this. I recently purchased a copy of the Neal Stephenson book "Cryptonomicon" and it's full of errors where a word was hyphenated in the original text, but the digital text has replaced the hyphen with a space. You get words like "Pat tern"; I'm shocked at how little they bothered to proof read the digital versions before they sent it out. I'm inclined to ask for a refund.
  - sondr3 12y ago
    I had the same problem when I read The Selfish Gene, it was littered with weird line breaks, OCR errors and general layout strangeness. So much so that I went through it myself and fixed most of it because it annoyed me too much.
  - wj 12y ago
    I've noticed typos in every one of his ebooks I've read. It is glaring but at the same time I can't put the books down.
w1ntermute 12y ago
I would actually much prefer ebooks for Japanese, because then you could turn furigana on/off, or on to various degrees (according to your reading level).
- krick 12y ago
  > then you could turn furigana on/off Would you please expand upon that? How could you do that? What kind of ebook format allows that? That really would be neat.
  - w1ntermute 12y ago
    I'm not saying that it's currently implemented in any existing ebook format (I don't know if it is or isn't). But it would be a clear advantage of ebooks for reading Japanese.

ekianjo 12y ago

I have bought several ebooks in Japanese and had no problem whatsoever with the formatting. You can actually adjust about everything in the kindle as long as it comes with a mobi file.

AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
She may be running into bad luck, or she might just be technologically illiterate on the ebook front. I've never really dug into her issues with ebooks as I wouldn't know where to start.
- krick 12y ago
  Or maybe she is just more aesthetically sensitive. Good book typography is pretty complicated thing and is done manually, so it couldn't be done adjusting stuff like line height and font size in the settings of your ebook. I don't really give much attention to such things, but if you'll show your ebook reader to some typography-savvy friend of yours, he could point out quite a lot moments about "why this kind of typography sucks". Or, well, you could just take some old book with good typesetting and carefully compare it yourself to what you see on the screen of your ebook reader. Difference is pretty obvious.
  - cptn_brittish 12y ago
    Isn't that the reason TeX was created though to be able to automatically generate good typography for a document? Couldnt the algorithims used in TeX to decide these features just be used by eBook readers?

barrkel 12y ago

Typesetting for English language ebooks is pretty dreadful too. And for older titles, they're usually littered with OCR errors too. I'd be surprised if they receive more than a couple of hours of QA.

intopieces 12y ago
I am pleased that someone else has noticed this. I recently purchased a copy of the Neal Stephenson book "Cryptonomicon" and it's full of errors where a word was hyphenated in the original text, but the digital text has replaced the hyphen with a space. You get words like "Pat tern"; I'm shocked at how little they bothered to proof read the digital versions before they sent it out. I'm inclined to ask for a refund.
- sondr3 12y ago
  I had the same problem when I read The Selfish Gene, it was littered with weird line breaks, OCR errors and general layout strangeness. So much so that I went through it myself and fixed most of it because it annoyed me too much.
- wj 12y ago
  I've noticed typos in every one of his ebooks I've read. It is glaring but at the same time I can't put the books down.

w1ntermute 12y ago

I would actually much prefer ebooks for Japanese, because then you could turn furigana on/off, or on to various degrees (according to your reading level).

krick 12y ago
> then you could turn furigana on/off Would you please expand upon that? How could you do that? What kind of ebook format allows that? That really would be neat.
- w1ntermute 12y ago
  I'm not saying that it's currently implemented in any existing ebook format (I don't know if it is or isn't). But it would be a clear advantage of ebooks for reading Japanese.