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Do readers really prefer EPUB/MOBI over PDF? Personally, I've always preferred PDFs. Nicely written article, by the way. Genever Benning's board meetings elici

Do readers really prefer EPUB/MOBI over PDF? Personally, I've always preferred PDFs. Nicely written article, by the way. Genever Benning's board meetings elicited a chuckle!

munificent 12y ago
> Do readers really prefer EPUB/MOBI over PDF? A bunch do. When I read eBooks, I prefer them because I want the text to be reflowed on my device. PDFs only look good if your screen is about the dimensions that the PDF was authored for. > Personally, I've always preferred PDFs. Hmm, I didn't make that format available but I certainly could once I figure out how. I'm not familiar with people buying PDFs. Is what you expect basically just a digital version of the print layout?
- lovelearning 12y ago
  Just a personal preference, and I'm a single data point, so please don't mistake my opinion for market demand. But to answer your question, yes I prefer reading the digital versions of print layouts as they are. Quite possibly because I feel the EPUB/MOBI ebooks I have are not laid out so well.
  - emsy 12y ago
    Recently I've tried to read a PDF on my Nexus 7. In portrait mode the letters were to small, and in landscape I was constantly scrolling (and the letters were still pretty small). I'm sincerly curious what good layout means, because I've never had any issues with layout, only with too small text.
    - lovelearning 12y ago
      The ebooks I read are almost all technical books. Lots of code, diagrams, equations, images. I may be biased because of my particular collection, but what I've felt is the PDFs in my collection "look" attractive and compel me to keep reading. I can see the creative effort that has gone into them by their authors and editors. Different colors for different kinds of text, syntax highlighted code, good fonts, diagrams fit correctly, proper indentation, proper word wrapping, chapter headers, footnotes at bottom of page, image wrapping and alignment in a way that improves readability - etc. They justify the word "e-books", in the sense that they feel like paper books. EPUB/MOBI on the other hand I guess are subject to layout rules of the particular reader and screen size, and for me, they don't look so attractive. In most of my ebooks in these formats, code snippets for example are not syntax highlighted and so don't make easy reading. Image wrapping is all out of whack - an image is on one page, but its explanation which kind of assumes the image is visible right there by its side, is actually on the next page. Little details like that. I agree with you about having to zoom and scroll a lot. But the readability of PDF makes zooming and scrolling worth the effort for me. I guess ebook UX too is just as subjective as website UX.
ludoo 12y ago
Epub is essential when reading on a device with a sub-8" screen, if you don't want to scroll horizontally while reading, or having to decipher tiny type. Plus, many Epub ebook readers support synchronization between different devices, so you can pick up your tablet and start reading from where you left off on your phone.
stoolpigeon 12y ago
For me it depends on the type of book. For anything that is primarily text, I always prefer epub. If I have the option I grab that and use Calibre to convert to anything else. If the book has a lot of graphics or other content that doesn't translate well to a smaller device (I read the vast majority of books on my kindle, a few on my Galaxy S3) then I prefer pdf. A book I bought on using Gimp falls well into that category. I don't even bother trying to read it on anything less than a 19 inch monitor. There are too many large images and layout is too important. Comics I prefer in PDF or CBR - either way. Though it still falls into the same issue that I haven't found a good experience with comics on my Nexus 7 or anything smaller. They are the only thing that has made me feel the desire to purchase a larger tablet.
pjmlp 12y ago
Yes, because ebook readers are crap at displaying PDFs and I cannot sit at the computer the whole day. Additionally, ebook readers are much better for the eyes.
rtpg 12y ago
PDFs do not work well for example with the 6 inch kindle. It's like the difference between PDFs and HTML: the eReader can be a lot more flexible in presenting the text to fit the screen size.
paines 12y ago
Speaking for me, always MOBI, cause most PDF's look shitty on my Kindle. MOBI can always be scaled on a font basis, while PDFs are enlarged as whole pages making them bigger than the screen. Not sure how this behaves on bigger devices like iPad Air etc.... Besides that: Technical books are not meant for E-Readers. E.g: I regret buying "Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp" for Kindle, cause the code snippets are hardly readable and technical books are meant being read (sometimes in a non stringent order) and worked thru, with jumping back and forth, completely different like novels.

Do readers really prefer EPUB/MOBI over PDF? Personally, I've always preferred PDFs. Nicely written article, by the way. Genever Benning's board meetings elicited a chuckle!

munificent 12y ago

> Do readers really prefer EPUB/MOBI over PDF? A bunch do. When I read eBooks, I prefer them because I want the text to be reflowed on my device. PDFs only look good if your screen is about the dimensions that the PDF was authored for. > Personally, I've always preferred PDFs. Hmm, I didn't make that format available but I certainly could once I figure out how. I'm not familiar with people buying PDFs. Is what you expect basically just a digital version of the print layout?

lovelearning 12y ago
Just a personal preference, and I'm a single data point, so please don't mistake my opinion for market demand. But to answer your question, yes I prefer reading the digital versions of print layouts as they are. Quite possibly because I feel the EPUB/MOBI ebooks I have are not laid out so well.
- emsy 12y ago
  Recently I've tried to read a PDF on my Nexus 7. In portrait mode the letters were to small, and in landscape I was constantly scrolling (and the letters were still pretty small). I'm sincerly curious what good layout means, because I've never had any issues with layout, only with too small text.
  - lovelearning 12y ago
    The ebooks I read are almost all technical books. Lots of code, diagrams, equations, images. I may be biased because of my particular collection, but what I've felt is the PDFs in my collection "look" attractive and compel me to keep reading. I can see the creative effort that has gone into them by their authors and editors. Different colors for different kinds of text, syntax highlighted code, good fonts, diagrams fit correctly, proper indentation, proper word wrapping, chapter headers, footnotes at bottom of page, image wrapping and alignment in a way that improves readability - etc. They justify the word "e-books", in the sense that they feel like paper books. EPUB/MOBI on the other hand I guess are subject to layout rules of the particular reader and screen size, and for me, they don't look so attractive. In most of my ebooks in these formats, code snippets for example are not syntax highlighted and so don't make easy reading. Image wrapping is all out of whack - an image is on one page, but its explanation which kind of assumes the image is visible right there by its side, is actually on the next page. Little details like that. I agree with you about having to zoom and scroll a lot. But the readability of PDF makes zooming and scrolling worth the effort for me. I guess ebook UX too is just as subjective as website UX.

ludoo 12y ago

Epub is essential when reading on a device with a sub-8" screen, if you don't want to scroll horizontally while reading, or having to decipher tiny type. Plus, many Epub ebook readers support synchronization between different devices, so you can pick up your tablet and start reading from where you left off on your phone.

stoolpigeon 12y ago

For me it depends on the type of book. For anything that is primarily text, I always prefer epub. If I have the option I grab that and use Calibre to convert to anything else. If the book has a lot of graphics or other content that doesn't translate well to a smaller device (I read the vast majority of books on my kindle, a few on my Galaxy S3) then I prefer pdf. A book I bought on using Gimp falls well into that category. I don't even bother trying to read it on anything less than a 19 inch monitor. There are too many large images and layout is too important. Comics I prefer in PDF or CBR - either way. Though it still falls into the same issue that I haven't found a good experience with comics on my Nexus 7 or anything smaller. They are the only thing that has made me feel the desire to purchase a larger tablet.

pjmlp 12y ago

Yes, because ebook readers are crap at displaying PDFs and I cannot sit at the computer the whole day. Additionally, ebook readers are much better for the eyes.

rtpg 12y ago

PDFs do not work well for example with the 6 inch kindle. It's like the difference between PDFs and HTML: the eReader can be a lot more flexible in presenting the text to fit the screen size.

paines 12y ago

Speaking for me, always MOBI, cause most PDF's look shitty on my Kindle. MOBI can always be scaled on a font basis, while PDFs are enlarged as whole pages making them bigger than the screen. Not sure how this behaves on bigger devices like iPad Air etc.... Besides that: Technical books are not meant for E-Readers. E.g: I regret buying "Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp" for Kindle, cause the code snippets are hardly readable and technical books are meant being read (sometimes in a non stringent order) and worked thru, with jumping back and forth, completely different like novels.