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Hi all,
I've been busy formating many of our ebooks into ePub format. This format currently works with the following devices (and will probably be the standard format in the future):
* Cybook Gen3
* Cybook Opus
* IREX DR1000 eReader
* Apple iPhone (using Lexcycle Stanza)
* Hanlin eReader
* Hanvon eBook
* Sony Reader
* Phones/devices using Android (using Aldiko)
* Plastic Logic
* BeBook
Not all our ebooks are available in this format yet. So if you find a book that doesn't have an ePub format and you want it, please send us a message through the contact form, and we'll push that to the top of our list.
We've also been reformatting the LIT files. There was a problem with the table of contents formatting in previous versions. This new conversion process I'm using (with Calibre) is much better.
Please add your comments this topic or send a message through the contact form. Thanks!
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12:34 pm
October 22, 2009
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Mags
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ePub also works with the Astak EZReader (regular and Pocket Pro) which are rebranded Hanlins, like the BeBook devices. However, Mobi format (.mobi and/or .prc) frankly looks best.* Girlebooks' .prc files look FABULOUS. The ePubs look good but the chapter headings are really huge and there are no margins. I like at least a tiny margin. I think that is a problem more with the firmware and ADE than the books. However, there seems to be an embedded font in the Girlebooks ePubs which is very nice. It looks nicer than the built-in Times font. Garamond perhaps?
I'll write up a full review eventually.
*Unfortunately it only handles DRMed books in ePub and PDF formats. I bought The Lost Symbol (yeah, I know) and the formatting was...odd. Great big margins on the sides and big gaps between paragraphs. I got used to it and it didn't bother me after a bit. Dan Brown's hacktastic prose, on the other hand...and the book didn't have as interesting a story as Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. It was suspenseful and had some interesting stuff to learn (most of which one can't really believe, which doesn't bother me) but I didn't like it as much as the others. I will go see the film, however, as I love Tom Hanks.
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Mags, thanks for the useful information. Your comment about the fonts brings to mind my experience last night fooling around with the Kindle Reader app for my husband's iPhone. I logged into Amazon and accessed my library. When I started reading "Ur" I was disappointed to see that the default font was Times Roman. It seems that these guys would know enough to realize that a sans-serif font has been a standard for onscreen reading for decades! Serif fonts are so hard to read onscreen. Also, the full justification looked horrible! Sometimes a line would consist of two words with about an inch of blank space between them. I tried messing with the font on the iPhone, but it looked like my only choice was text size and not font type. Truly weird!
Laura keeps me too busy to read Dan Brown any more, however, I have not missed the best-sellers much, because I have discovered a treasure trove of truly wonderful lit written by our sisters of yesteryear. Nary a dud in the bunch.
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9:23 pm
October 22, 2009
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Mags
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My excuse is that it was my vacation book!  I also had many interesting classics on my ebook reader! You're not missing much, honestly. I read Da Vinci Code because Everyone Was Reading It and liked it well enough to pick up Angels & Demons, which I actually preferred until the ending (which is really over-the-top). I like both films better than the books.
I like serif fonts with an eInk screen, though I get bored with Times and Georgia. On my Cybook Gen3, I used a font called Fontin which actually is a serif font that doesn't look like a serif font. It's the best of both worlds! I can't get it to work on the Pocket Pro, though. And I understand that if ePubs have embedded fonts, they can't be overridden.
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Thanks for your feedback on the epubs, Mags. I actually don't have a device to view them on (other than the desktop reader that comes with Calibre). But I do see the no margin thing. Maybe there's a way to fiddle with that through Calibre. Strange that the PRCs have margins and epubs don't, because I generate the epub directly from the PRC.
That font might be Stone serif, which is what I use in Word and also gets embedded in the PDFs. I wonder if it is also embedded in the PRCs and therefore passes on to the epubs? It would be cool to convert the epubs directly from Word instead of this 3 step thing, so I'd have more control over the look of the ebook. But as we see from Joyce's comment, even the big publishers have as many (or more) issues with ebook formatting for different devices.
I read Da Vinci Code and Angel's and Demons. They both almost gave me a heart attack, esp A&D. A mindless vacation read is a good time for Dan Brown, but otherwise I'd be too critical and wouldn't have the patience. I haven't seen the movies--do they also give one a heart attack?
By the way Mags, I'm finally reading Lavender and Old Lace which you recommended to me ages ago. It's quite intriguing!
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Funny, I remember being fascinated by The Da Vinci Code. I read Angels & Demons, but don't remember a thing about it.
I checked my Word program and I don't have the Stone serif font. You must either have a more advanced version of Word or an add-on font pack. If it is an add-on font, a well-developed program like Adobe Reader might pick up the font, but a program that is newer and less robust will probably insert a call to its own default font instead. Unfortunately, the default font for any program appears to be something crappy like Courier or Times Roman.
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1:42 am
October 24, 2009
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Mags
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I believe there is a way to add a bit of margin in Calibre. I've done it for Mobi files. But I will say that ADE is not as well incorporated on the EZReader (and I'm told there are problems with Sony implementation as well). Supposedly they are working on a firmware update. Adobe seems really interested in getting it right. For non-DRMed files, though, I think I'll stick with Mobipocket for now. The font sizes, for instance, work much better, and the book just displays more nicely.
The font is not the Times that comes with the reader, so I'm guessing it's embedded. It's very much like Times but a little cleaner-looking. It reminds me a lot of Garamond, which I love for print work.
I loved the Da Vinci Code and A&D movies, but I'm a Tom Hanks fangirl so you might want to take that into consideration. Personally I like the movies better than the books. It's not his best work, but Tom Hanks brings a bit of dry humor to Robert Langdon that is sorely needed. Unfortunately all of his and Ron Howard's skill can't quite eliminate the occasional "I have to talk for a while and be walking exposition" bomb that Brown drops on them. (Show! Don't Tell! For crying out loud! Jane Austen figured it out 200 years ago! Surely you can do it! Of course those making her films cannot, so perhaps I should cut him a break. /snark) As to heart attackiness in the movies--A&D OH YES. The fountain scene!!! I don't remember DVC being quite as suspenseful but I just enjoyed seeing all the locations and the way they put the visual clues together. And the casting is top-notch throughout both films.
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Glad you liked the movies. I am also a fan of Tom Hanks, so I would probably go for the movies. I guess the down side of the stories in both Angels and Demons and DVC is that they were formulaic. Trusted individual turns out to be the villain. What I liked about Angels and Demons was the detail regarding the election of a new Pope. I hope he didn't stretch the truth too much.
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Hm, I'm not a big fan of Tom Hanks, but I do like the chick from Amelie. Is she in A&D as well?
So Mags, you're comparing Ron Howard to Jane Austen? Somehow I don't think Ron Howard will quite live up--but maybe 200 years from now people will think otherwise! I'll have to see if these are on Netflix watch instantly so I can watch inconspicuously.
Stone serif probably doesn't come with Windows. I think we bought it at one time:
http://store1.adobe.com/cfusio.....;code=1086
There's also a sans serif:
http://store1.adobe.com/cfusio.....;code=1085
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12:29 am
October 26, 2009
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Mags
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I think that's the font.
I was complaining about Dan Brown being tell-don't-show. They do some rewriting for the films but there's only so much they can do.
Amelie chick not in A&D. Different hot chick in each story (written by a man, of course). I will say that with The Lost Symbol one does know the bad guy right from the first page (though it's not always completely clear who he is, as he takes on different personas, but one can guess). It reminded me a little of Red Dragon by Thomas Harris--the first appearance of Hannibal Lecter!
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I read Red Dragon a long while ago--I guess when The Silent of the Lambs came out, I read that then followed it with The Red Dragon. There was a movie of that, right? With Ralph Fiennes?
LOL, our thread about ebook formats turned into talk about Dan Brown and Hannibal Lecter!
In other off topic news (but pertaining to a library at least), this remake of Tears for Fears "Head Over Heels" is really funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....0TYun-Nq1Q
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I don't remember any "Red Dragon" movie with Ralph Fiennes. If he was in it, I'd remember, right? Maybe not. To take this thread even further afield, I'm enjoying Joseph Fiennes in the new TV series "Flash Forward."
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Joyce, here you go--Red Dragon staring Ralph Fiennes:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289765/
He was the bad guy, mind you. Serial killer. So not as sexy as his other roles, of course.
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Well, you thought Ralph Fiennes was sexy as the 40 lb. overweight crazy Nazi in Shindler's List, so I guess there's no accounting for taste.
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Guess I'll have to eat crow about the movie, however. Guess I should bite the bullet and catch Ralph as Red Dragon and Mark Harmon as Ted Bundy. I survived Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter and could still enjoy him as C. S. Lewis in "Shadowlands."
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12:58 pm
November 11, 2009
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Mags
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There are actually two movies made from Red Dragon. The first was called Manhunter and stars the dude from CSI (not as the bad guy). I forget who played Hannibal Lecter and Francis Dolarhyde. I didn't like the movie very much. They remade it with Ralph Fiennes, who is making a career out of playing criminal psychopaths, bless him.
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We can at least thank Ralph Fiennes for "The English Patient" since it showed what a dreamboat he can be. But you have got to hand it to him for being willing to gain 40 pounds for a role and for being willing to play a psycho when the need arises. Still, it would be nice to have another movie in the mode of "English Patient".
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