Pro/Cons of various book formats

shrktank · 09-09-2009, 08:02 PM

My Sony PRS-600 will be here tomorrow!!!!

I understand my Sony can play various book formats including PDF. I am curious which formats are the best to download the books as.

Elfwreck · 09-09-2009, 08:17 PM

PDFs that are *formatted for the Reader* are wonderful, and probably the best filetype to read. However, no commercial ebook company formats PDFs for 6" screens, so they all have text that's uncomfortably small and margins that are too large. The PRS can reflow the text (most of the time), but it can have problems--with the best PDFs, you lose some formatting & it's prone to running short lines of text together as one paragraph; with untagged PDFs (a technical term that you're not expected to know), every line becomes its own paragraph, which makes for awful reading with reflow. PDFs can have pictures (which often aren't formatted for good viewing on the screen) and Tables of Contents, but many publishers don't bother with them. Also, many free PDFs are lacking in metadata and bookmarks (which become the TOC in the Reader).

EPubs can have good formatting, except that the Sony series can't read them as justified text; they all have ragged right edges. Also, they have page numbers in tiny text that matches the original formatting, and has no relation to the page number on the PRS. (Reflowing the size doesn't change the ePub page number.) The page numbers can overwrite the text, which is annoying. However, they can have images and a good table of contents.

LRFs--depends on how they're made. All the ones I got from Sony seem too large for me; I don't like their default font size. (I like tiny fonts.) LRFs from here at Mobileread are mostly wonderful. (All the ones I've tried have been wonderful; I'll posit that some are not.) LRF has the problem of being an end-use format only; it's not designed to be convertible to anything else later. However, that doesn't affect the reading of it.

RTFs read okay, but the pictures (if any) are lost, and it takes about 16 pt fonts in the original to be readable without the larger size settings.

TXTs are... bland. Single font, no formatting, no table of contents; the best thing you can say about them is that they work well.

When I have choices for download, I pick:
HTML (which I can convert to my format of choice)
Word/RTF (which almost nobody offers, and if they do, they offer other filetypes as well)
EPub (Good for reading, and I can unzip it & work from the HTML if I need to)
PDF (because I can edit & convert PDFs, but not everyone can)
LRF.

Caveats: I don't purchase DRM'd ebooks, although I'll occasionally pick up freebies. This may skew my preferences; I have no idea how hard or easy it is to convert DRM-infected ePubs to other formats.

Amalthia · 09-09-2009, 09:28 PM

I read LRF and RTFs the most. When I download ebooks I prefer HTML format because it's a good starting from format before conversion.

luqmaninbmore · 09-10-2009, 06:28 AM

I prefer LRF because I think you get the best performance out of it: the pages turn quicker, font change is instantaneous after the initial change (if you aren't using the Sony software which preformats LRF), and you get justified text with very little margins, maximizing the usage of screen real estate. I also prefer the absolute page count (I.e. one screen of text = one page).

09-09-2009, 08:02 PM	#1
shrktank Connoisseur Posts: 83 Karma: 92 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Imperial,Mo Device: Sony 650,Nook Color and iPad	Pro/Cons of various book formats My Sony PRS-600 will be here tomorrow!!!! I understand my Sony can play various book formats including PDF. I am curious which formats are the best to download the books as.

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09-09-2009, 08:17 PM	#2
Elfwreck Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,185 Karma: 25133758 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3 (Past: Kobo Mini, PEZ, PRS-505, Clié)	PDFs that are formatted for the Reader are wonderful, and probably the best filetype to read. However, no commercial ebook company formats PDFs for 6" screens, so they all have text that's uncomfortably small and margins that are too large. The PRS can reflow the text (most of the time), but it can have problems--with the best PDFs, you lose some formatting & it's prone to running short lines of text together as one paragraph; with untagged PDFs (a technical term that you're not expected to know), every line becomes its own paragraph, which makes for awful reading with reflow. PDFs can have pictures (which often aren't formatted for good viewing on the screen) and Tables of Contents, but many publishers don't bother with them. Also, many free PDFs are lacking in metadata and bookmarks (which become the TOC in the Reader). EPubs can have good formatting, except that the Sony series can't read them as justified text; they all have ragged right edges. Also, they have page numbers in tiny text that matches the original formatting, and has no relation to the page number on the PRS. (Reflowing the size doesn't change the ePub page number.) The page numbers can overwrite the text, which is annoying. However, they can have images and a good table of contents. LRFs--depends on how they're made. All the ones I got from Sony seem too large for me; I don't like their default font size. (I like tiny fonts.) LRFs from here at Mobileread are mostly wonderful. (All the ones I've tried have been wonderful; I'll posit that some are not.) LRF has the problem of being an end-use format only; it's not designed to be convertible to anything else later. However, that doesn't affect the reading of it. RTFs read okay, but the pictures (if any) are lost, and it takes about 16 pt fonts in the original to be readable without the larger size settings. TXTs are... bland. Single font, no formatting, no table of contents; the best thing you can say about them is that they work well. When I have choices for download, I pick: HTML (which I can convert to my format of choice) Word/RTF (which almost nobody offers, and if they do, they offer other filetypes as well) EPub (Good for reading, and I can unzip it & work from the HTML if I need to) PDF (because I can edit & convert PDFs, but not everyone can) LRF. Caveats: I don't purchase DRM'd ebooks, although I'll occasionally pick up freebies. This may skew my preferences; I have no idea how hard or easy it is to convert DRM-infected ePubs to other formats.

09-09-2009, 09:28 PM	#3
Amalthia Wizard Posts: 1,165 Karma: 32196 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Anchorage, AK Device: Sony Reader PRS-505, PRS-650, PRS-T3, Pocketbook HD2	I read LRF and RTFs the most. When I download ebooks I prefer HTML format because it's a good starting from format before conversion.

09-10-2009, 06:28 AM	#4
luqmaninbmore Da'i Posts: 1,144 Karma: 1217499 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Baltimore Device: Toshiba Thrive, Kobo Touch, Kindle 1, Aluratek Libre, T-Mobile Comet	I prefer LRF because I think you get the best performance out of it: the pages turn quicker, font change is instantaneous after the initial change (if you aren't using the Sony software which preformats LRF), and you get justified text with very little margins, maximizing the usage of screen real estate. I also prefer the absolute page count (I.e. one screen of text = one page).

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