The Digital Reader

The Best News and Info on Ebooks and eReaders

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Entries Tagged as 'ebook format'

Kindle 4PC update adds PDF Support – What does this mean for Epub?

September 5th, 2011 · Amazon, ebook format, kpr

Andrys Basten of KindleWorld noticed last night that Amazon had released a new version Kindle 4PC. The only major change to K4PC 1.7.1 is that it adds support for PDF. Actually, it would probably be more accurate to say that Amazon tweaked PDF support so it  worked better.

I was told last week that Amazon had added PDF support in the 1.7.0 update (at the same time as they added Kindle Print Replica format). Now, I’m sure it was there, only I didn’t notice because my copy of K4PC couldn’t read the PDF I tested.  I had assumed that it simply didn’t support PDFs, when the problem is that it only supports most PDFs.

But on the upside, you can use most of the common PDF tools in K4PC now, including zoom, scroll, highlighting, dictionary/Google/search,  and you can attach text notes. You can download the new version from Amazon.

PDF support does raise an interesting issue, though. [Read more →]

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Kindle Print Replica Ebooks are PDFs in a Wrapper

September 1st, 2011 · ebook format, ebook tools, kpr

On Sunday everyone noticed that Amazon had launched a new ebook format. I spent a little while Sunday afternoon playing with it and I shared what few details I noticed.

Paul Durrant of Durrant Publishing read my post about the new KPR format and he was inspired to do a little digging. He’s figured out how to extract the contents of a KPR ebook.

It turns out that KPR files aren’t just made from a PDF; they are PDF files. All Amazon did was to wrap the PDF in another file format in order to disguise the fact that it is a PDF. I’m told that the file isn’t even anything new; it’s a PDB file. I told you earlier this week that Amazon liked control over accessibility. I’d say that they just proved me right beyond a shadow of a doubt.

[Read more →]

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Microsoft to retire MS Reader, their ebook format

August 15th, 2011 · ebook format, Microsoft

There’s a new notice on the Microsoft Reader webpage today:

Closing the BookMicrosoft is discontinuing Microsoft Reader effective August 30, 2012, which includes download access of the Microsoft Reader application from the Microsoft Reader website. However, customers may continue to use and access the Microsoft Reader application and any .lit materials on their PCs or devices after the discontinuation on August 30, 2012. New content for purchase from retailers in the .lit format will be discontinued on November 8, 2011.

 

That’s a shame, but not a surprise. Microsoft missed their chance to get back into the game right around the launch of the Kindle, when the ebook market finally took off.

[Read more →]

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New map books available in Kindle, Epub

June 26th, 2011 · ebook format

I got an email yesterday from the developer of a new website that’s dedicated to ebook maps. There are around 200 maps on Ebookmaps.com now and they cover cities all over the globe. The maps are drawn from the Open Streetmap Project, and they”re released under a CC license.

The ebooks are available in Mobi and Epub. Each map section measures about 400×600 and they work fairly well on my K2.

It’s a pretty neat site, and it’s also a great idea – in concept. Unfortunately, there’s a bug which adds an extra blank page after each map section.

Luckily this can be fixed easily. Someone will have to go back to the source and add the navigation buttons and then recompile the ebooks. It shouldn’t take too long.

[Read more →]

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Why I’m excited about Epub3

February 17th, 2011 · ebook format

So the draft of the Epub 3 spec came out a few days ago, and it has a number oof really shiny features. It’s based on HTML5, and there’s one part of HTML5 in particular that has me drooling. It’s a tag called canvas. You can use this tag to draw content when you read the ebook.

So what can you do with it? I can think of 2, but there are probably a bunchaton. [Read more →]

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Japanese publishers to create common ebook format

October 27th, 2010 · ebook format

Voyager Japan and Sharp are planning to develop a new ebook format.

Sharp Corp. (TSE:6753) and e-book software developer Voyager Japan Inc. will submit the specifications of their formats free of charge to the Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan.

The trade organization, consisting of 41 major publishers, will then create a common format by the end of March. The government will provide 150 million yen (US$1.8 million as a subsidy.

P.S. If anyone has access to the original Nikkei story (or if you know some background details), please let me know. I’d like to follow up.

via Trading Markets

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.voyager.co.jp/&ei=0xXITJ61F8P68Aa8zaQy&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DVoyager%2BJapan%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3D5qk%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26prmd%3Divn

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Round Books

October 6th, 2010 · ebook format

Mike Cane tipped me to this Reuters article about a nutty new ebook idea.

The “libroid” has no pages and therefore no page numbers — readers keep track of their progress with the percentage of the text they have already read. Authors can add to the text whenever they want.

“Some authors will write round books with endless stories without a beginning or end,” Neffe added.

His response was better than mine. I speculated that the name came from libros (book) + hemorrhoid. He posted this video. I can’t quite explain why, but it fits. [Read more →]

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How to make XPS files for Blio

October 1st, 2010 · ebook format, ebook tools, tips and tricks

Someone asked Paul Biba over at Teleread if anyone knew how to convert to XPS from a PDF file. I figured out how to do it, and it’s actually pretty simple. (I might despise the format, app, and DRM, but if someone wants to use it I will try to find the information they need.)

If you have a PC running Vista, Win7, or WinXP with SP2, then you should already be able to make an XPS file. There should already be a printer driver on your computer that will let you “print” a document into the XPS format.

I did it from Open Office, and the same printer driver should work with everything. You’ll need to open the Print menu, and scroll down until you see something like “Microsoft XPS”. Select that as your printer.

BTW, I’m pretty sure that this printer driver is installed at the same time as Blio. If you don’t see that option, then you’ll need to download it here. The usual warnings apply.

P.S. If you want to do this on OSX, sorry but I don’t have a Mac to test it on. But I can direct you to this page. It might work for you and it’s at least a step in the right direction.

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OED may not be going digital after all

August 30th, 2010 · ebook format

There was a story in yesterday’s Telegraph about how the 3rd edition of the Oxford English Dictionary will not be released in paper but will only be offered in digital form. Guess what? That story probably wasn’t true.

I liked the idea that the OED would go digital only. At this point the OED is so big that you don’t buy the paper copy in order to use it. You really just buy it as an artifact or decoration. On the other hand, people will still buy it as decoration so the paper copy still has a market.

The Oxford Times are reporting:

OUP told the Oxford Mail last night that no decision had been taken….

OUP spokesman Anna Baldwin said: “No decision has yet been made on the format of the third edition. It’s likely to be more than a decade before the full edition is published and a decision on format will be taken at that point. Lexicographers are currently preparing the third edition of the OED, which is 28 per cent complete. No final completion date is yet confirmed.”

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Enhanced Kindle Edition format uses HTML5 tags

August 29th, 2010 · ebook format

You probably recall that a couple months ago Amazon announced an updated Kindle app for iOS. The new app gave you the ability to play audio and video that were embedded in books like Nixonland.

I’ve been waiting to hear back from Amazon PR about the tools to make the new ebooks (and the file spec), but who knows when the tools will be ready. So this weekend I decided to tackle this problem the hard way. I bought a copy of Nixonland, and I’ve been using it as a test subject.

Let me answer the question at the top of your mind: I did not find an easy answer on how to make the enhanced ebooks. But I did learn one or 2 interesting details.

Update: You can make the EKE with KindleGen.

First, the Enhanced Kindle Edition (EKE) isn’t a new format. I pulled my copy of Nixonland out of a backup I made for my iPod Touch. It’s a straightforward AZW, and I confirmed that the file is Mobipocket compatible (I found BookMobi in the header). Also, the file is the same size on the Kindle, K4PC, and iPod Touch.

The video files were stored in a sub-directory and referenced from the ebook. They were all MP4 format, and the resolution was the same as that of the iPod Touch.

Here’s an example of the tag that Amazon are using to refer to the video files from inside the ebook:

<video mediarecindex=”00010″ controls=”controls” recindex=”00011″></video>

That is a standard HTML5 tag, but the mediarecindex and recindex attributes are Amazon’s own creations. BTW, there’s supposed to be a src attribute that  names the video file. I wish Amazon had used it; it would have made building EKEs so easy.

Because of how Amazon are misusing the video tag, there is no easy way to make the EKE. I was hoping we could embed a simple tag and use MobiCreator to build the ebook. Unfortunately, we are going to need a tool that understands exactly how that tag is being misused. Seeing as how Amazon won’t share that tool, there’s nothing we can do.

I wonder if Amazon are going to misuse the audio tag like they are misusing the video tag? That would be unfortunate, IMO. But it’s rather telling that Amazon chose to misuse part of HTML5 (rather than use it correctly). I think it says something about their motivations.

P.S. If you know of any details that I have wrong, please let me know. I really don’t like handing out bad info.

P.P.S. If you have any related technical info, please, please, please share it with me. I want to learn how to do this.

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