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0 pointsmarkandrewj5y ago0 comments

Generally the PDF copy of a book is designed to fit the format of the final printed book. The PDF is even often the deliverable sent to press.

If you are using something like an e-reader, or a smartphone, the PDF layout often doesn't translate well. Typesetting is also normally also done for ePub/Mobi, but the layout is tailored to the format of the device that the document will be read on. Although there are times when publishers just take the PDF and click 'convert to ePub', which isn't ideal.

There are also other advantages to different formats, when talking about things like programming books. As an example, working code snippets for web formats. I am thinking of things like Jupyter notebook when I say this.

As others have mentioned there are also a number of security risks associated with PDF.

I can't deny there are several books I have read in PDF format however.

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kall5y ago

I do believe this happens, but I have yet to read a book that looks even reasonably typeset on Apple Books on a phone with anything larger than default.

I know a PDF can‘t do that either, but that‘s the promise of these formats right? Between the most typography focused tech company and whatever the publisher puts into the file, they don‘t deliver.

omnimus5y ago

There are two issues here:

1. PDFs are fully baked/static and made for one page format (the one original book was printed on). These will never work.

2. Ebook formats are basically webpages and they have CSS. There are defaults from the ebook reader app and but often there are css settings from the publisher of the book. Their css styles mash together leading quite often to bad results. They could be very responsive but i suspect publishers test only on Kindle/ebook readers.

I am not sure why they just don't make one "master" style thats tested everywhere. But it's probably because they are not software companies. For them epub/mobi just might mean "black and white ebook release".

Also mobi is probably most of the sales and it is pretty restricted design wise compared to epub.

So basically blame the publishers.

leephillips5y ago

What do you mean “PDF can‘t do that either”?

Wowfunhappy5y ago

> Generally the PDF copy of a book is designed to fit the format of the final printed book. The PDF is even often the deliverable sent to press.

I believe this is precisely what the GP finds appealing about PDFs. A PDF (usually) constitutes the original copy, reproduced faithfully.

It's like the difference between buying a widescreen VHS versus one that uses pan-and-scan to fit the movie to your TV's aspect ratio. Sure, the widescreen copy may not be ideal for your viewing environment, but it's the version the director intended for you to see.

And for both eBooks and movies, you can work around the problem by using more appropriate hardware.

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