Great Job in the content! Great and concise article, to fix misconceptions out there about PDF. Opened it in the browser, and it is born reflowable again! How do you explain that? I agree whatever format you use, use your real document to generate ePub file or PDF file because converting ePub to PDF or vice versa really ruins your work.
A different answer comes to my head. Sure, books are documents, although not all documents are books. The point is: this is all verbal masturbation.
At this point there are two basic types of ebooks: fixed layout and reflowable. The only software to produce them on a professional level is InDesign CC. All of these work wonderfully well for ebooks meant for group usage: textbooks, study guides, and so on because they have page numbers so everyone can be on the same page. These do need a tablet or phablet, at least, to work well. No problem. I remain surprised at how many people prefer PDFs.
PDF not an ebook? Font size and style can be changed by the reader, as well as line spacing and "page" margin. Adjustments to these settings will affect how the words flow and break onto the next "page.
An eBook displayed on the Kindle may contain more individual screens of text than one displayed on the iPad, since the screen size is so much smaller. Because of this "flowing" nature of the text in an eBook, each screen or "page" of text will never have a set page number, though some eReaders may automatically assign "page numbers" to each screen.
These numbers will not match up with your print book, nor will they be the same from one device to another. They may even change on a single device if you adjust your settings. Like clay, your eBook will change and "re-shape" itself with every adjustment the reader makes. Just as your eBook looks different from your print book, it also requires a very different process to create and edit the files. When a designer typesets your book, they see the words on the page exactly as they will appear in the printed book.
If they want to change spacing, it requires simply a few clicks of the mouse. If you need to make an editorial change, you can point out what page the error is on, and the designer can make the change, again, with just a few clicks. An eBook, on the other hand, is created using code much like a website. When your formatter works on your eBook, they are not seeing the words exactly as they will appear on the "page" or screen of an eReader.
They see lines of code, and they must understand exactly how each line of code will translate to the eReader screen as they format. Making a change is not a matter of a few clicks. Any given change may require the formatter to change multiple lines of code, transform all of the code into an eBook file, and then finally see how the change translates to words on a page when the file is viewed on a device.
Though proper typesetting and eBook formatting both require trained professionals, creating and making changes to an eBook file can take significantly more time than typesetting and making changes to a print book. Again this is due to the fact that an eBook formatter works with the raw text and source code of the file. We use cookies on our website to customise your experience and analyse our traffic. To learn more about how we use the cookies, please see our privacy policy. Which one do I need?
Since this topic is such a frequent question we have decided to explore the differences and the qualities of the two so as to avoid any further confusion.
PDF is preferred in some citation style guides, so we will continue to provide this format for all academic eBook content. Be sure to check the requirements of your required citation style, professor, or academic journal. Skip to Main Content. Expand search.
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