Re: PDF ebook formatting best practice?

Erica Frank wrote:
> jon_noring wrote:

>> I'm now considering offering a PDF version of an ebook which I have
>> published since the 1990's. In the past I primarily offered it in
>> MS-LIT, and currently offer it in ePub (secondarily, I offer my
>> ebook for the eReader and the Kindle.)
>>
>> Carefully note that the PDF version will be sold directly to
>> readers who will either read it on screen, or print it out. This
>> PDF is not intended for Print-On-Demand, which is a separate issue
>> (or is it?)

> Is it intended for use on e-ink readers? (One issue with that is
> choosing a page size. While most e-ink readers have 6" screens,
> there are also some 5" screens, and the DX and Iliad are larger, and
> the new one Sony's putting out next month will have a 7" screen with
> entirely different proportions.)
> 
> I make a lot of PDFs for my Sony PRS-505. I use 3.46" x 4.6" pages
> (although some people use 90x120mm; I gather that's close enough)
> with .15" margins (because the Reader itself provides plenty of
> space around the text). I use 9 or 10 pt Georgia or Fontin, but a
> lot of people like a larger starting font than that.
> 
> The e-ink readers don't show color images, but they render to
> greyscale nicely. It does take some adjustment to realize that any
> picture will be seen on, at most, a 4 1/2" screen (if they shift to
> landscape).  However, that's more usable space than many paperbacks
> get.
> 
> I hate dealing with letter-sized PDFs, and just tolerate the 6x9
> ones, because they usually have wide margins that I have to crop out
> in order to read the book. Also, many of them aren't tagged for
> accessibility, which is necessary for the Sony's reflow-text ability
> to work right; otherwise, when it tries to resize the text, it puts
> a return at the end of every line.
> 
> I like PDFs to be bookmarked by chapters, and I often wind up adding
> those myself.

Thanks for your feedback.

Now I fully recall why I avoided selling ebooks in PDF (a decision
which cost me some sales) because of the difficulty of formatting a
single PDF to be "all things to all people." Reflowable PDF would
help, but then when considering reflowability, I believe it best to
simply go with a format designed to be reflowable. For a number of
years I focused on MS-LIT, and today focus on ePub, Kindle, and
eReader editions.

One option would be to create several PDFs, each optimized for a
particular reading platform (including print), but this adds a number
of complications for distribution/retail that I'd rather not bother
dealing with since overall I'm happy with ePub, etc. I do want to
target readers who are still primarily PDF buyers -- but I don't
want to offer more than one PDF version.

So the question of the publishers and book readers here: if you buy
PDF ebooks, what do you use to read the book? (This includes printing
it out on paper.) Is there a general consensus as to what works the
best for most people who primarily purchase PDFs? (I suspect they
simply print the book, or read it on their desktop or laptop using
Adobe Reader.) Whatever I do with regards to offering PDF -- if I do
-- I would likely add a note to the book description stating what the
PDF is optimized for.

Btw, Erica, I would suspect that most ebook buyers are not savvy as
you are in reformatting PDF documents, or converting other formats
into PDF, to adapt them to a particular reading device, such as the
Sony.

Jon Noring



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