eBooks, What Format Do You Use?

[dmccoy1693]

I'm considering putting some of my current/upcoming products for Traveller in eBook format in addition to pdf. But... There are ALOT of formats out there and I'd be crazy to try them all at once. So, you tell me, what do you use or plan to use in the near future for a mobile device?

Also, if you buy eBooks online, where do you currently buy them (other than DriveThruRPG/RPGNow)?

 

[Jame]

I do not use eBooks, because we do not currently have a hand computer that I view as actually being a hand computer - something that is a computer first, cell phone second and has a screen set up for reading eBooks.

 

[dmccoy1693]

But if you had ... say a book of NPCs in a format designed for your phone, would you use it?

 

[Ishmael]

plain .txt when I actually use such things as ebooks

 

[aramis]

I use Sony PRS-505. Which means

• BBeB (.LRF/.LRM)
• ePub (including DRM)
• PDF (Including DRM)
• RTF
• Text.

Preference is PDF and non-DRM BBeB; converter I've used is calibre, which is freeware.

 

[Hemdian]

I also have a Sony PRS-505 and I've been very pleased with it. So much so that my little (40K word so far) Traveller fanfic is a PDF sized for it ... and using the PRS-505's default font (Dutch801 Rm BT). In other words it's optimised for the PRS-505 but still readable on PCs and others devices.

(There's now a link to the fanfic from my recently revamped homepage.)

 

[Merxiless]

I only do Traveller work on my Desktop PC at home, so I have access to my library.

I buy regularly from DrivethruRPG, and such so .pdf full size.

I'm never going to get one of those readers or blackberries or whatever little deals they got out now.

 

[Jame]

But if you had ... say a book of NPCs in a format designed for your phone, would you use it?

No. First, my phone is too primitive, and second, I'd rather have a laptop for this.

 

[Hemdian]

Yeah, I wouldn't use a phone for this either, the screen would be too small. One thing I like about the Sony ereader (and I assume this is the case for all the other ereaders too) is that you can sit outside in strong sunlight and its just as readable. Try doing that with an ordinary laptop!

But what I'm waiting for is Plastic Logic's ereader ... US Letter size screen, compatable with PDF, MS Word, Excel, etc.

 

[aramis]

Yeah, I wouldn't use a phone for this either, the screen would be too small. One thing I like about the Sony ereader (and I assume this is the case for all the other ereaders too) is that you can sit outside in strong sunlight and its just as readable. Try doing that with an ordinary laptop!

But what I'm waiting for is Plastic Logic's ereader ... US Letter size screen, compatable with PDF, MS Word, Excel, etc.

Late Spring, Hemidan, late spring. It's the one I want, too.

 

[saundby]

I use my Eee PCs and my Sciphone G2. I've also used a Palm in the past. I use PDFs and plain text. I convert RTFs from the Baen library to PDF when necessary.If I get a dedicated ebook reader, I won't use proprietary ebook formats--pdf is as close as I'll go. Even more so since Amazon's tricks with Orwell's books. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/18/amazon_removes_1984_from_kindle/)

The book store never reclaimed my Ace editions of Asimov or Tolkien--but Amazon can take away an electronic copy of 1984 because the publisher was in the wrong?o:

 

[Maladominus]

I still believe in killing trees.

On my days off, I grab a book (right now, it's a compilation book of HP Lovecraft stories), I drive 1.5 miles to the nearby Starbucks after 9pm. Coffee. Book. Sitting on a comfy leather sofa-chair (Starbucks has these), with light background jazz music. It's the good life.

I read until closing hour (they start kicking people out around 10:30pm).

 

[Jame]

Yeah, I wouldn't use a phone for this either, the screen would be too small. One thing I like about the Sony ereader (and I assume this is the case for all the other ereaders too) is that you can sit outside in strong sunlight and its just as readable. Try doing that with an ordinary laptop!

But what I'm waiting for is Plastic Logic's ereader ... US Letter size screen, compatable with PDF, MS Word, Excel, etc.

I might get one of these, if it's compatible with that stuff - and if I get a job that affords me enough money to do so.

 

[Commander Truestar]

I also have a Sony PRS-505 and I've been very pleased with it. So much so that my little (40K word so far) Traveller fanfic is a PDF sized for it ... and using the PRS-505's default font (Dutch801 Rm BT). In other words it's optimised for the PRS-505 but still readable on PCs and others devices.

(There's now a link to the fanfic from my recently revamped homepage.)

How is the Sony device? I bought a "BeBook" from a Dutch manufacturer and it works great with pdf formats as well a MS-Word and a number of other formats including txt. So it is good but I look forward to better later. Mind you, I happily have my entire electronic Traveller collection and my Filk songbook on it as well as some other materials.

Marc

 

[aramis]

How is the Sony device? I bought a "BeBook" from a Dutch manufacturer and it works great with pdf formats as well a MS-Word and a number of other formats including txt. So it is good but I look forward to better later. Mind you, I happily have my entire electronic Traveller collection and my Filk songbook on it as well as some other materials.

Marc

Rugged (mine's been dropped a dozen times onto concrete floors with no visible damage; slight nicking of the end plastic), handles simple PDF's no problem.

Some very complex PDFs don't render well at all: Arrowflight's Anima sourcebook, Wick's Houses of the Blooded. These are slow on my macbook pro, and terminally so on the PRS-505. (They do render prettily... but 3s - 6s per page is a bit long for HOTB. John Wick is unsympathetic.) Note that some page turns on the Macbook are in excess of 1s for HOTB. Stripping out the images is the only way to make it render decently, but that's a HUGE lot of work.

Scanned image PDFs (as some stuff on DTRPG is) have two display modes: half-sheet in landscape, and full page in portait mode. It will NOT autorotate PDFs; if it gets a landscape and you're in portrait mode, it shrinks it to width.

BBeB and RTF are bloody fast. RTF formatted for 4x6 works AWESOME for making GM cheat sheets, but you have to use tabs, not inset tables, for tabular data.

 

[Commander Truestar]

Rugged (mine's been dropped a dozen times onto concrete floors with no visible damage; slight nicking of the end plastic), handles simple PDF's no problem.

Some very complex PDFs don't render well at all: Arrowflight's Anima sourcebook, Wick's Houses of the Blooded. These are slow on my macbook pro, and terminally so on the PRS-505. (They do render prettily... but 3s - 6s per page is a bit long for HOTB. John Wick is unsympathetic.) Note that some page turns on the Macbook are in excess of 1s for HOTB. Stripping out the images is the only way to make it render decently, but that's a HUGE lot of work.

Scanned image PDFs (as some stuff on DTRPG is) have two display modes: half-sheet in landscape, and full page in portait mode. It will NOT autorotate PDFs; if it gets a landscape and you're in portrait mode, it shrinks it to width.

BBeB and RTF are bloody fast. RTF formatted for 4x6 works AWESOME for making GM cheat sheets, but you have to use tabs, not inset tables, for tabular data.

Rugged is a key and I am lucky with mine. I did not shop for survivability and have dropped mine much more often than I care to admit. >

Rather than using cheat sheets, I have the raw books scanned and stored.
Marc

 

[aramis]

Ok. Got my PRS-600. MASSIVE updates to the OS and capability, beyond what was listed!

Stuff they hyped:

• finger-navigation
• annotation (underhyped)
• more intuitive interface
• search
• five text sizes instead of 3. (plus full point-size based range rendering in PDF files.)
• non-skid back treatment.
• stylus
• additional ebook formats natively displayed.

Additional abilities not hyped:

• visual zoom, pan & scan
• text highlighting (persistent)
• draw over text; no HWR, but you can scribble notes in the margins now
• double-tap on text to dictionary lookup double-tapped word.
• note-pad function
• much faster processor
• much better screen redraw
  • Does not need to redraw whole screen
  • does not flash as bad when redrawing
  • faster redraw
• 3/4" narrower case; fits in more shirt pockets

WOW. The PRS 600, aka Sony Reader Touch Edition, is F*ing awesome interface. I've not loaded my most eggregious PDFs yet... but I can read the Vorkosigan Saga RPG (AKA GURPS Vorkosigan) easily on-screen by zooming in. I can make the text BIGGER than printed.

The 2121 should be the same interface.... so it's gonna be wicked-cool.

It just about to the Classic Trek PADD utility level, and the TNG PADD size.
It is a more comfortable interface

Also, neoprene pouch instead of leather covers. I prefer the cover, but the 500 series covers work with it, too.

Yes, I'm Gushing!

 

[Altoman5]

As far as e-books, I usually use my laptop for PDF files since older versions of Traveller are now in PDF form. I bought a few T4 books such as the Millieu 0 and Central Supply Catalog recently.

While those readers such as the Sony and Kindle systems seemed cool, however, they're still too expensive and it seems more of a fad coming back rather than the ultimate reading experience. I still remember when e-books on the PDAs and the big electronic readers where you had to use a modem to download e-books were a fad.

I might buy one when the price comes down and the technology is more polished.

However, I'm more into having the physical copies of the books. Call me sentimental, but looking how well worn some of my Traveller books were brings up a lot of memories. And all those creases, bent pages and mark ups builds character and history.

 

[dragonlady]

besides rpgnow I use paizo.com for my ebooks.

 

[aramis]

RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG (they're the same provider, I use the DTRPG interface). Usually PDF.
Paizo (free and comped stuff only so far), PDF.
a couple other indie providers, PDF.

Novels in LRM or EPUB.

All go on my PRS600.