Re: [tlug] A book to ebook shop?

[Darren Cook <darren@example.com>]

> I just used scapon to convert some books to pdf(+OCR):
> ...
> - The size of pdf files is huge (160MB for a 400 page book, and 327MB
> for the 846 page Python Cookbook ! ). I'm still downloading ...

This must be one of those "It's The Principle" things :-)

For O'Reilly books you can register them and get the ebook for $4.99.
The ebook will be a properly formatted PDF, of minimal size, with text
*and source code* you can copy and paste, and no worries about OCR
errors. You can also download a mobi version that can be displayed on
your kindle.
They also have other formats, depending on the title, including ePub,
apk (android) and DAISY (talking books).

Darren


P.S. This sounds like I ought to work for O'Reilly sales and marketing :-)
But, at least at the moment, they are the only computer book publisher
that gets ebooks: they charge less for them than their print books, they
don't copy-protect them, they supply them in multiple formats and you
can download as many different formats as you want. Their mobi books are
also designed for kindle (e.g. proper headings, links in the content
pages, not putting print book page numbers in the index, etc.) which
amazingly cannot be said for other book publishers charging the same as
the printed book for an DRM-protected kindle-only version. (Dummies
Series, I'm looking at you...)

Recently I've been buying most of my computer books at O'Reilly, reading
it the first time on kindle cover-to-cover, then loading up the PDF when
I need to jump to a certain section for an actual project. I'm still
getting a print book for Cookbook style books that I know I'll be
referring to a lot, or those books that rely on lots of graphics (e.g. a
Heads First style book).

-- 
Darren Cook, Software Researcher/Developer

http://dcook.org/work/ (About me and my work)
http://dcook.org/blogs.html (My blogs and articles)