Robert, You might be more pleased with the results on a PDA if you try an HTML edition of the book as opposed to the Text versions. In my experience, the simplified web browser in most PDAs is quite up to the task of formatting the text to nicely fit on a PDA screen. It is the hard return marks in the text files that cause the line length issues you've seen. NOTE: This doesn't help with those texts that don't have an HTML edition available, I realize. There are others on the list that may be better suited to answer about dedicated eBook readers (which I have heard of, but have no direct experience with). Josh ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marcello Perathoner" <webmaster@gutenberg.org> To: "Project Gutenberg volunteer discussion" <gutvol-d@lists.pglaf.org> Subject: [gutvol-d] [Fwd: Ebook Reading device?] Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 22:29:07 +0200
Anybody want to answer this one?
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Ebook Reading device? Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 21:11:35 +0100 From: Robert Sutherland <robsuth@robsuth.plus.com> To: webmaster@gutenberg.org
Being now in retirement I lately became interested in E-books and was delighted - amazed, more like! - to discover Project Gutenberg. However, I have been very puzzled by the apparent absence of a simple portable device designed for reading downloaded e.books. All my searches on the internet and my inquiries of the trade have failed to trace one. I wonder if you can put me on track of one?
The trade just assume that a lap-top or a PDA would be quite adequate, but neither is really suitable. I use a lap-top mostly but they are far bigger than is required, and are far from being as portable as I am sure a specific device could be. I have not found a PDA with a large enough screen to provide comfortable reading - indeed, even to take the kind of line-length used in PG, or if they do it would excessively reduce the print size, which begins to matter as one gets older. To anyone making any considerable use of e.books a specific device designed for the purpose would be a distinct asset.
As far as I see from the internet, there used to be a few such devices available but they seem to have been dedicated to special file formats used exclusively by firms producing e.books for sale: the indications seem to be that their efforts to establish monopolies mostly failed and their devices ceased to be available in the market. Some at least were exclusive to USA anyway, which would not have helped someone like myself resident in UK.
I raised this matter with one of the main UK computing magazines but they came back only with the standard view that a PDA would do, which of course it would not, being designed for quite different purposes. I have also enquired of several of the main computing retailers, none of whom has shown the slightest interest.
I feel quite surprised that nothing specific is available - have I missed something in my researches? If I have, I'd be very grateful if you could point me in the right direction; but if I have not, then could PG perhaps set a spark to some manufacturer's imagination?
I thought that perhaps a modern DVD portable player might be the answer - some very cheap models are becoming available - but from the specifications I have seen and the advice given by retailers they are unlikely to be able to take .txt, .rtf or .pdf files. If they did, one could simply put the e.books onto CD or DVD as data files - although slightly bigger than Captain Picard uses when at leisure in his quarters, a portable DVD player would be much more convenient to use than a laptop. I am currently trying to ascertain whether it might be possible to charge an existing model with a program to make it compatible? One just needs .txt, .rtf and .pdf.
Yours sincerely, Robert Sutherland ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Marcello Perathoner webmaster@gutenberg.org
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