here's my "first draft" on specific elements of a well-done e-book. for a similar analysis, on behalf of distributed proofreaders, see http://dave.maddockfamily.org:81/dp/htmlspec/proposal.html i would particularly like to hear from jon ingram on this topic, as he's done some rather nice .html files for project gutenberg. note that these aspects are for _books_, albeit a large range of them. magazines and newspapers present additional interesting challenges. (ingram could comment on those, too, because he's done magazines.) these are the criteria _i_ use to evaluate the quality of an e-book. please feel free to add anything you feel is missing, or challenge anything you believe to be unnecessary... -bowerbird _____ headers and links headers should be big and/or bold, and start on a new page multiple levels of headers should be exposed/hidden at will. headers at different levels should be sized differently. a table of contents should be created (preferably automatically) (ditto a table of illustrations, footnotes, tables, when applicable) headers should be hotlinked from a table of contents, and they should hotlink _back_ to the table of contents headers should hotlink to the previous header, and the next internal references to a header (see chapter 2) should be hotlinked any fully-specified u.r.l. should be a hotlink to that website _____ other typography block-quotes should be indented, maybe set off in a box tables should look "nicely done", maybe set off in a box the title-page and front-matter should look presentable note indicators should be linked to the note itself, and the note should be backlinked to the indicator index items should be linked to the place in the text, and a backlink should be made as well, if at all possible "also see" references in an index should hotlink appropriately images should be viewable and resizeable at will widow/orphan control is essential display of line-numbers in poems should be optional special treatment of each character's dialogue in a play (e.g., each rendered in a distinct color) should be an option if the e-book is replicating an existing paper-book, then the page-numbers from that p-books should be available, with a user option as to their display, and the e-book display should be able to mimic the p-book if the e-book is replicating an existing paper-book, then the user should be able to print it and duplicate the p-book, _but_also_ be able to change any print parameters at will _____ things about the viewer-program... fast-loading, responsive, customizable, 1-page or 2-page display pagesize, font, fontsize, leading, text-color, background-color, significant lines and strings highlighted, annotations possible, justification (vertical and horizontal) at the choice of the user