Re: [libreoffice-users] Book-writing with Writer

On 07/09/2013 03:48 PM, Virgil Arrington wrote:
> Kracked_P_P wrote:
>
> > I use LO to export my work to a PDF document that would work well on 
> > my tablets.  All I needed to do is format the page size to the proper 
> > one that works best for tablet reading.  I choose something along the 
> > page size used for paper-back books.  So I format the page to about 4 
> > by 7 inches, with a small margin size.  Then I export it to a PDF 
> > file.  Of course, if I want to create an ePub document format 
> > instead, for Kindle or Nook, then I use an external package called 
> > "Calibre".  I run it on a Ubuntu/Linux system, but it come in Windows 
> > as well. [if I remember correctly]
>
> I've done the same thing by formatting the page size of a PDF file to 
> fit my Kindle screen. Of course, with PDF, you lose a lot of the 
> functionality of the Kindle (or Nook), such as scalable fonts and the 
> continuous flow of text without page breaks, etc. For that, you need 
> the e-book formats (Mobi for Kindle, Epub for Nook). This is where my 
> OCD kicks in for I've found that most programs, such as LO, and even 
> LyX and Markdown, lose some formatting in the translation to HTML, 
> which is the basis of Epub. Of all the programs I've tried, Atlantis 
> does the best job of retaining my formatting and it exports directly 
> to Epub and Mobi formats. I've used Calibre and find it really good, 
> but again, my results have been spotty. So far, I haven't been able to 
> get a good conversion of a PDF to Mobi with Calibre (maybe it's user 
> error on my part). There's a lot to Calibre and I haven't fully 
> explored it yet.
>
>
> > SO, for my needs, I take free books that are in .txt or other formats 
> > and use LO and its page formatting to convert them into a document or 
> > book that works well for either my 7 inch or 9 inch tablets.
>
> I do the same with Atlantis and export directly to Epub and Mobi formats.
>
> > For Ligatures, well there are fonts that can be used that have those 
> > glyph/letter combinations available.  But I never saw the need to use 
> > them. I just choose a font that works well for reading as an eBook or 
> > printed one. There are fonts specifically created for their 
> > readability for books. Most text books tend to use such fonts, as 
> > well as physical books you buy.
>
> If you're saving to an e-book format, ligatures aren't necessary, nor 
> is margin justification or true typographic features. But, if you're 
> going to print that puppy, you want it to have all the typographic 
> excellence you can get and, right now at least, that excellence is 
> lacking with typical word processors. For print excellence, you can't 
> beat LaTeX.
>
> Virgil

Yes, if you fix the page and font size to what works for you, then it 
may not be right for others.  Well, I still can take the TXT file and 
convert it to a ePub file.  But, the Calibre package [Ubuntu 12.04] and 
gives me both Nook and Kindle page formatting under the ePub exporting, 
for whatever reasons.  I have the ability to use both Kindle and Nook 
apps on both of my tablets, even though one is a Nook.  I have seen a 
Kindle app so you can read your Kindle books from your Amazon "library" 
on you Nook tablet.  I have not tried that, but my old tablet had the 
Kindle app on it and I was reading some books bought/downloaded from 
Amazon.  Mostly free ones though. Will see later if I can read them on 
my Nook..


For printed books, I still will go with the "easy to read book fonts" 
and some seem to not need the ligatures.  The only thing might be needed 
is some spacing options between words and letters for fully-justified 
text.  Jean Hollis Weber, our main documentation editor, can tell you 
how much a pain that can be to get the lines and paragraphs to look 
"right" with fully right and left justified text within a document.  
Hyphenation helps but not completely in that department.

Actually, I was looking at a new book and I was shocked that the printed 
paper-back book cost almost $5 LESS than the Nook and Kindle file 
version[s].  You would expect the printed book to cost more, and but not 
the e-book file to cost more.  Well, since some people claim printed 
books are "dead", and no one would want to buy a printed copy, someone 
decided to make the e-book versions more expensive, so the publisher 
could make a really big profit.  I doubt the author is getting more 
money out of such a sale.  He would get the same income per book, no 
matter what the format; hard-cover, paper-back, or e-book.





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