(no subject)

[ffutures]

The Forgotten Futures CD-ROM contains a lot of period novels, stories and articles in HTML format.

After I got a couple of requests for it I started converting some of the longer pieces into Microsoft Reader .lit format. And the response was...

...total apathy. I never got any feedback suggesting that it was at all popular, or worth continuing with it. In fact I've continued to do so, since the work involved is only an hour or two per book and the software is free, but I've no reason to believe anyone ever looks at the damned things.

Today I read something which made me wonder if I might get a more positive response if I used the Palm Reader format instead, and I've been pointed at a site that carries free software for it. But before I start doing this I'd be grateful for some feedback; do people use these readers, and if so, which? And if they do, would they find the files more user-friendly than HTML, bearing in mind that illustrations will be smaller?

I should add that PDF is probably not an option - the files are too big and it looks crap unless you spend a LOT of time working at it.

[Poll #450793]

Comments

[drplokta]

I like Plucker best, as it has the most legible fonts on my Clie. But it's trivially easy for me to convert HTML to Plucker, so that's probably the best bet.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

While I have clicked that I prefer HTML, I'd like to clarify a little: I prefer good HTML to plain text, but I'd rather have plain text than bad HTML.

Also, what's your source format for these texts?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

OCR from paper

[ggreig]

I have used most of the obvious formats, usually because what I want to to read is only available in format X. I would prefer paper, but it's not practical for your purposes. Seems to me like HTML is and will likely remain the best option.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I answered "I prefer plain text," but I prefer Palm format if I'm going to be reading the thing on my Palm, of course.

[cobrabay.livejournal.com]

I like Mobipocket, mostly for its cross-platform availablity (PalmOS, PocketPC, SymbianOS, Windows) and the free publisher program for the format. I started using it on the Psion, and now use it on the Palm. I discovered it when I downloaded some of the free SF novels available on the Baen site. Its main downsides are the lack of Mac or Linux reader, the converter only works on Windows, and there is no command line version of the converter.
I've tried most of the e-text formats, Palm doc, iSilo, Plucker, Tomeraider, TCR, .lit, they all have their pros and cons. Plucker is good, and since it is an off-line HTML reader handles links well and has Windows, Mac and Linux converters. It is open source, but as far as I am aware has no PocketPC or Symbian versions. Palm doc, is sufficiently common that there are readers for the format on loads of other platforms, certainly there used to be a couple of Psion ones, and I'd be surprised if there wasn't a PocketPC one, and it has a command line converter, great if you are converting lots of text files. Downside is that it doesn't give you many text formatting facilities.