Complete Collected Stories of [Author] ?

[Jack Bohn]

A mention of the collected short fiction of Philip K. Dick in
five volumes reminds me of the collected short fiction of
Theodore Sturgeon; I have volumes 1-5 and 7; how many does it
run, and is it finished yet?

I also have the Complete short fiction of C. M. Kornbluth,
Fredric Brown and Cordwainer Smith in one thick volume each from
the NESFA Press. (Odd how the loom so large, yet I can hold them
in one hand.) There's also most of the short works of Alfred
Bester in a book called Virtual Unrealities. Any others?

--
-Jack

[Mark Atwood]

Jack Bohn <jack...@bright.net> writes:
> Any others?

_Stories of Your Life, And Others_, by Ted Chiang

--
Mark Atwood | Well done is better than well said.
m...@pobox.com |
http://www.pobox.com/~mra

[David Bilek]

Jack Bohn <jack...@bright.net> wrote:
>
>A mention of the collected short fiction of Philip K. Dick in
>five volumes reminds me of the collected short fiction of
>Theodore Sturgeon; I have volumes 1-5 and 7; how many does it
>run, and is it finished yet?
>

10 volumes I think. Dunno if it's finished.

>I also have the Complete short fiction of C. M. Kornbluth,
>Fredric Brown and Cordwainer Smith in one thick volume each from
>the NESFA Press. (Odd how the loom so large, yet I can hold them
>in one hand.) There's also most of the short works of Alfred
>Bester in a book called Virtual Unrealities. Any others?

_The Compleat Boucher_ by Anthony, uh, Boucher

_Immodest Proposals: The Complete Science Fiction of William Tenn,
Volume 1_ and _Here Comes Civilization: The Complete Science Fiction
of William Tenn, Volume 2_ by... well you know.

And somebody was re-printing all of Harlan Ellison. But I gather that
Ellison remained true to form and it fell through somehow. Got to
volume 4 or 5.

There are also a whole slew of "Essential" collections from NESFA
which contain much (but not all) of a given author's work. Hal
Clement, James Schmitz, Eric Frank Russell, Murray Leinster, etc.

http://www.nesfa.org/press/catalog.html lists them all.

-David

[Chris Kuan]

Jack Bohn <jack...@bright.net> wrote in message news:<puaivu0aeirmfr8or...@4ax.com>...

> Any others?

I think I saw a fattish paperback the other day whose title was
something like "The Complete Short Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke".

--
Chris

[James Nicoll]

In article <a74c0605.02121...@posting.google.com>,

Is the paperback more complete than the Tor HC? Were the
missing pages put back in?
--
"Repress the urge to sprout wings or self-ignite!...This man's an
Episcopalian!...They have definite views."

Pibgorn Oct 31/02

[Wm F Seabrook]

David Bilek wrote:

> Jack Bohn <jack...@bright.net> wrote:
> >
> >A mention of the collected short fiction of Philip K. Dick in
> >five volumes reminds me of the collected short fiction of
> >Theodore Sturgeon; I have volumes 1-5 and 7; how many does it
> >run, and is it finished yet?
> >
>
> 10 volumes I think. Dunno if it's finished.

No only 8 so far:

1 The Ultimate Egoist
2 Microcosmic God
3 Killdozer!
4 Thunder and Roses
5 The Perfect Host
6 Baby Is Three
7 A Saucer of Loneliness
6 Bright Segment

and no it's no finished. Based on what I know is still
to come I suspect there will be at least 12 volumes.

Bill Seabrook

[Randy Money]

James Nicoll wrote:
> In article <a74c0605.02121...@posting.google.com>,
> Chris Kuan <mrgaz...@bigmailbox.net> wrote:
>
>>Jack Bohn <jack...@bright.net> wrote in message news:<puaivu0aeirmfr8or...@4ax.com>...
>>
>>
>>>Any others?
>>
>>I think I saw a fattish paperback the other day whose title was
>>something like "The Complete Short Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke".
>
>
> Is the paperback more complete than the Tor HC? Were the
> missing pages put back in?

Hadn't heard about this. So the hardcover should have been called, _The
Incomplete Short Stories..._?

Randy M.

[Konrad Gaertner]

Jack Bohn wrote:
>
> Any others?

I have the first two volumes of _The Complete Stories_ of Asimov, and
I'll happily buy the remaining volumes if anyone publishes them.

--KG

[Jack Bohn]

Konrad Gaertner wrote:

>I have the first two volumes of _The Complete Stories_ of Asimov, and
>I'll happily buy the remaining volumes if anyone publishes them.

Ah, yes, I'd forgotten those; for a moment I'd thought you meant
those omnibus editions with two novels and a short story
collection. I think my brother has _The [so far, in]Complete
Stories_. There was no organizing principal for those books, was
there? I mean, if it had been chronological, the first volume
would be _The Early Asimov_ all over again.

You know, I wouldn't mind seeing a complete collection of
Asimov's F&SF science essays.

--
-Jack

[Michael J. Cross]

In article <puaivu0aeirmfr8or...@4ax.com>
jack...@bright.net "Jack Bohn" writes:

> in one hand.) There's also most of the short works of Alfred
> Bester in a book called Virtual Unrealities.

If all you have is _Virtual Unrealities_ then you are still missing most
of Bester's stories. _VU_ only contains 17 of 43.

If you also have _Redemolished_ (10 stories, 8 essays, 5 interviews (by
Bester, of Huston, Stout, Allen, Asimov, & Heinlein), and the Deleted
Prologue to _The Demolished Man_) then you are closer to completeness.

But even then, you're missing 13 stories that seem never to have been
collected, and 3 that appear in other collections but not in those two.

For a breakdown of the contents of the collections, see

http://www.mjckeh.demon.co.uk/books/abbiblio.htm

all the best,
--
Michael J. Cross Visit http://www.mjckeh.demon.co.uk for
BSFA Magazine Index, Hull SF Group, J Cipollina & M Kurihara Discographies
New, improved BSFA Index at http://www.santaroga.uklinux.net

[Thomas Yan]

Jack Bohn <jack...@bright.net> writes:

-snip-

> I also have the Complete short fiction of C. M. Kornbluth,
> Fredric Brown and Cordwainer Smith in one thick volume each from
> the NESFA Press. (Odd how the loom so large, yet I can hold them
> in one hand.) There's also most of the short works of Alfred
> Bester in a book called Virtual Unrealities. Any others?

Unless Octavia Butler has written more short stories recently,
_Bloodchild and Other Stories_ has *all* her short fiction, SF and
non-SF. All, what, 7 of them or so.

[Konrad Gaertner]

Jack Bohn wrote:
>
> Konrad Gaertner wrote:
>
> >I have the first two volumes of _The Complete Stories_ of Asimov, and
> >I'll happily buy the remaining volumes if anyone publishes them.
>
> Ah, yes, I'd forgotten those; for a moment I'd thought you meant
> those omnibus editions with two novels and a short story
> collection. I think my brother has _The [so far, in]Complete
> Stories_. There was no organizing principal for those books, was
> there? I mean, if it had been chronological, the first volume
> would be _The Early Asimov_ all over again.

Volume 1 is the complete contents of _Earth is Room Enough_,
_Nine Tomorrows_, and _Nightfall and Other Stories_. Volume 2
appears to be bits of several other collections.

> You know, I wouldn't mind seeing a complete collection of
> Asimov's F&SF science essays.

That would be cool too; I've been recently picking up some of the
collections when I see them used.

--KG

[John Pelan]

On Thu, 12 Dec 2002 23:51:04 -0500, Jack Bohn <jack...@bright.net>
wrote:

>A mention of the collected short fiction of Philip K. Dick in
>five volumes reminds me of the collected short fiction of
>Theodore Sturgeon; I have volumes 1-5 and 7; how many does it
>run, and is it finished yet?

I think it will run to ten volumes.

>
>I also have the Complete short fiction of C. M. Kornbluth,
>Fredric Brown and Cordwainer Smith in one thick volume each from
>the NESFA Press. (Odd how the loom so large, yet I can hold them
>in one hand.) There's also most of the short works of Alfred
>Bester in a book called Virtual Unrealities. Any others?
>

Sure, there's a Complete J.G. Ballard. Feesters in the Lake comprises
the complete Bob Leman. I'll be doing a three-volume set of Cleve
Cartmill, and while our plans for Leiber and Wyndham weren't
necessarily to do "completes", it's migrating in that direction. Of
course, I've put together the (pretty much) Complete Manly Wade
Wellman supernatural fiction, and the publisher seems keen to continue
with the SF and Fantasy in a couple of years...

I'm really unhappy with how much Leinster and Russell keeps getting
missed and may do something about that someday... Oh yes, and I've
promised to do the Complete Nictzin Dyalhis in 2006. ;-)

Cheers,

John

www.darksidepress.com
>--
>-Jack
>

[Jack Bohn]

Michael J. Cross wrote:

>In article <puaivu0aeirmfr8or...@4ax.com>
> jack...@bright.net "Jack Bohn" writes:
>
>> in one hand.) There's also most of the short works of Alfred
>> Bester in a book called Virtual Unrealities.
>
>If all you have is _Virtual Unrealities_ then you are still missing most
>of Bester's stories. _VU_ only contains 17 of 43.

Thanks for the correction! I don't know where I got the idea it
was more like 17 of 30. Re-reading the _VU_ introduction, I
don't see numbers, but it did leave me with the impression that
the only stories dropped were the "rotten" juvenalia from before
his return to sf. Looking at your site:

> http://www.mjckeh.demon.co.uk/books/abbiblio.htm

several were left out from the '50s (and from the '60s, '70s, and
'80s -to make it sound like a radio slogan). The title "MS Found
in a Coconut" sounds vaguely familiar, and it's barely possible I
would have seen the June 1979 Analog, but unless it has something
like "continued on next coconut," no memory exists. I do have
the _Astounding_ anthology. <reads> " Something Up There Likes
Me" is certainly a story worthy of Bester. The fifth- and
fourth-to-last conversational lines make it. Well, out to get
redemolished, then.

--
-Jack

[Chris Kuan]

Randy Money <rbm...@spamblocklibrary.syr.edu> wrote in message news:<3DF9FC9F...@spamblocklibrary.syr.edu>...

Hah - no idea. I went back to the store today and it was gone, so I
couldn't even buy it as an incomplete guide.

--
Chris

[John Pelan]

On Saturday, December 14, 2002 at 5:26:16 PM UTC-7, John Pelan wrote:

> Oh yes, and I've
> promised to do the Complete Nictzin Dyalhis in 2006. ;-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> John
>

www.ramblehouse.com

Okay, so I've run late... The good news is that I'm 90% done with the data entry for The Sapphire Siren & Other Tales of Inter-planetary Adventure. This will be the complete SF/Fantasy stories of Nictzin Dyalhis. Stay tuned to the Dancing Tuatara Press section on the main Ramble House page. It's really bizarre as I started to work on this project in 1986. It was going to be the first Axolotl Press book, as a matter of fact, the name of the press hadn't even been selected yet. Had three stories entered into the word processor and then along comes Tim Powers with "Night Moves". I figure what the heck, Tim's alive and well and Dyalhis has been gone for years, so I'll just do Tim's book first and then do the Dyalhis collection. Well, one thing led to another and the project kept getting pushed aside. Recently my pal John Betancourt at Wildside made some files available which dramatically cut down the prep time that we would have to spend entering data. Since I had a couple of stories that his e-book was missing we basically swapped files so that there will be a dead tree version from Dancing Tuatara Press and Wildside will be able to issue version 2.0 in their e-book line. After all these years the project that got me started in this crazy business will finally be a reality. Figure on the book being released next month!

Cheers,

John Pelan
Editor - Dancing Tuatara Press
Science Fiction Editor - Centipede Press

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <84e72fd1-4bed-4099...@googlegroups.com>,

John Pelan <jpel...@gmail.com> wrote:
>so that there will be a dead tree version from Dancing Tuatara Press and
>Wildside will be able to issue version 2.0 in their e-book line. After
>all these years the project that got me started in this crazy business
>will finally be a reality. Figure on the book being released next month!

Conga rats! Particularly in getting Wildside to do ANYthing. My
agent sent 'em an inquiry back in the day, and they never even
troubled to say No.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the gmail edress.
Kithrup's all spammy and hotmail's been hacked.

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

On Thu, 20 Aug 2015 04:05:25 GMT, djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J
Heydt) wrote:

>In article <84e72fd1-4bed-4099...@googlegroups.com>,
>John Pelan <jpel...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>so that there will be a dead tree version from Dancing Tuatara Press and
>>Wildside will be able to issue version 2.0 in their e-book line. After
>>all these years the project that got me started in this crazy business
>>will finally be a reality. Figure on the book being released next month!
>
>Conga rats! Particularly in getting Wildside to do ANYthing. My
>agent sent 'em an inquiry back in the day, and they never even
>troubled to say No.

When was that?

I have little trouble getting a response from Wildside. Living nearby
and having adopted the publisher's cat may have helped with that.





--
My webpage is at http://www.watt-evans.com

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <pvpata90rp5vn6v9t...@reader80.eternal-september.org>,

Lawrence Watt-Evans <l...@sff.net> wrote:
>On Thu, 20 Aug 2015 04:05:25 GMT, djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J
>Heydt) wrote:
>
>>In article <84e72fd1-4bed-4099...@googlegroups.com>,
>>John Pelan <jpel...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>so that there will be a dead tree version from Dancing Tuatara Press and
>>>Wildside will be able to issue version 2.0 in their e-book line. After
>>>all these years the project that got me started in this crazy business
>>>will finally be a reality. Figure on the book being released next month!
>>
>>Conga rats! Particularly in getting Wildside to do ANYthing. My
>>agent sent 'em an inquiry back in the day, and they never even
>>troubled to say No.
>
>When was that?
>
>I have little trouble getting a response from Wildside. Living nearby
>and having adopted the publisher's cat may have helped with that.

Maybe. It was a goodish while ago, like early 2000s.

Let me look it up ... but I remember talking [typing] to you
about it. ....

Well, I can't find the original email from my agent, and I can't
find the original discussion with you.

But in 2006 I had a discussion with Ann Sharp, who manages the
Marion Zimmer Bradley Trust, and I told her,

>Some years ago, Patricia Wrede suggested that Wildside might be
>interested in publishing _TIL_. She put me in touch with the
>publicity person there, who sounded very enthusiastic (well,
>publicity people have to, I guess) and suggested that my agent
>get in touch with their editor, John Betancourt. So he did.
>
>Betancourt never answered. NEVER. Not even a "No." Dropped us
>into the fathomless abyss. I mentioned this once on rasfw, and
>here's what Lawrence Watt-Evans said:
>
>"I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I'm not.
>
>"John Betancourt is a nice guy, but he's not good at time management
>and has a tendency to lose track of things he needs to respond to.
>I'm not sure whether to advise you to nag him until you get a
>response, or to say you should shrug and forget it.

>Wildside has a total staff of five, not all of them full-time and
>not all of them sane, and all of whom have other employment as well
>because Wildside can't actually support them. It's published over a
>thousand titles in the last couple of years, and the most profitable
>have been the public-domain reprints, so that's where attention tends
>to get focused. As a result -- yeah, a lot of balls get dropped.
>
>"It might be worth another try. They aren't _deliberately_ rude, just
>disorganized and overloaded. If you don't have the patience to?j deal
>with that, though, I woudn't blame you a bit."

So that's a quotation from you, which is SOMEwhere on my disk,
though I can't find the original at the moment. (It's twenty to
seven, the kid's schoolbus is supposed to arrive at seven, we got
up at six, the search-fu is not awake yet.)

[David DeLaney]

On 2015-08-20, Dorothy J Heydt <djh...@kithrup.com> wrote:
> John Pelan <jpel...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>so that there will be a dead tree version from Dancing Tuatara Press and
>>Wildside will be able to issue version 2.0 in their e-book line. After
>>all these years the project that got me started in this crazy business
>>will finally be a reality. Figure on the book being released next month!
>
> Conga rats! Particularly in getting Wildside to do ANYthing. My
> agent sent 'em an inquiry back in the day, and they never even
> troubled to say No.

I add another line of dancing rodentia, and I note the gentle humor in "I've
run late..." responding to a post from 2002 forecasting this getting done in
2006. :)

Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting thru EarthLink - "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://gatekeeper.vic.com/~dbd/ -net.legends/Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

On Thu, 20 Aug 2015 13:42:47 GMT, djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J

Yeah, that sounds about right for that time period.

Since then, however, John has largely gotten his act together. Thanks
to the boom in ebooks that began when the Kindle was released in 2007,
Wildside DOES now support him; it's his full-time job.

He's fired at least three of the other four people who were working
for him in '06, which (perversely) helped*. (I'm not sure who the
fourth one was, to be honest.) And he's gotten better at time
management -- still not anywhere near perfect, but much better than he
was.

I'm not saying you should try again, necessarily, but if you did, and
still got absolutely no response, this time I _would_ be surprised.

=

* All three of them (including the publicity person you contacted)
then tried running their own small presses. At least two went
bankrupt; not sure about the third.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <eh1cta948o3i8gbrj...@reader80.eternal-september.org>,

/shrug

At this stage, I think I would be ashamed to have enouch chutzpah
to attempt getting anything published by anybody, e- or not.
Particularly since it wouldn't bring in any money.

[Robert Carnegie]

On Thursday, 20 August 2015 18:30:14 UTC+1, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> In article <eh1cta948o3i8gbrj...@reader80.eternal-september.org>,
> Lawrence Watt-Evans <l...@sff.net> wrote:

> >[Untold Tales of John Betancourt]

> >I'm not saying you should try again, necessarily, but if you did, and
> >still got absolutely no response, this time I _would_ be surprised.
>
> /shrug
>
> At this stage, I think I would be ashamed to have enouch chutzpah
> to attempt getting anything published by anybody, e- or not.
> Particularly since it wouldn't bring in any money.

This seems to leave open the question of how much is
an actual embarrassment of chutzpah, except that sadly
it is not exchangeable for an actual embarrassment of
riches.

...unless an embarrassment of riches is actually very
little riches. Hmm, it kind of makes sense that way.

[Brian M. Scott]

On Thu, 20 Aug 2015 14:54:10 -0700 (PDT), Robert Carnegie
<rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote
in<news:a8132807-7146-483b...@googlegroups.com>
in rec.arts.sf.written:

[...]

> an actual embarrassment of chutzpah, [...]

Seems a bit of an oxymoron.

Brian
--
It was the neap tide, when the baga venture out of their
holes to root for sandtatties. The waves whispered
rhythmically over the packed sand: haggisss, haggisss,
haggisss.

[James Nicoll]

In article <ntE5E...@kithrup.com>,

Dorothy J Heydt <djh...@kithrup.com> wrote:
>

>At this stage, I think I would be ashamed to have enouch chutzpah
>to attempt getting anything published by anybody, e- or not.
>Particularly since it wouldn't bring in any money.

I can tell you there's an audience for The Interior Life. Get it back in
print and I will promote it on my site.


--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My Livejournal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll
http://www.cafepress.com/jdnicoll (For all your "The problem with
defending the English language [...]" T-shirt, cup and tote-bag needs)

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <mrq609$i3i$1...@reader1.panix.com>,

James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>In article <ntE5E...@kithrup.com>,
>Dorothy J Heydt <djh...@kithrup.com> wrote:
>>
>>At this stage, I think I would be ashamed to have enouch chutzpah
>>to attempt getting anything published by anybody, e- or not.
>>Particularly since it wouldn't bring in any money.
>
>I can tell you there's an audience for The Interior Life. Get it back in
>print and I will promote it on my site.

Well, I'll tellya. I am begining to think about it, having been
reassured by my daughter that *I* will not have to do any
marketing whatsoever, she and her friends (who include Seanan
McGuire) will do it by word-of-mouth, or rather, by word-of-net.

But the problem is finding an e-platform that will support three
different sets of fonts (roman and italic for each). Do you know
of any?

(Kindle is definitely out, since they allow the *reader* to
choose different fonts, but they would all be the same font per
reader. I figured that out even before Graydon Saunders, whom I
have never met but whom, based on his work, I place not far from
the left hand of God, told me that his ancestors would all rise
up and haunt him if he published with Kindle, or words to that
effect.)

[J. Clarke]

In article <ntt97...@kithrup.com>, djh...@kithrup.com says...

>
> In article <mrq609$i3i$1...@reader1.panix.com>,
> James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
> >In article <ntE5E...@kithrup.com>,
> >Dorothy J Heydt <djh...@kithrup.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>At this stage, I think I would be ashamed to have enouch chutzpah
> >>to attempt getting anything published by anybody, e- or not.
> >>Particularly since it wouldn't bring in any money.
> >
> >I can tell you there's an audience for The Interior Life. Get it back in
> >print and I will promote it on my site.
>
> Well, I'll tellya. I am begining to think about it, having been
> reassured by my daughter that *I* will not have to do any
> marketing whatsoever, she and her friends (who include Seanan
> McGuire) will do it by word-of-mouth, or rather, by word-of-net.
>
> But the problem is finding an e-platform that will support three
> different sets of fonts (roman and italic for each). Do you know
> of any?
>
> (Kindle is definitely out, since they allow the *reader* to
> choose different fonts, but they would all be the same font per
> reader. I figured that out even before Graydon Saunders, whom I
> have never met but whom, based on his work, I place not far from
> the left hand of God, told me that his ancestors would all rise
> up and haunt him if he published with Kindle, or words to that
> effect.)

Fonts can be embedded in PDFs, whether there's a free/cheap tool to do
that though I have no idea.

[Michael R N Dolbear]

"Dorothy J Heydt" wrote

> James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:

>>I can tell you there's an audience for The Interior Life. Get it back in
>>print and I will promote it on my site.

> Well, I'll tellya. I am begining to think about it, having been
reassured by my daughter that *I* will not have to do any
marketing whatsoever, she and her friends (who include Seanan
McGuire) will do it by word-of-mouth, or rather, by word-of-net.

> But the problem is finding an e-platform that will support three
different sets of fonts (roman and italic for each). Do you know
of any?

Well the first step is to generate a proof of concept as a RTF or DOC file
using three fonts

Is there one or two chapters in TIL that use three that you can call out ?

This can then be converted to say ePUB and checked

> (Kindle is definitely out, since they allow the *reader* to
choose different fonts, but they would all be the same font per
reader. I figured that out even before Graydon Saunders, whom I
have never met but whom, based on his work, I place not far from
the left hand of God, told me that his ancestors would all rise
up and haunt him if he published with Kindle, or words to that effect.)

Even this violation of the laws of creation may be possible since Kindle now
has a (embedded) Publisher's font option which a small pub who provides
Kindle compatible ebooks may be able to access.


-- --
Mike D

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <d4cb0i...@mid.individual.net>,

Michael R N Dolbear <m.do...@physics.org> wrote:
>
>"Dorothy J Heydt" wrote
>
>> James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>
>>>I can tell you there's an audience for The Interior Life. Get it back in
>>>print and I will promote it on my site.
>
>> Well, I'll tellya. I am begining to think about it, having been
>reassured by my daughter that *I* will not have to do any
>marketing whatsoever, she and her friends (who include Seanan
>McGuire) will do it by word-of-mouth, or rather, by word-of-net.
>
>> But the problem is finding an e-platform that will support three
>different sets of fonts (roman and italic for each). Do you know
>of any?
>
>Well the first step is to generate a proof of concept as a RTF or DOC file
>using three fonts
>
>Is there one or two chapters in TIL that use three that you can call out ?

The best example would be right at the end of Chapter Last, where
the fonts are switching about in mid-sentence. I can make up an
RTF file of a couple sample paragraph if you like. What should I
do with them then?

>
>This can then be converted to say ePUB and checked

Except I haven't the foggiest how to do that. Maybe Meg or
Seanan do.

>
>> (Kindle is definitely out, since they allow the *reader* to
>choose different fonts, but they would all be the same font per
>reader. I figured that out even before Graydon Saunders, whom I
>have never met but whom, based on his work, I place not far from
>the left hand of God, told me that his ancestors would all rise
>up and haunt him if he published with Kindle, or words to that effect.)
>
>Even this violation of the laws of creation may be possible since Kindle now
>has a (embedded) Publisher's font option which a small pub who provides
>Kindle compatible ebooks may be able to access.

Well, if you can find out more about this feature, do please let
me know.

[Greg Goss]

"J. Clarke" <j.clark...@gmail.com> wrote:
>In article <ntt97...@kithrup.com>, djh...@kithrup.com says...

>> James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>> >Dorothy J Heydt <djh...@kithrup.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>At this stage, I think I would be ashamed to have enouch chutzpah
>> >>to attempt getting anything published by anybody, e- or not.
>> >>Particularly since it wouldn't bring in any money.
>> >
>> >I can tell you there's an audience for The Interior Life. Get it back in
>> >print and I will promote it on my site.

...

>> But the problem is finding an e-platform that will support three
>> different sets of fonts (roman and italic for each). Do you know
>> of any?
>

>Fonts can be embedded in PDFs, whether there's a free/cheap tool to do
>that though I have no idea.

I've tried and failed to read PDFs on my phone, and failed every time.
For someone who reads probably five hours a day on that screen, the
frustration with PDF means that it's likely incompatible with small
screens.

Pretty much everything I read is in epub. I have no idea what epub is
doing with fonts -- I tend to tune out fonts. But I won't read PDFs
on my phone, and 95% of my book reading is on the phone.
--
We are geeks. Resistance is voltage over current.

[Brian M. Scott]

On Fri, 28 Aug 2015 21:12:12 -0600, Greg Goss
<go...@gossg.org> wrote
in<news:d4cm8m...@mid.individual.net> in
rec.arts.sf.written:

[...]

> I've tried and failed to read PDFs on my phone, and
> failed every time. For someone who reads probably five
> hours a day on that screen, the frustration with PDF
> means that it's likely incompatible with small screens.

I don’t have a phone, so I can’t judge, but I do
occasionally read mathematical PDFs on a Kindle Fire HD 7
in horizontal orientation without any real trouble. Since
pages are normally taller than they are wide, that
orientation reduces the available screen space
significantly, though probably not as much as a phone.

[...]

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <1ccad17fdsn2z$.a9gedkbamud$.d...@40tude.net>,

Brian M. Scott <b.s...@csuohio.edu> wrote:
>On Fri, 28 Aug 2015 21:12:12 -0600, Greg Goss
><go...@gossg.org> wrote
>in<news:d4cm8m...@mid.individual.net> in
>rec.arts.sf.written:
>
>[...]
>
>> I've tried and failed to read PDFs on my phone, and
>> failed every time. For someone who reads probably five
>> hours a day on that screen, the frustration with PDF
>> means that it's likely incompatible with small screens.
>
>I don’t have a phone, so I can’t judge, but I do
>occasionally read mathematical PDFs on a Kindle Fire HD 7
>in horizontal orientation without any real trouble. Since
>pages are normally taller than they are wide, that
>orientation reduces the available screen space
>significantly, though probably not as much as a phone.
>

I don't have a phone either.

/sigh

If anyone knows of a format that would be legible both on a phone
and on a computer, and would support three fonts, let me know.

[Robert Carnegie]

On Saturday, 29 August 2015 04:12:26 UTC+1, Greg Goss wrote:
> "J. Clarke" <j.clark...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >In article <ntt97...@kithrup.com>, djh...@kithrup.com says...
> >> James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
> >> >Dorothy J Heydt <djh...@kithrup.com> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >>At this stage, I think I would be ashamed to have enouch chutzpah
> >> >>to attempt getting anything published by anybody, e- or not.
> >> >>Particularly since it wouldn't bring in any money.
> >> >
> >> >I can tell you there's an audience for The Interior Life. Get it back in
> >> >print and I will promote it on my site.
> ...
> >> But the problem is finding an e-platform that will support three
> >> different sets of fonts (roman and italic for each). Do you know
> >> of any?
> >
> >Fonts can be embedded in PDFs, whether there's a free/cheap tool to do
> >that though I have no idea.
>
> I've tried and failed to read PDFs on my phone, and failed every time.
> For someone who reads probably five hours a day on that screen, the
> frustration with PDF means that it's likely incompatible with small
> screens.

I think you're saying that the phone is incompatible with you -
as a book reading device anyway. Except for epub, somehow.

But <https://www.google.co.uk/get/cardboard/> is a cunning,
possibly sickening, virtual reality accessory for smart phone,
which appears to include magnifying lenses.

Yes. Cardboard. Literal cardboard.

Except for the lenses.

[Greg Goss]

Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:
>On Saturday, 29 August 2015 04:12:26 UTC+1, Greg Goss wrote:

>> I've tried and failed to read PDFs on my phone, and failed every time.
>> For someone who reads probably five hours a day on that screen, the
>> frustration with PDF means that it's likely incompatible with small
>> screens.
>
>I think you're saying that the phone is incompatible with you -
>as a book reading device anyway. Except for epub, somehow.

Epubs get reflowed to fit the screen they're sitting on. PDFs always
preserve the layout that they were defined with, usually aimed at a
piece of paper. This is almost never aimed at a 3.5 inch screen.

I hate the default reader bundled with Kobo or Kindle. I buy my books
from Kobo and crack them to use in a generic reader. On the phone, I
use Moon Reader. On the laptop I use the reader bundled with Calibre.

>But <https://www.google.co.uk/get/cardboard/> is a cunning,
>possibly sickening, virtual reality accessory for smart phone,
>which appears to include magnifying lenses.
>
>Yes. Cardboard. Literal cardboard.
>
>Except for the lenses.

[Michael R N Dolbear]

"Dorothy J Heydt" wrote

> Michael R N Dolbear <m.do...@physics.org> wrote:

>> But the problem is finding an e-platform that will support three
>different sets of fonts (roman and italic for each). Do you know
>of any?
>
>Well the first step is to generate a proof of concept as a RTF or DOC file
>using three fonts

>Is there one or two chapters in TIL that use three that you can call out ?

>> The best example would be right at the end of Chapter Last, where
the fonts are switching about in mid-sentence. I can make up an
RTF file of a couple sample paragraph if you like. What should I
do with them then?

>>This can then be converted to say ePUB and checked

> Except I haven't the foggiest how to do that. Maybe Meg or Seanan do.

It occurs to me that using colour rather than font would be a good start
though of course only a computer or tablet (or phone) screen would show it.

So assign each text type a different style
define three styles a different text colour black, red, green say
And assign each text type a different style

Call up
http://convertfiles.com/
and ask it to convert to ePub

There is a free Firefox add-on EPUBReader which you can then use to see
what's what
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/user/epubreader/?src=api

If this works you could have the styles specify different fonts too and
certainly the scan and mark up stage would be lots easier to debug if you
had the result in colours.

>>> (Kindle is definitely out, since they allow the *reader* to
>choose different fonts, but they would all be the same font per
>reader. I figured that out even before Graydon Saunders, whom I
>have never met but whom, based on his work, I place not far from
>the left hand of God, told me that his ancestors would all rise
>up and haunt him if he published with Kindle, or words to that effect.)

> >Even this violation of the laws of creation may be possible since Kindle
> >now
>has a (embedded) Publisher's font option which a small pub who provides
>Kindle compatible ebooks may be able to access.

> Well, if you can find out more about this feature, do please let
me know.

This is really very much in the "ring a friendly geek" area, but this expert
says

The fonts render as expected in major reading systems such as NOOK, iBooks,
Adobe Digital Editions, and even Amazon’s Kindle Fire (after conversion to
KF8 via KindleGen).[7]

He also mentions that if the fonts you choose are not embedded the ePub will
work on a computer that has those fonts but a tablet or ereader without them
will be forced to substitute which won't turn out well. Hence all the
palaver.

http://epubzone.org/news/epub-3-font-embedding-and-licensing

also
http://pandoc.org/epub.html


-- --
Mike D

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <d4e30t...@mid.individual.net>,

Michael R N Dolbear <m.do...@physics.org> wrote:
>
>"Dorothy J Heydt" wrote
>
>> Michael R N Dolbear <m.do...@physics.org> wrote:
>
>>> But the problem is finding an e-platform that will support three
>>different sets of fonts (roman and italic for each). Do you know
>>of any?
>>
>>Well the first step is to generate a proof of concept as a RTF or DOC file
>>using three fonts
>
>>Is there one or two chapters in TIL that use three that you can call out ?
>
>>> The best example would be right at the end of Chapter Last, where
>the fonts are switching about in mid-sentence. I can make up an
>RTF file of a couple sample paragraph if you like. What should I
>do with them then?

I have now made a file to those specs. I got a message when I
tried to save it in .rtf, to the effect of "some of this
formatting may not work in .rtf, are you sure you don't want to
save it in .odt?" But I saved it in .rtf and it seems to look
all right.

My husband points out that in the end it's not a question of what
fonts I can find in OpenOffice, but of what fonts the e-platform
has. But that's a couple problems down the road.

>
>>>This can then be converted to say ePUB and checked
>
>> Except I haven't the foggiest how to do that. Maybe Meg or Seanan do.
>
>It occurs to me that using colour rather than font would be a good start
>though of course only a computer or tablet (or phone) screen would show it.
>
>So assign each text type a different style
>define three styles a different text colour black, red, green say
>And assign each text type a different style

Oh, please, no. When I was writing _TIL_ my son suggested --
tongue in cheek, I *think* -- that I format it in different
colors. I said No in a very loud voice. Wossname's _The
Neverending Story_ was printed in two colors in hardback and it
looked awful. Never mind that I have NO clue how to format in
colors.

>
>Call up
>http://convertfiles.com/
>and ask it to convert to ePub
>
>There is a free Firefox add-on EPUBReader which you can then use to see
>what's what
>https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/user/epubreader/?src=api

I'll run these past my daughter. She uses Firefox; I don't.

Thanks, Mike; I'll see if Meg can make sense of this; and if not,
maybe Seanan can.

[Brian M. Scott]

On Sat, 29 Aug 2015 08:18:12 -0600, Greg Goss
<go...@gossg.org> wrote
in<news:d4dt93...@mid.individual.net> in
rec.arts.sf.written:

[...]

> I hate the default reader bundled with Kobo or Kindle. I
> buy my books from Kobo and crack them to use in a
> generic reader. On the phone, I use Moon Reader. On
> the laptop I use the reader bundled with Calibre.

The reader with the Kindle app for PC is inferior to the
Calibre reader, but the Kindle tablet itself is fine.

[Robert Carnegie]

On Saturday, 29 August 2015 16:56:16 UTC+1, Michael R N Dolbear wrote:
> "Dorothy J Heydt" wrote

> >> The best example would be right at the end of Chapter Last, where
> the fonts are switching about in mid-sentence. I can make up an
> RTF file of a couple sample paragraph if you like. What should I
> do with them then?
>

> It occurs to me that using colour rather than font would be a good start
> though of course only a computer or tablet (or phone) screen would show it.

Or, motion? (I haven't read the book, so I'm a potential
customer. So, why am I making stupid suggestions...)

Wikipedia says Internet Explorer still supports the
"marquee" function, and, rather grudgingly, other
browsers do as well.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <bdcbdd35-75ac-436e...@googlegroups.com>,

Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:
>On Saturday, 29 August 2015 16:56:16 UTC+1, Michael R N Dolbear wrote:
>> "Dorothy J Heydt" wrote
>> >> The best example would be right at the end of Chapter Last, where
>> the fonts are switching about in mid-sentence. I can make up an
>> RTF file of a couple sample paragraph if you like. What should I
>> do with them then?
>>
>> It occurs to me that using colour rather than font would be a good start
>> though of course only a computer or tablet (or phone) screen would show it.
>
>Or, motion? (I haven't read the book, so I'm a potential
>customer. So, why am I making stupid suggestions...)

Motion? Please tell me you don't mean text that jumps up and
down, as in the very worst online advertisements.

>
>Wikipedia says Internet Explorer still supports the
>"marquee" function, and, rather grudgingly, other
>browsers do as well.

Can you define "marquee"? I know from *nothing* about all these
things.

[Joseph Nebus]

In <ntv1v...@kithrup.com> djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:

>In article <bdcbdd35-75ac-436e...@googlegroups.com>,
>Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:

>>Wikipedia says Internet Explorer still supports the
>>"marquee" function, and, rather grudgingly, other
>>browsers do as well.

>Can you define "marquee"? I know from *nothing* about all these
>things.

That is text that moves linearly, the way you see marquees in
Times Square or at the bottom of news programs do. So that at one
moment the line of text will look like:

NEW STAR TREK MOVIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN

and a moment later it will look like:

NEW STAR TREK MOVIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN FILM?

and a moment after that the line will look like:

VIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN FILM? NEW STAR TREK MO

and a moment later it will be obscured because you are looking through
options to turn off marquee text because it is the worst.

--
Joseph Nebus
Math: Do You Have To Understand This? http://wp.me/p1RYhY-QE
Humor: iTunes, At Sixteen http://wp.me/p37lb5-WQ
--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On Sat, 29 Aug 2015 08:18:12 -0600, Greg Goss <go...@gossg.org> wrote:

>Epubs get reflowed to fit the screen they're sitting on. PDFs always
>preserve the layout that they were defined with, usually aimed at a
>piece of paper.

There is a PDF format that is flowable, "dynamic pdf", though I've never
met a reader that understands them except Adobe Reader - which makes it
pointless since that'll be on a decent size computer screen. But,
y'know, might be useful knowledge to someone.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
"If you think C++ is not overly complicated, just what is a protected
abstract virtual base pure virtual private destructor, and when was the
last time you needed one?" - Tom Cargil, C++ Journal
This signature was made by SigChanger.
You can find SigChanger at: http://www.phranc.nl/

[Greg Goss]

"Brian M. Scott" <b.s...@csuohio.edu> wrote:

>On Sat, 29 Aug 2015 08:18:12 -0600, Greg Goss
><go...@gossg.org> wrote
>in<news:d4dt93...@mid.individual.net> in
>rec.arts.sf.written:
>
>[...]
>
>> I hate the default reader bundled with Kobo or Kindle. I
>> buy my books from Kobo and crack them to use in a
>> generic reader. On the phone, I use Moon Reader. On
>> the laptop I use the reader bundled with Calibre.
>
>The reader with the Kindle app for PC is inferior to the
>Calibre reader, but the Kindle tablet itself is fine.

That's what I meant to say (PC and Android versions). For reading in
the sun, I also have a Kobo mini. Kobo prices are better than Kindle.
The Kobo mini has inferior ergonomic design (button beats touch screen
for one hand use) to earlier Kobos. Never played with a kindle other
than looking over shoulders.

[Greg Goss]

djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) wrote:

>Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:

>>Or, motion? (I haven't read the book, so I'm a potential
>>customer. So, why am I making stupid suggestions...)
>
>Motion? Please tell me you don't mean text that jumps up and
>down, as in the very worst online advertisements.

No, he means like in the second-worst kind of ads. Text that scrolls
sideways like the classic Times Square news headlines is called
"marquee".

And most hardware e-readers get their long battery life from a screen
technology that depends on stuff not changing for long periods.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <mrt84b$72o$1...@reader1.panix.com>,

Joseph Nebus <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote:
>In <ntv1v...@kithrup.com> djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>
>>In article <bdcbdd35-75ac-436e...@googlegroups.com>,
>>Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:
>
>>>Wikipedia says Internet Explorer still supports the
>>>"marquee" function, and, rather grudgingly, other
>>>browsers do as well.
>
>>Can you define "marquee"? I know from *nothing* about all these
>>things.
>
> That is text that moves linearly, the way you see marquees in
>Times Square or at the bottom of news programs do. So that at one
>moment the line of text will look like:
>
> NEW STAR TREK MOVIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN
>
>and a moment later it will look like:
>
> NEW STAR TREK MOVIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN FILM?
>
>and a moment after that the line will look like:
>
>VIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN FILM? NEW STAR TREK MO
>
>and a moment later it will be obscured because you are looking through
>options to turn off marquee text because it is the worst.

Sounds *awful.* Thanks. One more thing I know to avoid.

[Robert Carnegie]

On Saturday, 29 August 2015 23:13:57 UTC+1, Greg Goss wrote:
> djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) wrote:
> >Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:
>
> >>Or, motion? (I haven't read the book, so I'm a potential
> >>customer. So, why am I making stupid suggestions...)
> >
> >Motion? Please tell me you don't mean text that jumps up and
> >down, as in the very worst online advertisements.
>
> No, he means like in the second-worst kind of ads. Text that scrolls
> sideways like the classic Times Square news headlines is called
> "marquee".

The Wikipedia article indicates that vertical motion
is possible. I don't know what that looks like, maybe
a mechanical car odometer or utility meter?

> And most hardware e-readers get their long battery life from a screen
> technology that depends on stuff not changing for long periods.

You could instead gently shake the screen... hmm, no. ;-)

[Joseph Nebus]

In <ntv99...@kithrup.com> djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:

>In article <mrt84b$72o$1...@reader1.panix.com>,
>Joseph Nebus <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote:

>> NEW STAR TREK MOVIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN
>>
>>and a moment later it will look like:
>>
>> NEW STAR TREK MOVIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN FILM?
>>
>>and a moment after that the line will look like:
>>
>>VIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN FILM? NEW STAR TREK MO
>>
>>and a moment later it will be obscured because you are looking through
>>options to turn off marquee text because it is the worst.

>Sounds *awful.* Thanks. One more thing I know to avoid.

Oh, I'm looking forward to it, actually. I have a lot of
problems with the New Trek films, but they've done a good job at
setting up stories with energy and vitality, in which the characters
seem to care whether they live or die. Compared to the inert lumps of
the Next Generation films that's worth it even if the stories don't
make sense. So, whatever the new Trek movie is doing in a quarry, I'm
optimistic.

[William December Starr]

In article <nttJ6...@kithrup.com>,

djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) said:

> The best example would be right at the end of Chapter Last, where

Now there's a character name for one of Jasper Fforde's "Thursday Next"
books.

-- wds

[William December Starr]

In article <mrtqb7$dva$2...@reader1.panix.com>,

nebusj-@-rpi-.edu (Joseph Nebus) said:

> djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>> Joseph Nebus <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> NEW STAR TREK MOVIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN FILM?
>>>
>>> and a moment after that the line will look like:
>>>
>>> VIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN FILM? NEW STAR TREK MO
>>>
>>> and a moment later it will be obscured because you are looking through
>>> options to turn off marquee text because it is the worst.
>>
>> Sounds *awful.* Thanks. One more thing I know to avoid.
>
> Oh, I'm looking forward to it, actually. I have a lot of problems
> with the New Trek films, but they've done a good job at setting up
> stories with energy and vitality, in which the characters seem to
> care whether they live or die. Compared to the inert lumps of the
> Next Generation films that's worth it even if the stories don't
> make sense. So, whatever the new Trek movie is doing in a quarry,
> I'm optimistic.

"Oh look. Rocks."

(By the way, I'm pretty sure Dorothy was talking about avoiding
marquee text, not Trek_B.03.)

-- wds

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <mrvbde$b0r$1...@panix2.panix.com>,

Yes. I haven't seen a Trek movie in a long time; I don't get out
of the house much.

[J. Clarke]

In article <ntxAC...@kithrup.com>, djh...@kithrup.com says...

>
> In article <mrvbde$b0r$1...@panix2.panix.com>,
> William December Starr <wds...@panix.com> wrote:
> >In article <mrtqb7$dva$2...@reader1.panix.com>,
> >nebusj-@-rpi-.edu (Joseph Nebus) said:
> >
> >> djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
> >>> Joseph Nebus <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> NEW STAR TREK MOVIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN FILM?
> >>>>
> >>>> and a moment after that the line will look like:
> >>>>
> >>>> VIE FILMING AT QUARRY - DOCTOR WHO CAMEO IN FILM? NEW STAR TREK MO
> >>>>
> >>>> and a moment later it will be obscured because you are looking through
> >>>> options to turn off marquee text because it is the worst.
> >>>
> >>> Sounds *awful.* Thanks. One more thing I know to avoid.
> >>
> >> Oh, I'm looking forward to it, actually. I have a lot of problems
> >> with the New Trek films, but they've done a good job at setting up
> >> stories with energy and vitality, in which the characters seem to
> >> care whether they live or die. Compared to the inert lumps of the
> >> Next Generation films that's worth it even if the stories don't
> >> make sense. So, whatever the new Trek movie is doing in a quarry,
> >> I'm optimistic.
> >
> >"Oh look. Rocks."
> >
> >(By the way, I'm pretty sure Dorothy was talking about avoiding
> >marquee text, not Trek_B.03.)
>
> Yes. I haven't seen a Trek movie in a long time; I don't get out
> of the house much.

To be honest you haven't missed much.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

Well, guys, it looks as if there is no e-format anybody can think
of, except PDF, that will use different fonts -- and PDFs won't
work on handhelds. Except if the user knows about some weird
software that will turn PDFs into handheld-readable, which I
can't expect your basic user to know about.

Thanks for the thoughts, anyway.

[Michael R N Dolbear]

"Dorothy J Heydt" wrote

> Well, guys, it looks as if there is no e-format anybody can think
of, except PDF, that will use different fonts -- and PDFs won't
work on handhelds. Except if the user knows about some weird
software that will turn PDFs into handheld-readable, which I
can't expect your basic user to know about.

> Thanks for the thoughts, anyway.

Huh ?

Did you get a authoritative statement that EPub with embedded fonts can't do
it ?


Also, PDFs can have an reflowable mode which theoretically can deal with the
variable size screen problem.

I have never seen a PDF document where that was actually available (not
greyed out on the menu) though.

http://www.adobe.com/uk/epaper/tips/acr5reflow/
To accommodate readers with limited desktop space, you can provide them with
Adobe PDF documents that can be reflowed into any sized AdobeŽ AcrobatŽ
window. In a reflowed document, text remains at its original size even when
the window size changes, so that it's easier to view.
==
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/digital/otp/help/reflowable_text._V7985931_.html
vast majority of PDF files have a fixed layout, but occasionally some PDFs
can contain extensions to make them reflowable.
==

I Googled [reflowable pdf creator] but most references were for converting
/from/ PDF


-- --
Mike D

[Scott Lurndal]

djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:

>Well, guys, it looks as if there is no e-format anybody can think
>of, except PDF, that will use different fonts -- and PDFs won't
>work on handhelds. Except if the user knows about some weird
>software that will turn PDFs into handheld-readable, which I
>can't expect your basic user to know about.

Hmm. My nook handles PDF's just fine.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <d4jnnk...@mid.individual.net>,

Michael R N Dolbear <m.do...@physics.org> wrote:

>"Dorothy J Heydt" wrote
>
>
>> Well, guys, it looks as if there is no e-format anybody can think
>of, except PDF, that will use different fonts -- and PDFs won't
>work on handhelds. Except if the user knows about some weird
>software that will turn PDFs into handheld-readable, which I
>can't expect your basic user to know about.
>
>> Thanks for the thoughts, anyway.
>
>Huh ?
>
>Did you get a authoritative statement that EPub with embedded fonts can't do
>it ?

I do not know how to do epub I have no idea what it will or
won't do.

>
>Also, PDFs can have an reflowable mode which theoretically can deal with the
>variable size screen problem.

Yes, but unless I've completely misunderstood somebody, the
*user* has to know this mode to make it work.

>I have never seen a PDF document where that was actually available (not
>greyed out on the menu) though.
>
>http://www.adobe.com/uk/epaper/tips/acr5reflow/
>To accommodate readers with limited desktop space, you can provide them with

>Adobe PDF documents that can be reflowed into any sized Adobe® Acrobat®

>window. In a reflowed document, text remains at its original size even when
>the window size changes, so that it's easier to view.
>==
>https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/digital/otp/help/reflowable_text._V7985931_.html
>vast majority of PDF files have a fixed layout, but occasionally some PDFs
>can contain extensions to make them reflowable.
>==
>
>I Googled [reflowable pdf creator] but most references were for converting
>/from/ PDF
>

--

[J. Clarke]

In article <ntyL7...@kithrup.com>, djh...@kithrup.com says...

>
> Well, guys, it looks as if there is no e-format anybody can think
> of, except PDF, that will use different fonts -- and PDFs won't
> work on handhelds.

Adobe has Acrobat Reader apps for Android and IOS, and the non-Android
version of the Kindle handles PDFs natively. That covers most of the
market.

[Cryptoengineer]

djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) wrote in
news:ntz3D...@kithrup.com:

> In article <d4jnnk...@mid.individual.net>,
> Michael R N Dolbear <m.do...@physics.org> wrote:
>>"Dorothy J Heydt" wrote
>>
>>
>>> Well, guys, it looks as if there is no e-format anybody can think
>>of, except PDF, that will use different fonts -- and PDFs won't
>>work on handhelds. Except if the user knows about some weird
>>software that will turn PDFs into handheld-readable, which I
>>can't expect your basic user to know about.
>>
>>> Thanks for the thoughts, anyway.
>>
>>Huh ?
>>
>>Did you get a authoritative statement that EPub with embedded fonts
>>can't do it ?
>
> I do not know how to do epub I have no idea what it will or
> won't do.
>>
>>Also, PDFs can have an reflowable mode which theoretically can deal
>>with the variable size screen problem.
>
> Yes, but unless I've completely misunderstood somebody, the
> *user* has to know this mode to make it work.

A mode you could inform them of in the first page.

pt

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <XnsA507EE9463...@216.166.97.131>,

By way of a preface, you mean? "In order to read this book
properly, please install [link]" ?

Would that work, actually, or would all virus-fearing users say
"Oh no you don't" and shut the whole thing down?

I have asked my daughter to take a look at all this sometime;
trouble is, she has a crappy job that pays peanuts by the hour,
and an hour-and-a-half commute. By the time she gets home she's
tired and crabby, as who wouldn't be.

I just took a look at the Wikipedia entry for epub. That
swishing noise you hear is it going straight over my head. Maybe
I should get Hal to take a look? He might at least be able to
figure out the article. (That's how I learned UNIX, many years
ago. I didn't know UNIX, Hal didn't know UNIX, but *he knew how
to read computer manuals.*)

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On Tue, 1 Sep 2015 00:44:00 GMT, djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt)
wrote:

>In article <d4jnnk...@mid.individual.net>,
>Michael R N Dolbear <m.do...@physics.org> wrote:
>>"Dorothy J Heydt" wrote
>>
>>
>>> Well, guys, it looks as if there is no e-format anybody can think
>>of, except PDF, that will use different fonts -- and PDFs won't
>>work on handhelds. Except if the user knows about some weird
>>software that will turn PDFs into handheld-readable, which I
>>can't expect your basic user to know about.
>>
>>> Thanks for the thoughts, anyway.
>>
>>Huh ?
>>
>>Did you get a authoritative statement that EPub with embedded fonts can't do
>>it ?
>
>I do not know how to do epub I have no idea what it will or
>won't do.

epub with embedded fonts should work for most readers. The dependency is
that their reading device/software must support embedded fonts.

Kindle doesn't support epub so use reflowable PDF for them. I suspect
many people who are *not* using Kindle will be savvy enough to find out
if their platform does. I'd suggest having a short downloadable test
epub with the fonts in that people could try.

>>Also, PDFs can have an reflowable mode which theoretically can deal with the
>>variable size screen problem.
>
>Yes, but unless I've completely misunderstood somebody, the
>*user* has to know this mode to make it work.

Nope, the reader software again needs to support it. Kindle does, dunno
about others.

Note that you have a test audience here - many of us have a variety of
ereaders. If you - or someone else - gets to the stage of being able to
create a test file, we can vet it.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English
is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion,
English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious
and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." -- James Nicoll, rasfw

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <2osauapuucqrfcjqm...@4ax.com>,

Okay, I have a test file in .rtf. I need to find SOMEbody who
can read the epub documentation (which, I observe, is online)
well enough to teach me the rudiments of turning an .rtf file
into .epub. I've already mentioned how my daughter has what
amounts (with commute time) to a thirteen-hour work day, and when
she gets home all she wants to do is sit down and watch NCIS
while she works on her embroidery. :)

Maybe I can drag Hal away from LotRO and his blog-watching long
enough to read the stuff. LotRO I can always join him in; it's
the blogs that are the problem.

[Scott Lurndal]

djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:

>>

>Okay, I have a test file in .rtf. I need to find SOMEbody who
>can read the epub documentation (which, I observe, is online)
>well enough to teach me the rudiments of turning an .rtf file
>into .epub.

You can use Calibre to do the conversion automatically. It's
open source software available for most operating systems.

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq.html

Basically, run calibre, select "add books" and add your RTF
file. Then select the book title followed by "Convert Books".

Select the output type epub and you're good to go.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

Thanks; added to my growing file of things I cannot understand
but maybe Hal or Meg will.

(This is all beginning to remind me of the time back in 2000 when
I was complaining about graphically distressing ads popping up
every time I got onto the Web, and Gary Farber kept saying, Just
get onto Yahoo and download some ad-blockers, that's not
difficult is it, you're not stupid are you?)

[Dorothy J Heydt]

Well, I got Hal to say "Send me the links and I'll look at them."
So I went through my entire file of suggestions people have made,
and after discarding all the stuff about what Kindle will and
won't do, and all the "I can't read [format] on my [device]," I
found I have only two actual links, viz.,

http://epubzone.org/news/epub-3-font-embedding-and-licensing

(which looks as though it's a subsection on the legal uses of
epub, rather than a basic introduction), and

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq.html

which looks as if it may not be about epub at all, but something
else.

Can someone provice a link to the absolutely basic introduction
to epub, so Hal can make a start on it?

Thanks.

[Scott Lurndal]

djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:

>Well, I got Hal to say "Send me the links and I'll look at them."
>So I went through my entire file of suggestions people have made,
>and after discarding all the stuff about what Kindle will and
>won't do, and all the "I can't read [format] on my [device]," I
>found I have only two actual links, viz.,
>
>http://epubzone.org/news/epub-3-font-embedding-and-licensing
>
>(which looks as though it's a subsection on the legal uses of
>epub, rather than a basic introduction), and
>
>http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq.html
>
>which looks as if it may not be about epub at all, but something
>else.

calibre is a PC-based e-book reader and conversion utility which uses
EPUB as it's primary format choice.

An EPUB is a container (zip) which contains a set of HTML files and
cascading style sheets that are applied to the HTML files for
formatting. Each chapter is generally a single HTML file and there
are other HTML files handling frontmatter, ToC, indicies, maps, et
alia. EPUB is an ISO standard (ISO/IEC TS 30135) and the links to
the standard document are present in the wiki page for EPUB:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB

Here are instructions for converting an RTF/DOC to EPUB using
calibre.

http://www.epubli.co.uk/instruction/ebook/convert/calibre

Calibre for windows can be found here:

http://calibre-ebook.com/download_windows

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <MRlFx.4596$tS....@fx07.iad>,

OK, I've copied everything you said and sent it to Hal. Thank
you. That thundering sound you hear is everything you said going
over my head so fast it makes sonic booms, but maybe it will make
sense to him.

Stay tuned....

[Moriarty]

I've read "The Interior Life" so I know what you're trying to do with the fonts. If you like, e-mail the rtf file to me and I'll convert it to epub and a bunch of other formats and see what it looks like.

fifthwave at live dot com dot au

-Moriarty

[Greg Goss]

djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) wrote:

>Well, I got Hal to say "Send me the links and I'll look at them."
>So I went through my entire file of suggestions people have made,
>and after discarding all the stuff about what Kindle will and
>won't do, and all the "I can't read [format] on my [device]," I
>found I have only two actual links, viz.,
>
>http://epubzone.org/news/epub-3-font-embedding-and-licensing
>
>(which looks as though it's a subsection on the legal uses of
>epub, rather than a basic introduction), and
>
>http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq.html
>
>which looks as if it may not be about epub at all, but something
>else.

Calibre is a free personal elibrary management system. Converting
formats is only a very small part of that. Epub is one of the book
formats it can use.

[Michael R N Dolbear]

"Dorothy J Heydt" wrote

> Can someone provice a link to the absolutely basic introduction
to epub, so Hal can make a start on it?

Poor Hal

http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/EPub_3

I did provide you with a site which would convert RTF files to ePub which
saves installing Calibre for now.

Call up
http://convertfiles.com/
and ask it to {rtf} convert to ePub

You might also try asking your Open whatever word processor ? LibreOffice ?
to Export as PDF
and see whether the different fonts make it when you view the PDF.

If you used that option the instruction at the start of the document would
be something like

"if this doesn't fit your screen, choose the View menu and select 'reflow'."



-- --
Mike D

[Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy]

Greg Goss <go...@gossg.org> wrote in news:d4mnu6F3vteU4
@mid.individual.net:

One should not, however, that it is the premier software for format
conversions. It's not perfect, but it's what a lot of pros uses these
days for both conversions and authoring, since it is more complete
(and more acitvely under development) than Sigil.

--
Terry Austin

"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.

[J. Clarke]

In article <nu0F8...@kithrup.com>, djh...@kithrup.com says...

>
> Well, I got Hal to say "Send me the links and I'll look at them."
> So I went through my entire file of suggestions people have made,
> and after discarding all the stuff about what Kindle will and
> won't do, and all the "I can't read [format] on my [device]," I
> found I have only two actual links, viz.,
>
> http://epubzone.org/news/epub-3-font-embedding-and-licensing
>
> (which looks as though it's a subsection on the legal uses of
> epub, rather than a basic introduction),

Go about 2/3 of the way down the page and you get to the howto.

> and
>
> http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq.html
>
> which looks as if it may not be about epub at all, but something
> else.

It is about a tool that, once you have an ebook in just about any
format, can convert it to just about any other format, without your
actually having to know much about the format.

> Can someone provice a link to the absolutely basic introduction
> to epub, so Hal can make a start on it?
>
> Thanks.

High-level introduction:
<https://goldenorbcreative.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/epub-an-
introduction/>

The technical standard: <http://www.idpf.org/epub/301/spec/epub-
publications.html>

<http://epubzone.org/solutions> has an incomplete list of products and
services that support epub.

Here is a discussion of converting rtf to epub
<http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68691>

Here is a discussion of embedding fonts in epub with the aid of
Calibre--the objective in this case is support of Cyrillic but the
principles should apply to any font
<http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61587>

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <ee866380-8d30-4689...@googlegroups.com>,

Will do! It's just a couple of paragraphs. I tried to get (from
the limited fonts on my word processor, most of which are
sans-serif and look much too much alike); but if you can tell
there are three fonts, then translate them into whatever you like
and see if they work.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <MPG.304ffd9ea...@news.eternal-september.org>,

Okay, I'll send him these too. Thanks.

N.B. I have NO desire to do anything in Cyrillic. :)

[David DeLaney]

On 2015-09-01, Dorothy J Heydt <djh...@kithrup.com> wrote:
> http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq.html
>
> which looks as if it may not be about epub at all, but something else.

Calibre is a free program that lets you:
read ebooks from various formats, including epub
and
convert ebooks between various formats, including epub

I have it myself, originally so I could read a role-playing game ebook from
Jenna Moran (basically her Nobilis 3rd Ed basic setting), but recently also
for some ebooks I bought from Connolly, Saunders, and others.

You can use it JUST to read ebooks on your computer if you want; that's the
big View button across the top, with the magnifying glass. There's also a
'convert books' button, and a few other basics like 'add books' (for files
you have that you haven't introduced to Calibre yet), 'remove books', a Help
button, etc.

So it could let you, in about this order:

add your .rtf file to the Calibre library

look at the .rtf file to make sure it looks right

convert the .rtf file to .epub

look at the converted .epub file to make sure IT looks right

save the .epub file to disk wherever you want it

say "Goodness, that was easy!"

without actually having to know anything ABOUT epub in the bargain.

> Can someone provice a link to the absolutely basic introduction
> to epub, so Hal can make a start on it?

Hmm, lemme see... okay, googling "introduction to epub" pulls back a good many
different people's attempts at one. Hal may be more able to say which one is
on his level than I.

Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting thru EarthLink - "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://gatekeeper.vic.com/~dbd/ -net.legends/Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

[Moriarty]

Success! I copied the text you sent me into a word doc and used 'Save As' to save it as an htm file, (because that's what calibre told me to do, it didn't want to touch rtf for some reason).

Then I imported it into calibre and converted it to mobi, epub and azw3 formats. I made sure the 'Embed referenced fonts' box was ticked, otherwise the fonts wouldn't have been preserved.

The epub and azw3 versions supported your fonts, the mobi version didn't. I was kind of expecting that to happen.

Then I copied the azw3 version onto my kindle and it was perfectly readable, but ONLY once I'd set the 'Publisher Font' option to ON.

I've only got a kindle, so can't test the epub version on a nook or kobo or whatnot, but I'd guess it would be easier than the kindle was as that last 'Publisher Font' step probably wouldn't be required.

If you go ahead with it, I'd suggest you don't use Candara and Times New Roman, they're too similar and the changes are hard to make out. Vijava was fine.

-Moriarty

[Moriarty]

On Wednesday, September 2, 2015 at 12:29:33 PM UTC+10, Moriarty wrote:
> On Wednesday, September 2, 2015 at 9:30:03 AM UTC+10, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> > In article <ee866380-8d30-4689...@googlegroups.com>,

<snip>

> > >I've read "The Interior Life" so I know what you're trying to do with
> > >the fonts. If you like, e-mail the rtf file to me and I'll convert it
> > >to epub and a bunch of other formats and see what it looks like.
> > >
> > >fifthwave at live dot com dot au
> >
> > Will do! It's just a couple of paragraphs. I tried to get (from
> > the limited fonts on my word processor, most of which are
> > sans-serif and look much too much alike); but if you can tell
> > there are three fonts, then translate them into whatever you like
> > and see if they work.
>
> Success! I copied the text you sent me into a word doc and used 'Save As' to save it as an htm file, (because that's what calibre told me to do, it didn't want to touch rtf for some reason).
>
> Then I imported it into calibre and converted it to mobi, epub and azw3 formats. I made sure the 'Embed referenced fonts' box was ticked, otherwise the fonts wouldn't have been preserved.
>
> The epub and azw3 versions supported your fonts, the mobi version didn't. I was kind of expecting that to happen.

Just to clarify, the internal ebook viewer that comes with calibre correctly displayed the azw3 and epub versions, but not the mobi.

-Moriarty

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <2a585800-b4f1-4f7d...@googlegroups.com>,

Thanks for your efforts, and the info! I'm not very sanguine
about going with Kindle anyhow.

Next question: does epub have a library of fonts of its own, so
that I could select some fonts that are clearly distinct to the
eye of a reader who is not a typography maven?

>
>I've only got a kindle, so can't test the epub version on a nook or kobo
>or whatnot, but I'd guess it would be easier than the kindle was as that
>last 'Publisher Font' step probably wouldn't be required.
>
>If you go ahead with it, I'd suggest you don't use Candara and Times New
>Roman, they're too similar and the changes are hard to make out. Vijava
>was fine.

Well, I tried. Candara is sans-serif and Times is serif'd, and
practically every other font in the OpenOffice library is
sans-serif too and they look way too alike to me.

One of the things Hal has said he'd do is to look online for some
more interesting fonts. Way back in the day of Word 2.0 there
was a font called Tolkien that looked like lovely Carolingian
half-uncials. I'd love to have something like that for font 2.

Thanks again.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the gmail edress.
Kithrup's all spammy and hotmail's been hacked.

>-Moriarty

[J. Clarke]

In article <nu144...@kithrup.com>, djh...@kithrup.com says...

<https://www.google.com/fonts> provides a range of optiona, all provided
as open source.

<http://www.1001freefonts.com/> has a large collection--note on the
right above the "download" butten the licensing is briefly stated. Don't
take their word for "free" though--click the font and you should get an
expanded page with a link to the publisher at or near the bottom--you
can go there and check the details of the licensing. Also note that
some of the publishers are individuals doing it for personal reasons and
might have suggestions if you explain to them what you are trying to do.

<http://www.1001fonts.com/> (different from above) also has a large
collection and allows display of only those that are free for commercial
use (click the price tag with a dollar sign on it next to the "your text
here" box). Again read the details though.

While it's possible to download the Tolkien font (google "Tolkien
Regular"), it is copyrighted, not licensed for redistribution, and the
publisher seems to be defunct so there's no way to license it.

Note--be careful about _any_ font you use--the ones that come with word
processors and the like are typically not licensed for redistribution,
which includes embedding in a document. I doubt anybody who would do
that is going to notice you and come after you but it can happen.

[Mark Bestley]

Dorothy J Heydt <djh...@kithrup.com> wrote:

If you want more control of the conversion

The quick answer is that epub is a collection of HTML files -
As far as the writer is concerned it is HTML - so get your .rtf files
readable as/converted to HTML files and check it works in a web browser

The next stage is how to package trhe HTML and fints into epub

--
Mark

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <1ma3cfg.1jdif2u3la2iwN%news{@bestley.co.uk>,

>The next stage is how to package the HTML and fonts into epub

O-o-o-kay, one bridge at a time, I guess.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <MPG.30508ba39...@news.eternal-september.org>,

Very useful information, thank you. I'll send this to Hal too.

[Robert Carnegie]

Let the record show that I am officially excited.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <c6f8213b-7570-4682...@googlegroups.com>,

Well, thanks. We are not off the ground yet, but sources report
there is a runway out there somewhere.

[Michael R N Dolbear]

"Dorothy J Heydt" wrote

>>Note--be careful about _any_ font you use--the ones that come with word
>>processors and the like are typically not licensed for redistribution,
>>which includes embedding in a document. I doubt anybody who would do
>>that is going to notice you and come after you but it can happen.

> Very useful information, thank you. I'll send this to Hal too.

These problems were gone over in

http://epubzone.org/news/epub-3-font-embedding-and-licensing


-- --
Mike D

[Michael R N Dolbear]

"Dorothy J Heydt" wrote

> J. Clarke <j.clark...@gmail.com> wrote:

>>Here is a discussion of embedding fonts in epub with the aid of
>>Calibre--the objective in this case is support of Cyrillic but the
>>principles should apply to any font
>><http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61587>

> Okay, I'll send him these too. Thanks.

> N.B. I have NO desire to do anything in Cyrillic. :)

I asked about reflow of a PDF to suit different sized screen and discovered
I already had what was needed.

http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/PDF#Reflow
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3162911


--
Mike D

[William Vetter]

Michael R N Dolbear wrote:
> "Dorothy J Heydt" wrote
>
>> Michael R N Dolbear <m.do...@physics.org> wrote:
>

>>> But the problem is finding an e-platform that will support three
>>different sets of fonts (roman and italic for each). Do you know
>>of any?
>>
>>Well the first step is to generate a proof of concept as a RTF or DOC file
>>using three fonts
>
>>Is there one or two chapters in TIL that use three that you can call out ?
>
>>> The best example would be right at the end of Chapter Last, where
> the fonts are switching about in mid-sentence. I can make up an
> RTF file of a couple sample paragraph if you like. What should I
> do with them then?
>
>>>This can then be converted to say ePUB and checked
>
>> Except I haven't the foggiest how to do that. Maybe Meg or Seanan do.
>
> It occurs to me that using colour rather than font would be a good start
> though of course only a computer or tablet (or phone) screen would show it.
>
> So assign each text type a different style
> define three styles a different text colour black, red, green say
> And assign each text type a different style
>
> Call up
> http://convertfiles.com/
> and ask it to convert to ePub
>
> There is a free Firefox add-on EPUBReader which you can then use to see
> what's what
> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/user/epubreader/?src=api
>
> If this works you could have the styles specify different fonts too and
> certainly the scan and mark up stage would be lots easier to debug if you had
> the result in colours.
>
>>>> (Kindle is definitely out, since they allow the *reader* to
>>choose different fonts, but they would all be the same font per
>>reader. I figured that out even before Graydon Saunders, whom I
>>have never met but whom, based on his work, I place not far from
>>the left hand of God, told me that his ancestors would all rise
>>up and haunt him if he published with Kindle, or words to that effect.)
>
>> >Even this violation of the laws of creation may be possible since Kindle
>> now
>>has a (embedded) Publisher's font option which a small pub who provides
>>Kindle compatible ebooks may be able to access.
>
>> Well, if you can find out more about this feature, do please let
> me know.
>
> This is really very much in the "ring a friendly geek" area, but this expert
> says
>
> The fonts render as expected in major reading systems such as NOOK, iBooks,
> Adobe Digital Editions, and even Amazon’s Kindle Fire (after conversion to
> KF8 via KindleGen).[7]
>
> He also mentions that if the fonts you choose are not embedded the ePub will
> work on a computer that has those fonts but a tablet or ereader without them
> will be forced to substitute which won't turn out well. Hence all the
> palaver.
>
> http://epubzone.org/news/epub-3-font-embedding-and-licensing
>
> also
> http://pandoc.org/epub.html
>
>
I put small caps font into a MS Word doc, and then converted it to epub
with AVS Document Converter. The small caps came out as regular font.

Does this happen with every converter?

[Torbjorn Lindgren]

Dorothy J Heydt <djh...@kithrup.com> wrote:

>In article <2a585800-b4f1-4f7d...@googlegroups.com>,
>Moriarty <blu...@ivillage.com> wrote:

[...]

>>Then I imported it into calibre and converted it to mobi, epub and azw3
>>formats. I made sure the 'Embed referenced fonts' box was ticked,
>>otherwise the fonts wouldn't have been preserved.
>>
>>The epub and azw3 versions supported your fonts, the mobi version
>>didn't. I was kind of expecting that to happen.
>>
>>Then I copied the azw3 version onto my kindle and it was perfectly
>>readable, but ONLY once I'd set the 'Publisher Font' option to ON.
>
>Thanks for your efforts, and the info! I'm not very sanguine
>about going with Kindle anyhow.

Old Kindles doesn't do fonts because the mobi format they use was
mostly unchanged since 2000, this changed with the Kindle 4 and Kindle
Fire which came out in late 2011 and introduced the new AZW3 (or KF8)
format.

The epub format has included font support since the beginning (2007)
but various articles on the net suggests font support on actual
reading devices was at best "inconsistent" until 2012, so a similar
date.

Unfortunately it's not uncommon for dedicated readers to default to
ignoring embedded fonts even when it understands them, this can happen
even on PC/Mac but is especially common on eInk devices because the
eInk screen behaves slightly different and the device maker spent a
lot of time to tweak their fonts to look as good as possible on their
device.

The "problem" is that some publisher now routinely hardcode and embedd
all their fonts so the device makers learned to ignore it to avoid
decreasing the quality unnecessarily. This hurts products like TIL
which actually uses fonts for a reason but it's hard to blame them!

Basically, you can expect a dedicated eInk reader 3 years old or newer
to be CAPABLE of showing the fonts but there's a decent chance that
the reader may need to find and enable publisher fonts. If it's older
than that it's anybody's guess.

PC/Mac/Linux and tablets (Android/iOS) reader applications "should"
support and show your fonts but even here some MAY choose ignore fonts
by default, no idea how likely that is.

I dislike PDF for many good reason (fixed layout, ligatures, I can go
on) but PDF may be the only format where fonts are actually guaranteed
to work. I guess you could provide PDF for people who has issues as a
safety net. Personally, I will buy it in epub or azw3 format, but not
if it's only available in PDF because I read almost exclusively on my
eInk reader (Kindle Paperwhite, definitely font-capable).

I suspect the people in this group will be able to come up with list
of instructions for various devices/readers that you can throw into an
introduction section. If we can't, I suspect appealing to the nice
people in the MobileRead forums would result in detailed "how to" for
pretty much all devices and readers used by significant number of
peoples.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <ms821i$o7s$1...@dont-email.me>,

Thanks. Added to the continually lengthening file of notes.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On Tue, 1 Sep 2015 15:46:27 GMT, djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt)
wrote:

>In article <ffjFx.2$HU...@fx24.iad>, Scott Lurndal <sl...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>>djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>>
>>>>

>>>Okay, I have a test file in .rtf. I need to find SOMEbody who
>>>can read the epub documentation (which, I observe, is online)
>>>well enough to teach me the rudiments of turning an .rtf file
>>>into .epub.
>>
>>You can use Calibre to do the conversion automatically. It's
>>open source software available for most operating systems.
>>
>>http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq.html
>>
>>Basically, run calibre, select "add books" and add your RTF
>>file. Then select the book title followed by "Convert Books".
>>
>>Select the output type epub and you're good to go.
>
>Thanks; added to my growing file of things I cannot understand
>but maybe Hal or Meg will.
>
>(This is all beginning to remind me of the time back in 2000 when
>I was complaining about graphically distressing ads popping up
>every time I got onto the Web, and Gary Farber kept saying, Just
>get onto Yahoo and download some ad-blockers, that's not
>difficult is it, you're not stupid are you?)

Ugh, adblockers. Tried to help out a colleague by installing one in her
preferred browser - Internet Explorer. Took loads of faffing about,
everything was made painful by MS, apparently in the name of "security".
Dead easy in Chrome or Firefox or Safari, on the plus side :)

Cheers - Jaimie
--
A mind stretched by an idea can never go back to its original dimensions.
- Conan Doyle

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On Wed, 02 Sep 2015 19:33:17 -0400, William Vetter <mdha...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>I put small caps font into a MS Word doc, and then converted it to epub
>with AVS Document Converter. The small caps came out as regular font.
>
>Does this happen with every converter?

Small caps are terribly under-supported in general, you can't rely on
them appearing correctly anywhere outside of a Word doc. Very
disappointing.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
-- Dorothy Parker

[John F. Eldredge]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2015 19:22:40 +0000, Scott Lurndal wrote:

> djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:

>>Well, guys, it looks as if there is no e-format anybody can think of,
>>except PDF, that will use different fonts -- and PDFs won't work on
>>handhelds. Except if the user knows about some weird software that will
>>turn PDFs into handheld-readable, which I can't expect your basic user
>>to know about.
>
> Hmm. My nook handles PDF's just fine.

My main complaint about most PDFs on a small screen is that they don't
reflow, meaning that you have to scroll the image sideways on every line
in order to read it.