It’s a new widget and I’m a little bit of a novice making it work, but the first info I’m after is what is everybody’s MAIN format—and then I’ll be asking (in the next poll) which ones can you use? So on this one, only one answer is allowed, and after you vote, you can see how the tally is going in the View Results just under it.
Post comments on your choices here.
What I’m doing with this information is seeing how many of our offered formats are actually used at all, (if ANYBODY is using it, that is a guarantee of its continuance); and also (maybe) being able to arrange our quick MINI download offering to include the commonest.
Mobi( I got it from you and I LOVE it)no tinkering,very easy to use(yellow circle with smile)!!
PRC for me as well, works nicely with Stanza on the Mac.
I also use mobi, but I believe that Amazon bought it, and I have been a little worried that at some point, if they go in another direction with Kindle, they’ll cease to support it, having no interest in those of us with non-Kindle devices. I really have no trust at all of large corporations. So I will be very happy to have my books stockpiled in alternate formats, just in case.
I hate to tell you, but Amazon also bought Stanza—they seemed bent on cornering the market and going all-DRM (copy-protected) files, but there was a public outcry from the user-market, and they went very quiet, then. Thus far Mobipocket Creator has an option for creating DRM files (which I suspect are the .mobi format), but they have not dropped the old .prc format (DRM-free) either. And frankly the computer community is notoriously unwilling to be ridden over or overridden by anybody, so the day Amazon decides to implement any plan of global market domination, I’d be selling any stock I owned in Amazon.
The format pairings I know:
WHAT DEVICES USE WHAT READER FORMATS?
Mobile phones: Symbian uses Mobipocket reader (.prc).
Samsung Omnia: Adobe Reader Mobile (.pdf)
I-phone, I-Pod Touch: Lexcycle Stanza and eReader
Android phones: FBReaderJ supports FB2.
PalmOS based devices including Palm pilots, Tungsten series, Zire series, T/X and smart phones: PalmOS supports PalmDoc, iSilo, Mobipocket reader (.prc), .pdf , .txt.
Apple: Lexcycle Stanza, for Iphone or desktop: epub, .lit, .prc, PalmDoc, .html, pdf, .doc, .rtf. Lexcycle was bought by Amazon and there has been a lot of discussion about DRM (copy-protected) v non-DRM.
PC computers: Mobipocket Reader (.prc), Caliber (.epub), Microsoft Reader (.lit: has a ‘voice’ reader), Adobe Reader (.pdf), .html, .txt.
DRM versus DRM-free: (protected versus non-protected) e-pub remains aggressively drm-free. Mobi was bought by Amazon, but its Mobipocket Creator offers the option of creating a DRM or DRM-free (the one I choose) when you create the file. Honestly the likelihood that Amazon would try to strangle drm-free mobi (.prc) I think is less and less, as .prc is one of the most popular non-DRM formats. The company hastened to quiet any whisper of dropping the non-DRM option, has not done so yet, and has been quick to react to criticism. Amazon also bought up Stanza, and the same situation prevails there. There is a growing and vocal reader-community, and a company that sells books has to be aware of the anti-DRM sentiment which prevails there.
My own favorite reader-formats, for readability, ease of manipulation, and preservation of art files: .prc, .epub, and .lit, in that order.
For the visually impaired: pick kindle II—or a reader that uses the Microsoft .lit format, including a computer. Either has a synthesized ‘reading voice’ that is not bad at all: it has the GPS voice beat.
I am about to offer a new free download over on CC and here: the Microsoft Reader, which takes .lit. If you want to create a .lit document for that reader, there is a plug-in for Microsoft Word 2000 and later: it will turn any .doc file into a .lit file, plus it contains the MSReader.
No, it doesn’t beat me at reading my own manuscripts, but it’s not bad.
I’ve been opening in PDF Adobe, but it is spartan….no art…no italics….but the words are there in good order. I’ve downloaded Calibre but have not had time to explore it……..we’ll see.
But wow! This is all so amazing. Get some sleep! 🙂 😀 😆
::sigh:: Chose just one.
Some of us use what’s handy on the device at hand. I have pdb, html, pdf, and boring txt. One of the best things about txt is that it is still readable when there’s a major technology change.
Still! Thank you so much for putting up ebooks!!!
Freeware: the designer wants you to use their formatted stuff, so they offer the reader for no charge at all. Both these are from major companies, original sites, no middlemen, should be clean files.
For Apple, macs and iphones, and, they say, also PC’s, here’s where you download Stanza, which reads .epub and a bunch of other formats. http://www.lexcycle.com/desktop seems to be freeware.
For PC and many other devices, reading .lit files, the Microsoft Reader freeware download, including adding a ‘voice’ to your reading. http://www.microsoft.com/reader/developers/partners/logo.aspx THis one took a little poking about to install, but once you get it in, it’s a jewel. I couldn’t get it to come up—so I went to ‘search’ and asked for .lit files. It found bunches. And when I clicked on one, up popped the reader to open it. Magic! So I nailed that sucker to a desktop icon, and I’ve got it!
I have now added new links to the E-readers downloads sidebar on the LEFT <-----!@@ over there. It is my impression these are free downloads. They come from reputable manufacturers and should be safe downloads. <----- The .lit reader (MicrosoftReader) The .epub reader (Stanza---for Apple) If you have never downloaded and installed to your computer, I can walk you through the process, and if I can't---we have a dozen computer-savvy folk leaning over my shoulder who can help.
When I was looking into MS Reader last week, I hit a wall when it came to both Vista and Windows 7. MS appears to have abandoned Reader in 2006 and I’m not confident that it’s going to continue to be available/functional much longer.
It just struck me I’d seen something like this while rooting around in the Developer end of the site—which is a thing for somebody with a device they’re trying to hook up to the reader.
http://das.microsoft.com/activate/en-us/activatefaq.asp#fa_vista
It is not the best marked navigation path I have ever met, but is Microsoft EVER easy to navigate? There is a workaround for Vista. And if they can do that, they may make it over to Win7. The vocal thing is relatively new—and frankly it’s a good reader, and they’d be crazy to abandon it; it’s the one reader thus far that matches Kindle functionality in that regard.
I know what you mean—I got the Developer creator thingie onto my machine, and had to poke all sorts of backdoor buttons to activate it, because it would NOT show up in Word 2004 for love nor money until I ran Windows Search, located all those .lit files I’d been creating with Calibre: then the beast invoked itself and made a nest in Word, and on my desktop. Go figure.
It’s a good reader as long as it lasts—they don’t mention Win7 yet, but it at least goes through Vista.
Interesting: just looked into Win 7, and they have a feature called Narrator available apparently for ANYTHING in a window—so theoretically, you could have a copy of MobiReader up, and get the voice-narration. Not sure of this fact, understand, but possible.
The .lit format is only supported by Microsoft. It is, however, the one Calibre says it prefers as a basis for file converstion (God knows, MSWord/lit puts in about as much chaff/info as it does text for the book, nearly doubling the size of file) —so maybe at least it’ll always find what it needs. Most things abhor Word’s chaff. But to each his own. At any rate, interesting info—it may be that Win7 actually incorporates much of the MS Reader capabilities within its own structure. I’ll be watching Jane’s installation of Win 7 with interest. Me—I’m sticking to xp. Let Mikey try it.
My Mac running OS 10.4 CAN read anything in a windom. Doesn’t mean it SHOULD. I don’t recommend it. 🙁
Maybe it’s better in the newer OS.
oops, window
Narrator is…strange…
Pleasant enough female voice, but I’ll have to play with the settings to see how I like it.
By the way LYNN’S BLOGGING AGAIN: visit Lynn’s blog: http://lynnabbey.com/blog/?m=200912
and so is Jane: http://www.janefancher.com/TheCaptainAndLime/.
Drop in and wave hello to the other two Musketeers.
Just finished coaxing MS Reader with voice activation onto my PC. Have mobipocket as well but it’s a real pleasure to have someone reading Groundties to me. My eyes get a bit tired when they’re glued to the screen, also can eat, do the washing up, etc. at the same time.
Almost a dead heat between mobi and pdf. I’m really surprised. I find pdf almost useless except when I want to print, because if it’s large enough to read it’s too large for my screen, and it can’t reflow text, so I have to scroll around in every direction. Oh, well, to each his own.
Hello All , Whoile I vote for .pdf format , I’d still like to see teh ‘plain text’ version , yes good old ascii . I do have a continuing to worsen vision difficulty that can be rectified (so far) with increasing of the font size . And plain ol’ ascii is the only one that isn’t proportional and causes all sorts of difficulties with ever increasing fonts .
If you don’t beleive me goto your favorite webpage & try increasing the fonts in your browser & see what hides or gets exceedingly mangled by forced widths in the html .
tnx , JimL
Unfortunately, plain text loses all italics and pix. What are you reading ‘on’, if you don’t mind my asking? THere are so many choices that will give you all the above advantages?h
I can use any of the top 4 formats in your poll but I find that eReader Pro (which uses pdb files) is the friendliest to use as a pure reader on a pc (Vista and XP) and while it is not voice activated it does appear to have all the features you could want in an ereader. I also have the other readers because you cannot find some books in the pdb format so I had to expand my apps to read the content I was interested in.
By the way,just as a technical note, the free downloads I pulled down yesterday do not show having a cover in the pdb format and the file names (which show as the book titles on the ereader bookshelf) are not the real titles. I know you are working on a lot of other technical issues and this is certainly not a major problem but I thought you’d like to know.
Finally, like everyone else I applaud the effort you three have take to put this up – it’s a long way from finished but it is also well on it’s way – Great Job!
There’s also the “nook” now which is an alright device, I’m getting used to it. The start up and such is a little slow for my taste but on the other hand the special screen makes me realize how much I hate reading text on a computer screen. It’s compatible with most other devices as I understand it. iPhone, PC, Mac?, Palm, etc. I’ve not been interested in e-books because of eye strain. Things like liquid ink screens just might change my mind though.
That’s interesting. I’ve heard good things about the Nook.
A lot of people have troubles with screen light. Jane does. And of course the Ink screens aren’t lit. These things certainly have good points.