Q: PDFs or not

Mark Tennent1 wrote:

 

In Publishing and Distribution FAQ it says in paragraphs 1 and 2 onwards, that books can be submitted in PDF format.

I don't see where you could be reading that.  It says you can submit a book to the iBookstore as an .ibooks file.  You can export your book as a pdf, but this would be for distribution outside the iBookstore.  

Yes you are right. Read in haste and pondered for too little time.

Darn! Client wants PDF quality, not eBooks or iBooks.

markfromworthing wrote:

 

Darn! Client wants PDF quality, not eBooks or iBooks.

What is the "quality" they are looking for exactly?  PDF has a lot of disadvantages for reading on multiple size platforms, which is probably one of the reasons Apple doesn't accept them in the store.

The Quality comes from excellent typography, with a careful choice of display, headline and body typefaces and sizes. Images are in exactly the place they are meant to be with their accompanying text alongside. All on page sizes and shapes chosen for the books, with generous elements of white space and graphic devices.

I understand that PDFs do not scale to read on smartphones or Kindles but they are fine for normal size tablets and screens. My client has a series of books planned that are rich in the photographs they have taken over the decades they have been a professional photographer. They want to make them as electronic publications with an excellent typographical element and finally they want them in multiple libraries or Amazon, especially as they live in rural France with no access to iPads and Apple Macintosh computers, only Windows.

Currently there is no electronic route they can follow without getting involved in a lot of expense and even then many of the libraries will not accept the books. Ebooks are not an option because they will ruin everything my client holds dear to their design sensibilities and images.

markfromworthing wrote:

 

Ebooks are not an option because they will ruin everything my client holds dear to their design sensibilities and images.

I think you are probably right, though the "fixed layout epub" claims to address some of these things.

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/how-to/ebook-fixed-layout.html

Thanks Tom, I hadn't heard of fixed layout.

They are better for my client but not me. ID5 or QXP10 here

Later: Just been reading up and it appears that iBooks is just about the only ePub 3 viewer, Amazon don't accept them, so back to the drawing board.

I can't understand why it is taking so long for things to move on in electronic publishing.

Regarding Amazon, this may help:

http://ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/316/does-amazon-accept-fixed-layout-ep ubs