What Is Raw Document?
I heard the term from a client, she asked me if I prefer to receive the raw document or the manuscript (for hard copy book printing). Of course, I want to see the real layout so I can make the eBook almost the same as the hard copy book. Technically, a raw document is a material without any formatting, almost like a TXT file but its in MS Word. If a manuscript is intended for printing, it will take a lot of time making it "raw" and edit the file again to make it ready before ebook conversion to a certain ebook format.
AudioBooks On Mobile
I mentally take note of the release of the 8th book of The Women’s Murder Club. I usually find the ebook file two days after its release date just like what happened to Harry Potter ebooks. It seems that I lost my touch this time, I can’t find 8th Confession by James Patterson. I’ve been searching for two weeks. What I found was audiobook format on the 3rd day after its release date.
Although its possible to play it on my symbian phone, I still prefer reading than “hearing the book”. Depends on my mood, I might blog about mobile audiobooks soon. I’m happy that I found the ebook format. For the meantime, I have some ebook conversion to do so I can read 8th confession on my mobile. I’ll be busy for a while.
PDF Or RGO?
Its a known fact that PDF is the best document for PC. It is also possible to view PDF file on our cellphones and other handheld devices. There are many adobe reader or pdf reader available for mobile phones. The perfect quality of PDF file on PC is the same on a cellphone but you have to scroll or navigate around to view a single PDF document page. Take note that a PDF with lots of images can be viewed depends on mobile phones RAM (random access memory) size, older mobile phones could have a problem of “close application”.
PDF files are optimized for large screens of a PC monitor. The better the quality of a pdf file, the larger the file size. BUT it is the best source file on ebook conversion to other ebook format. Even if its NOT mobile friendly.
Repligo readers caters not for PC alone but to other handheld devices such as PALM, Nokia (S60 1st and 2nd edition), Blackberry, Android Smartphone etc. Repligo has smaller file size but with the same quality of a pdf file. Based on my experience (on Nokia phones), image can be seen only if you will view the whole page, the image is small and impossible to see the details of the image. But on PC, repligo file has the same quality as PDF except for smaller file size.
Would you install both PDF and Repligo viewers on your PC? On your handheld device? I have both of them on PC and mobile. Lets face it, PDF reader is a important on every PC. I’m using Repligo reader for PC to test my converted ebooks before transferring them on my mobile. No, I don’t read RGO files on my PC.
eBook Source File?!
Others call them as input files. The file that you have that you need to be converted into another ebook format. Please take note that I’m referring to ebooks for mobile as the output files or converted files in this topic.
When it comes to ebook conversion for handheld device just the same also needs attention on ebook preparation of source file before conversion. I don’t want to sound complicated but remember that we are reading our ebooks in small LCD screen, they should be optimized as such. That also depends on what ebook format we want it to be converted.
Going back to source file, in what format are the best source files? PDF? MS Word DOC? TXT?
PDF – I have to admit that this is the best ebook source file for most converted file for its perfection. Although there are available PDF reader for handheld devices and some read them directly on their device, I’m not comfortable navigating around my cursor to view the entire page. With PDF’s perfection, there are some limitations for mobile ebooks… there are PDFs that cannot be converted. A perfect example is Bob Ong eBooks. I also encountered a poorly converted PDF file that however I tweak the file, remains useless. hmmn… I should make a post about that. I still prefer PDF as source file for my favorite repligo reader, the output is the same as PDF on PC but optimized for small screens of handheld devices. No more editing, just click, click and click, you have your perfect RGO ebook.
DOC – This is the best source file if your ebook comes from other formats (or it could be from a “chain of conversion“). When it is originally in other format, its impossible that you don’t need to edit the file. Still if its DOC file, you could modify the file, remove some unnecessary lines, pages, line breaks, page breaks, etc.. You could edit DOC file depends on the output format you want to convert it. This is the best source format for Mobipocket PRC creation especially if it has TOC (Table of Contents).
TXT – I’m fond of using this as my source file for Aportis PRC ebook. I’m proud to say that its the most convenient way of converting my txt files to PRC (Aportis, not Mobipocket) during my first year of mobile ebook reading. I need the computer primarily for editing the txt file only, ebook conversion tool was installed on my phone as well as the reader. You can even convert your SMS to eBook directly on your mobile.
CBR And CBZ for Comic Books
Interested on comic eBook reading? I do. I came across with CBR and CBZ files most of the time and decided to start downloading them and burn them on a CD. CBR is actually a RAR file containing images that have a filename structure that makes them viewable in the right order. CBZ is the same principle except they are ZIP files. These filetypes are generally Comix and CDisplay is generally known as a Comic Reader.
The image above is a screenshot of History Of the DC Universe, my present reading and my kids as well. Too bad that CBR and CBZ reader for symbian phones is not yet available and I can’t bring it anywhere I go. There’s a way though to view it on my symbian phone… convert CBR/CBZ file to PDF but I don’t like using PDF viewer on mobile phone. That’s an advantage for Windows Mobile phone users because there are various available CBR and CBZ readers. On PC, there are freeware available. I’m currently using Gonvisor. I will try testing Comic eBooks using Gonvisor on PSP soon. Do I have to mention that my main goal on ebook reading is making the ebooks handy anywhere I go?
Since I don’t have Windows Mobile phone, I am contented reading them on PC… better resolution, wide screen. The only disadvantage is electricity usage. I wonder if the person who pirated Bob Ong’s eBooks knew this.
