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Standard Ebooks

standardebooks.org

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Re: Standard Ebooks

#91

Post by dimmke »

paulcole wrote: post #87
dimmke wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes basically. I understand if a publisher commissioned a translation and put in work but $10 for a DRM digital copy is too steep. Maybe $3-$4 would be reasonable? Crime and Punishment was written in the 1800s, the author is long dead. And it's considered a historic and important piece of literature. Regardless, it's great that these works are available in high quality for free.

If it was $3 would you buy it today?

Because there are high quality alternatives that are free and have no DRM there's no price point I would buy it. The only scenario I would is if I wanted to read a specific translation.

A physical copy if I wanted one I'd be willing to pay ~$6 for, less if used.

Re: Standard Ebooks

#92

Post by cxr »

Qwertious wrote: post #88
cxr wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without discounting the point made by smogcutter about Penguin's edition not actually being public domain: for a classic work, I'd expect to be able to get a paperback for less than $10.* And that involves a real-life physical artifact which (a) necessarily has lower margins than an ebook, and (b) doesn't come with the omnipresent threat that it will evaporate from your device (or your managed online locker or whatev…

Physical media tends to be ~30-40% of the costs, so I think it's more like $6 or $7.

You think what's more like $6 or $7?

Re: Standard Ebooks

#93

Post by noitamroftuo »

acabal wrote: post #9

Editor-in-Chief here, happy to answer any questions! Of interest might be my blog post on how SE runs on a small VPS using classic web tech: https://alexcabal.com/posts/standard-ebooks-and-classic-web-... (This post is slightly out of date as there is a database now; but it's used for managing Patrons - and soon a cover art listing and approval system - not for serving the actual ebooks, which are still served as des…

It says on each book page "Compatible epub — All devices and apps except Kindles and Kobos." - but i think this is incorrect bc epub is now the preferred format for Kindle.

Re: Standard Ebooks

#94

Post by acabal »

noitamroftuo wrote: post #93
acabal wrote: post #9

Editor-in-Chief here, happy to answer any questions! Of interest might be my blog post on how SE runs on a small VPS using classic web tech: https://alexcabal.com/posts/standard-ebooks-and-classic-web-... (This post is slightly out of date as there is a database now; but it's used for managing Patrons - and soon a cover art listing and approval system - not for serving the actual ebooks, which are still served as des…

It says on each book page "Compatible epub — All devices and apps except Kindles and Kobos." - but i think this is incorrect bc epub is now the preferred format for Kindle.

Kindle does not natively support epubs: https://standardebooks.org/help/how-to-use-our-ebooks#kindle...

Re: Standard Ebooks

#95

Post by nacs »

noitamroftuo wrote: post #93
acabal wrote: post #9

Editor-in-Chief here, happy to answer any questions! Of interest might be my blog post on how SE runs on a small VPS using classic web tech: https://alexcabal.com/posts/standard-ebooks-and-classic-web-... (This post is slightly out of date as there is a database now; but it's used for managing Patrons - and soon a cover art listing and approval system - not for serving the actual ebooks, which are still served as des…

It says on each book page "Compatible epub — All devices and apps except Kindles and Kobos." - but i think this is incorrect bc epub is now the preferred format for Kindle.

Kobos also support epub.

Almost all my Kobo books are EPUB and work great.

Re: Standard Ebooks

#96

Post by zem »

veridies wrote: post #31
acabal wrote: post #9

Editor-in-Chief here, happy to answer any questions! Of interest might be my blog post on how SE runs on a small VPS using classic web tech: https://alexcabal.com/posts/standard-ebooks-and-classic-web-... (This post is slightly out of date as there is a database now; but it's used for managing Patrons - and soon a cover art listing and approval system - not for serving the actual ebooks, which are still served as des…

I've been eagerly awaiting the new Lord Peter Wimsey novel! To avoid burnout, I've been reading them as they enter the public domain instead of reading the whole series all at once, and I was hoping that it would be in the first batch this year. Thank you so much for your hard work!

heh, that reminds me of when I used to eagerly hunt used bookstores for anything by henry cecil (an out-of-print humorous writer). it was always exciting to find one I hadn't read before. and then his entire works got reprinted and you would have thought I would just buy and binge read the lot, but somehow the excitement went out of it and I just ended up reading a couple more. I should go back and catch up on him, actually, it's been years and years since I last read one.

Re: Standard Ebooks

#98

Post by themadturk »

willdr wrote: post #83
meristohm wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kobo, with either stock OS or KOReader (I use this, in part because the font size can be easily increased for my daughter who so far needs text larger than stock) or Plato.

Is the build quality and backlighting as good as the Kindle? And do they have a seamless option (no notched screen)?

I no longer have a Kindle to compare, but I'm very happy with build and lighting on my Kobo Libra 2. I've used Kindles since the Kindle 1, and there are some Kobo things that I don't like as well as Kindle, but it's a better-than-decent e-reader and I'm glad to be out from under Amazon's thumb.

Re: Standard Ebooks

#99

Post by boznz »

acabal wrote: post #94
noitamroftuo wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It says on each book page "Compatible epub — All devices and apps except Kindles and Kobos." - but i think this is incorrect bc epub is now the preferred format for Kindle.

Kindle does not natively support epubs: https://standardebooks.org/help/how-to-use-our-ebooks#kindle...

I email epubs to my kindle frequently and they open and read just like any ebook. I last tried this a week ago and it was fine.

Re: Standard Ebooks

#100

Post by contrarian1234 »

There are HTML versions but they don't seem to reflow

example:

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/rudolph-erich-raspe/the-su...

A bit offtopic, but I never understood why .epub is a thing. For instance the linked HTML/XHTML version seems to work just fine (except for the reflow thing.. but I assume that a CSS issue)

.epub seems to be mostly HTML with a few pieces missing. I guess I don't understand why we needed a new format? and not just use a strict HTML subset?

I'd love some strict HTML subset that indicated the file can be used offline. I personally try to make all my webpages so that they can be saved to disk and opened from a single file (though if you embed images/videos this becomes problematic). But I don't have a way to indicate to a reader "Hey you can Ctrl+S this webpage". I'd publish .epub, but the browser won't open them

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