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Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

standardebooks.org

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Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#3

Post by fxbois »

robin_reala wrote: post #2

I’m a contributor – I did Kafka’s The Castle , Agatha Christie’s Giant’s Bread , and Stella Benson’s The Faraway Bride for this launch – and I’m happy to answer any questions about Standard Ebooks.

Do you plan to provide PDF ?

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#4

Post by cess11 »

fxbois wrote: post #3
robin_reala wrote: post #2

I’m a contributor – I did Kafka’s The Castle , Agatha Christie’s Giant’s Bread , and Stella Benson’s The Faraway Bride for this launch – and I’m happy to answer any questions about Standard Ebooks.

Do you plan to provide PDF ?

I don't know their reasons but PDF is a rather problematic format so I suspect that's why.

You can run their EPUB through Pandoc to convert yourself, or put some effort in and setup your own Calibre instance which will do something similar when you ask it to.

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#5

Post by dajare »

fxbois wrote: post #3
robin_reala wrote: post #2

I’m a contributor – I did Kafka’s The Castle , Agatha Christie’s Giant’s Bread , and Stella Benson’s The Faraway Bride for this launch – and I’m happy to answer any questions about Standard Ebooks.

Do you plan to provide PDF ?

SE makes ebooks available in four formats: "compatible" epub; "advanced" epub; kobo-compatible ("kepub"); and kindle ("azw3"). No PDFs.

One of the SE editors experimented with turning SE ebooks into PDFs, though. See more about that here: https://groups.google.com/g/standardebooks/c/Xy2bwiexLeM/m/f...

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#6

Post by as1mov »

robin_reala wrote: post #2

I’m a contributor – I did Kafka’s The Castle , Agatha Christie’s Giant’s Bread , and Stella Benson’s The Faraway Bride for this launch – and I’m happy to answer any questions about Standard Ebooks.

Probably a dumb question, but how do you guys decide (and source) the book covers? I love how they look, but as a philistine can't put into words why.

Also thanks for doing this, I've read a bunch of stuff (GK Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, Dashiell Hammett) that I wouldn't have otherwise if it weren't for this service.

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#7

Post by robin_reala »

as1mov wrote: post #6
robin_reala wrote: post #2

I’m a contributor – I did Kafka’s The Castle , Agatha Christie’s Giant’s Bread , and Stella Benson’s The Faraway Bride for this launch – and I’m happy to answer any questions about Standard Ebooks.

Probably a dumb question, but how do you guys decide (and source) the book covers? I love how they look, but as a philistine can't put into words why. Also thanks for doing this, I've read a bunch of stuff (GK Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, Dashiell Hammett) that I wouldn't have otherwise if it weren't for this service.

The historical criteria is fine-art style oil painting. These days we’re starting to use first-edition cover art a bunch for more modern productions if it’s good quality. We also tend to use abstract oil paintings for sci-fi.[1] Obviously, all art is sourced from the public domain too. We’ve also started a database of confirmed-US-PD artwork that we can use for future productions.[2]

[1] https://standardebooks.org/subjects/science-fiction

[2] https://standardebooks.org/artworks

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#8

Post by pastage »

robin_reala wrote: post #2

I’m a contributor – I did Kafka’s The Castle , Agatha Christie’s Giant’s Bread , and Stella Benson’s The Faraway Bride for this launch – and I’m happy to answer any questions about Standard Ebooks.

Do you think the things that makes an edition special goes missing while converting to e.g. Standard Ebooks. I remember both the The Castle and Das Schloss like they had typesetting that helped me in perceiving the feel of the book. Is there anyway to preserve that feeling and still keep within the bounds of standardisation you adhere to? (I did a quick look through my copy and it does not seem to be much that makes it unique really, just the size of the book, and the chapter heading graphics..)

Do you know if the project try to look at other languages at all?

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