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mobile ebook (pdfs) - do they now read properly

by Peeps66
5 replies
Quite a while back now I had this machine which would only read pdfs if they had been tagged. I also remember somebody saying that pdfs read on mobiles didn't always convert properly. This was quite a while and I'm not sure if this is still applicable. I believe some give an image of the pdf page.

Can anybody put me right as to the current state of affairs?
#ebook #mobile #pdfs #properly #read
  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by Peeps66 View Post

    Can anybody put me right as to the current state of affairs?
    Most modern smartphones display PDFs perfectly.

    But it is worth noting that you can't extract a ZIP file on an iPhone and it can't show Flash. So SWF/FLV movies are out and your PDFs should be delivered outside of any other archives. MP4 and MOV are the preferred video formats.

    (I have a surprising number of customers who expect not only to buy my products from their iPhones, but to read the PDFs and watch the videos on them, too. So that drives a lot more of my decisions than I expected.)
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    • Profile picture of the author Peeps66
      Interesting!

      Thank you
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    • Profile picture of the author Don Schenk
      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      Most modern smartphones display PDFs perfectly.

      But it is worth noting that you can't extract a ZIP file on an iPhone and it can't show Flash. So SWF/FLV movies are out and your PDFs should be delivered outside of any other archives. MP4 and MOV are the preferred video formats.

      I know iPhones won't "see" flash, but is that also true of other smart phones?

      Would it be better to fomat .pdf files in a narrower format for smart phones?

      Inquiring mind wants to know.

      :-Don
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      • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
        Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post

        I know iPhones won't "see" flash, but is that also true of other smart phones?
        No. It's very strange that the iPhone doesn't support it.

        I have, however, found that while iPhone users aren't my most common mobile users, they are the most vocal. Statistically, they're a single-digit demographic and you'd think they don't matter. Socially, they're three to five times as likely to tell people what they think, AND they tend to be more highly respected among their peers.

        So that 6% of people who use iPhones to download my products has the impact of 24% in the court of public opinion, and given their greater influence, probably gives a weighted demographic value well over 30% by the time all the math is done.

        Long story short, one iPhone user has the social impact of five non-iPhone customers. You want these people to be happy. Not that I recommend the tradeoff, but it's actually a positive NPV to make three people unhappy for the sake of one iPhone user.

        Would it be better to fomat .pdf files in a narrower format for smart phones?
        I just use a larger font. That way the page still feels "full width" on a PC, but it's readable on mobile devices.
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        "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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      • Profile picture of the author Peeps66
        I had some equipment a while back that needed any pdf in a tagged format but if it was tagged then it would reflow/adjust the information to suit.

        I take it the iPhone doesn't require this?

        I do remember somebody mentioning that the Kindle pdfs needs extra formatting
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