"PDF" entries

Four short links: 26 August 2013

Four short links: 26 August 2013

Peruvian Archaeodrones, Drone Crash, PDF in Javascript, and Bipedal Robots

  1. Peruvian Archaeologists Use Drones (Guardian) — Small drones have been helping a growing number of researchers produce three-dimensional models of Peruvian sites instead of the usual flat maps – and in days and weeks instead of months and years.
  2. Drone Crashes Into Crowd at Great Bull Run (WTVR) — just what it says. (via DIY Drones)
  3. jsPDF — create PDF in Javascript on the client.
  4. Let’s Make Robots: BoB — instructions on building a bipedal robot. (via Makezine)

Neat visualization of download ratios for ebook formats offered by O'Reilly

PDF has competition from EPUB.

We track the ebook formats customers actually download, and from the start PDF has been the dominant choice. But as this post's associated chart shows, there's been a steady shift toward other formats.

PDF vs. EPUB vs. Mobi Format Download Comparison for oreilly.com

UPDATE: Additional view showing relative volume, rather than percentage. I'm honored to have been elected to the IDPF Board of Directors, and will use the occasion to share some interesting data about download formats from oreilly.com. For most of our titles, we offer three different (DRM-free) formats: PDF, EPUB, and Kindle-compatible Mobipocket. PDF continues to be the most popular format,…

Amazon Dropping Non-Amazon Ebook Formats (Sort of)

Via Publishers Weekly, Amazon announced Monday it will stop offering ebooks in formats other than Kindle and Mobipocket: In the future, the online retailer says it plans to offer only e-books in the Kindle format (for wireless download to its Kindle reading device) and the Mobipocket format, both of which are owned by Amazon. A contact at Amazon has…

Format Comparison: PDF, EPUB, and Mobi Downloads from Ebook Bundles

We've been selling PDFs of our books on oreilly.com for several years, but this summer began selling "ebook bundles" of many titles, which include PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket versions. Here's some weekly data (I can't share the vertical scale) on the relative breakdown of actual downloads from those bundles (PDF, Mobi, and EPUB are Light, Medium, and Dark respectively). PDF…

O'Reilly Ebooks: 130 Top Titles Now Available, Plus an iPhone App and Head First PDFs

While there will always be a demand for printed books, few of those books will have a life entirely disconnected from the wider digital Web. In that sense, all publishing is becoming digital publishing, and all writing is writing for the Web. That's a big shift, and it will take time for the existing players to make the transition (and…

[TOC Webcast] Tomorrow: What Publishers Need to Know About Digitization

Tools of Change for Publishing will host a free webcast tomorrow at 1 p.m. eastern (10 a.m. pacific). Digitization expert Liza Daly will discuss "What Publishers Need to Know About Digitization." No prior experience is assumed in this overview of the conversion process. Topics will include: What's XML and do you need it? What's the cost-benefit analysis versus PDF…

First Frontlist O'Reilly Ebook Bundle (Including EPUB) Now Available

iPod: The Missing Manual, seventh editionWith today’s release of iPod: The Missing Manual, Seventh Edition, by J.D. Biersdorfer and David Pogue, we’re beginning the release of nearly all new (frontlist) titles as ebook bundles. SharePoint for Project Management, by Dux Raymond Sy, will be available tomorrow, and Web Security Testing Cookbook, by Paco Hope and Ben Walther, will be available next Tuesday (Oct. 14)

How to Read any Type of Document on the Kindle (Almost)

With a little work and help from some undocumented features, it's possible to read PDFs with their native layout on the Kindle.

Tech Publisher Asks "Are Ebooks Ready for Technical Content?"

Dave Thomas from the Pragmatic Programmers is mulling whether to make their books available on the Kindle, and encountering many of the same issues we faced here at O'Reilly regarding technical content and the limitations of current ebook devices: In fact, we've had a prototype form of that capability for a while now, but we've always held back. Frankly,…