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iBooks: ePub or PDF? (Do You Go as Far as to Convert?)

Which reading do you prefer on iPad?

  • ePub

    Votes: 36 90.0%

  • PDF

    Votes: 4 10.0%
  • Total voters
    40
HappyDude20

HappyDude20

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
3,688
1,479
Los Angeles, Ca
I have a ton of PDF files, but would prefer to read them in ePub format, considering I really enjoy the book feel when it comes to reading...

I have more PDF files than ePub files; in fact, the only ePub files I have are from books I've purchased in the iBookStore. The PDF files I have consist of journal articles and other files i've garnered from the internets.

I would imagine i'm not the only one who prefers the ePub format, but am wondering if others go as far as to use a program such as Stanza to convert their files over to ePub before transferring them into iTunes and the iPad.
 
for me, it depends on how structured the material is. it it's more pure text, i tend to product an epub. if it has images, diagrams, or anything else like that, then pdf.
 
Depends on what kind of document it is.

The journal articles are better as pdf's, since formatting is important.

For most fiction, like novels, formatting isn't as important, and they're read linearly, so epub is better, since it allows reflowing of the text.
 
I'm facing the same issue and I think the answer is - it depends.

I have a mass of pdfs and agree with previous posters that they don't convert well if they have graphics, so I would only convert pure text files. It also depends on how many: iTunes is not so friendly for dealing with large numbers of books in terms of picking which to sync with, say, an iPad. I think I shall not be doing any mass conversions, as this could turn out to be a waste of time, but will try to work with the files in their native format and in small numbers, at least to start with. I made a big time investment in Calibre, but am finding it too slow and cumbersome for big numbers of files, so may end up just relying on iTunes, even with its shortcomings.
 
exoriare said:
It also depends on how many: iTunes is not so friendly for dealing with large numbers of books in terms of picking which to sync with, say, an iPad.
Click to expand...


You're right. I did a mass convert to ePub around 630 books or and browsing through trying to pick which to sync is a pain in the butt.
 
Calibre is the way to go

I have tried a number of other converters and always come back to Calibre. The way it handles filing could perhaps do with a tweak but other than that it works really well. It never crashes unlike some quite expensive paid apps. I have a number of books which were close to unreadable in PDF format that have turned out just fine in ePub or PDB. I tend to prefer PDB to use with eReader rather than ePub. You can load onto iPad via a personal bookshelf on Fictionwise or there is a very complicated way of setting up a personal eBook server.
 
fizzwinkus said:
would you happen to remember itunes' limit? i've only got about 130 books/pdfs so far...
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure that iTunes has a maximum number of books it can take - the problem is with the interface. If you're looking at what's held in the library it's OK because you can have list view, cover flow and so on. But when you use iTunes to select what to sync onto an iPad you only get a very clumsy display of about 9 titles at once. This should be such an easy software fix, but Apple doesn't really take books that seriously at the moment and the whole book interface is pretty dreadful. Hopefully this may change once the market in ebooks really takes off.
 
exoriare said:
I'm not so sure that iTunes has a maximum number of books it can take - the problem is with the interface. If you're looking at what's held in the library it's OK because you can have list view, cover flow and so on. But when you use iTunes to select what to sync onto an iPad you only get a very clumsy display of about 9 titles at once. This should be such an easy software fix, but Apple doesn't really take books that seriously at the moment and the whole book interface is pretty dreadful. Hopefully this may change once the market in ebooks really takes off.
Click to expand...

that interface is horrible, but i feel it should be less so for books/pdfs because it's so easy to take them all with you. they use the same bad interface for choosing specific movies as well. (there are probably ~500 movies in my itunes)
 
I enjoy epud over PDF as well, however the only time I tried to convert a PDF to ePub every other page was upside down in the ePub format. Anyone else ever run into this issues? They are not upside won in the PDF it only happened after conversion using calibre
 
ePub for books, PDF for short articles/journals

If it's a full-fledged book that takes quite some time to finish, I convert it using calibre to ePub since the book feel of flipping pages and the text rearrangement make reading a more pleasurable experience. I don't have to pan and zoom all the time to read at the font size that I want.

However, if it's a short article from the Internet, such as a news article or a journal article for reading in my studies, I don't bother converting as it really isn't meant to be a book and it can be cumbersome. Plus, these are the articles I typically share with other people. Formatting in articles is different too, as books can typically go as a straightforward block of text while articles may need special formatting.
 
Some documents, like manuals, are better in PDF. Otherwise, I use ePub. If I need to convert, I use Calibre, too.

I prefer iBook for a reader, especially for ePub books. I have some PDFs in GoodReader, simply because of it's ability to download and unzip files. However, with the ability to create Collections in iBooks, I'm starting to move files over. iBooks has a nicer interface for PDFs (also faster than GoodReader).
 
gr8tfly said:
Some documents, like manuals, are better in PDF. Otherwise, I use ePub. If I need to convert, I use Calibre, too.

I prefer iBook for a reader, especially for ePub books. I have some PDFs in GoodReader, simply because of it's ability to download and unzip files. However, with the ability to create Collections in iBooks, I'm starting to move files over. iBooks has a nicer interface for PDFs (also faster than GoodReader).
Click to expand...

It's been so long since i've used my iPad; I didn't know iBooks had "Collections?"

Is this like folders in a sense? With what you've just mentioned i'm imagining the ability to group many groups together...such as textbooks, comics, magazines, novels, self-help, etc.

Please let it be true.

Edit: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/manage_ibook_collections_in_ios/

This, I like. :)
 
Is there a app that can read or at least convert .lit files to epub format? I have a bunch of books from my old pocket pc that I would like to put on the iPad but they are all in .lit format.
 
ePub is radical. It gives you flexibility to increase/decrease fonts. It saves space because it is not saved as images. It is essentially compressed HTML. Whatever formatting you can do on the web you can do on ePub. It is actually surprising to see PDF is even relevant these days.
 
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