[Wylug-discuss] advice on ebook reader or similar...

[John R Hudson]

On Saturday 24 September 2011 22:57:55 Dave Fisher wrote:
> Having not direct evidence to the contrary, I do believe the authors
> of converters, when they tell me the PDF format itself lacks semantic
> markers for header-footer content ... and that the positional markers
> cannot be relied upon as workarounds.

That certainly makes sense in terms of the way the LaTeX→HTL converters work.

From a copyediting perspective,do you actually need the headers if you have an 
interactive contents list? The whole point of headers in a paper book is that 
they help you locate a chapter by flicking through a book. if you have an 
interactive contents list, they are redundant.

The UK convention is now to use endnotes rather than footnotes; so the only 
thing you end up with in the footer is a page number. That can presumably be 
generated automatically from the metadata.

I remember on my computing course in the 1980s it was hammered home to us that 
simply replicating a paper format in an electronic format is usually 
unhelpful. Are we in a phase where we keep the features we are used to in 
order to comfort us rather than taking the electronic format to its logical 
conclusion and getting rid of the things that Gutenberg's printers created to 
assist their readers but which are no longer relevant in an electronic format?

John