Automatic image conversion: what do you need?

[Peter Gorod]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of including automatic image conversion in Publish eBook, so that you don't have to waste time converting to PNG format and sizing the pictures in your documents or books.

Besides the technical difficulties of doing this, I also wonder a bit about what do users really want from this feature.

The PML documentation states:

On low-resolution Palm OS handhelds, an image wider than 158 pixels or taller than 148 pixels will be represented in the text by a thumbnail that the user can tap to view the entire image. Images smaller than 158 x 148 will be presented in-line with the text.

On high-resolution Palm OS handhelds (those having screens of 320x320 pixels or more), images smaller than 158 by 148 pixels will be pixel-doubled. Images larger than 158x148 may be shown in-line with the text, if they will fit on the screen.

On non-Palm OS platforms, small images will be scaled up appropriately. Large images will be scaled down to fit on the page; in this case the user can tap on the image to view the entire image and zoom in or out.

Images must be in PNG format and cannot be filtered or interlaced. Image depth must be 8 bits or less. Any color table may be used for color images.

Image files must be less than or equal to 65505 bytes in size, since they are embedded into the .pdb format of the book; Palm database records are limited to 65505 bytes in length. Since images are compressed, the actual image displayed by the reader may be much larger than 64K.

So, how exactly should pictures be converted?

1- Convert all pictures to small inline pictures?

2- Convert them without changing size, making most of them appear as a button the user has to click to view the image?

3- Let the user choose how to convert each picture?

4- I also use a very specific image conversion quite often: a black and white, low resolution, large image, for A4/Letter size pages scanned into the computer. I use this to carry "paper" documents around with me on eReader, when they are difficult to OCR.

5- Another type of usage for Publish eBook is to convert web pages. These typically include lots of small images, some very relevant to the page, others very confusing on the small screen...

So, what kind of images do you use? How do you want them on your eBook? What options do you need?

[Emile]

I must confess that I've never put images in my e-reader documents because it's always been such a pain to format and set it up. Especially since I only make documents on the fly so that I can read them on the go. It's far easier to format images for Isilo and Mobipocket. In those situations, I tend to opt for small images inline with the text because navigating oversized images are also troublesome.

But since I prefer to e-reader to other readers, I'd welcome the chance to use it as often as possible.

In my case though, I have no option. I'm using Palm-OS, so I don't have the luxury of tapping for enlargement. And as I stated before, scrolling around a palm screen to see an image is a waste of time, which is why I don't use Adobe e-book reader.

[Gypsy Jane]

I can't believe there aren't a lot of Replys on here saying please do. But here's mine: please do! I read the What Gets Converted about pictures and it was beyond me. I'd love it if the macro would do it!

BTW, thanks for doing the macro thing. I just got it tonight. Worked great

[maczap]

In my ebooks I like images.

Moreover, sometimes the images are part of the book itself, i.e. symbols written on a wall (Jules Verne, Voyage to the center of the Earth) or handwrite paper (Jules Verne, The sons of capitain Grant) and sometime an image "is" the story itself (Edgar Allan Poe, The Gold Bug).

So, in my opinion, an image has to be readable along the text, and I use to convert to a dimension of 310x280 pixel. Only in few cases (if the image looses readability) I convert it in a bigger dimension.

I also like to have in the first page the cover of the book.

MZ

[Rey]

I use my Palm for too many things, including music player, and ebook reader.

My favorite magazine luckily publishes online too, and I use every free moment I can for reading. I read books, business articles, and my magazine. I have bought some dictionaries for instant lookup and enjoy eReader's ability to take notes on any phrase, with ease.

For years I have looked up and down the web trying to find a one-click tool for converting basically html and MS Word documents into eReader. One given day I thought eBook Studio would be what I was looking for... is not. Alas with Plucker and AvantGo.

Recently, it occurred to me that "dead developers" could've come back to life and I found you. There's a macro for OpenOffice that basically makes the same than yours (only yours is better .

My magazine's website lets me in, I copy-paste content (saving as anything generates an error) into Word via some tricks (pasting also generates an error using IE). Then I convert into eReader and understand only half of what it says for I miss pictures altogether. A workaround is to copy-paste each picture (seldom more than 5) into PowerPoint contextual-menu save as PNG picture (this way pictures are seldom larger than 64kb), manually insert the code \m="Picture1" and then I run the macro.

Soon I'll bury my now old Palm and stick to -perhaps- iPhone and Safari for a better reading experience. The investment I have already done in the Palm platform would make me desire (pay?) for a macro / program like yours in the case that I can successfully migrate to "eReader for iPhone."

By the way, although I'm perfectly able to see pictures in native Word 2007 in Documents-to-go, I still prefer eBook reader for the Dictionaries and the look&feel.

Said that, receive my greatest admiration for such a nice work. And in case you might hesitate, don't, I'm wating for your macro / program with the images automation feature.

Regards,
PP

[Peter Gorod]

Rey,

thank you so much for your nice message.

I'm afraid I can't promise any new features right now as I am too busy to work on this project and interest from users has been slowly fading away...

Picture conversion was not an easy feature to do, and there were never many replies to this topic, started over two years ago...

I'm glad you like Publish eBook and use it, I'm sorry if I can't make it any better now!

Peter