question about page numbers

[MandyJM]

How can I correlate the page numbers on my NOOK to the print book? For a class where we will reference page numbers.

[Ya_Ya]

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MandyJM wrote:

How can I correlate the page numbers on my NOOK to the print book? 

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Short answer is that you can't.  .epub page numbers aren't actually "page numbers."  Kindle announced "real" page numbers in February, but I haven't heard that they've actually implemented it yet.

I don't pay a lot of attention to Kindle news, so they very well may have, but I can neither confirm nor deny that.

[icebike]

Some books you can.  

You will notice that paging forward on the nook the page numbers will stay the same (even tho the text changes).  Then after a few pages it, the page number will jump.  I don't know if this is an attempt to make page numbers match or not.  

In any event, quoting page numbers is a risky business, because there will be differences from one printing to the next, hard cover to paperback, etc.  Its always been this way.

[Tim40744]

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Ya_Ya wrote:

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MandyJM wrote:

How can I correlate the page numbers on my NOOK to the print book? 

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Short answer is that you can't.  .epub page numbers aren't actually "page numbers."  Kindle announced "real" page numbers in February, but I haven't heard that they've actually implemented it yet.

I don't pay a lot of attention to Kindle news, so they very well may have, but I can neither confirm nor deny that.

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Since last March, I think. It's not available for all books but they list the ISBN number of the print edition source if it is.

[keriflur]

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Ya_Ya wrote:

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MandyJM wrote:

How can I correlate the page numbers on my NOOK to the print book? 

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Short answer is that you can't.  .epub page numbers aren't actually "page numbers."  Kindle announced "real" page numbers in February, but I haven't heard that they've actually implemented it yet.

I don't pay a lot of attention to Kindle news, so they very well may have, but I can neither confirm nor deny that.

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Well, they are actually page numbers in the sense that page 21 is page 21 in every edition of the ebook.  The thing is, the ebook is an edition of the book, just like the hardcover or the paperback, and different editions have different page numbers.  So while you'll be able to say "I read this on page 21 of the .epub" and others with the .epub edition of the book will find the same info, it doesn't correlate to the HC any more than the paperback edition would.

[Doug_Pardee Distinguished Bibliophile]

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keriflur wrote:

while you'll be able to say "I read this on page 21 of the .epub" and others with the .epub edition of the book will find the same info, it doesn't correlate to the HC any more than the paperback edition would.

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To be picky: the "page 21 of the .epub" is only meaningful for reader software obtained from Adobe. NOOKs, like most of the EPUB readers, use Adobe Reader Mobile software. Adobe Digital Editions, of course, uses Adobe reader software. But there are other EPUB rendering packages out there.

An EPUB doesn't really have "pages". An EPUB is, essentially, a Web site wrapped up in a Zip file. Typically, each chapter is a separate "web page", and you're scrolling down (and up) through it. When you switch to a new "web page", you'll notice that it starts at the top of the screen — which is why the publishers usually put each chapter on a separate "web page". Adobe uses a specific computation, based on the zip-compressed size of each "web page", to assign page numbers, and all of the Adobe EPUB reader software uses the same computation so they do all agree on the page numbering. But it is Adobe-specific; I don't know of anyone else who acknowledges that numbering system.

See this summary posting and this detailed posting I did a long time ago on the topic.

[icebike]

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Doug_Pardee wrote:

 To be picky: the "page 21 of the .epub" is only meaningful for reader software obtained from Adobe. NOOKs, like most of the EPUB readers, use Adobe Reader Mobile software.

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How sure of this are you Doug?

I've never seen anything that says B&N uses Adobe rendering engine.  All I've ever seen is that they use Adobe Digital Editions software for DRM control (copy protection).  

[Doug_Pardee Distinguished Bibliophile]

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icebike wrote:

I've never seen anything that says B&N uses Adobe rendering engine.

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Power your NOOK 1e down to white screen. Turn it back on. Observe the line at the bottom of the screen:

"Contains Reader® Mobile technology by Adobe Systems Incorporated."

 

Also check out the footnotes on B&N's specs pages for NOOK 1e and NOOK Color. For NOOK 2, I don't see similar acknowledgements, but I can't imagine that B&N changed horses.

[Nallia Distinguished Bibliophile]

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Doug_Pardee wrote:

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icebike wrote:

I've never seen anything that says B&N uses Adobe rendering engine.

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Power your NOOK 1e down to white screen. Turn it back on. Observe the line at the bottom of the screen:

"Contains Reader® Mobile technology by Adobe Systems Incorporated."

 

Also check out the footnotes on B&N's specs pages for NOOK 1e and NOOK Color. For NOOK 2, I don't see similar acknowledgements, but I can't imagine that B&N changed horses.

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That credit is on the startup screen of the N2E as well.

[icebike]

Yes, I've seen that, but its rather unspecific.

There was a press release way back when nook first came out that it was the DRM technology that was being cross licensed such that B&N and Adobe would be compatible.

Yet I have seen significant changes in the way some books render as B&N moved from release to release even though we know Adobe hasn't done squat with ADE render engine in years, and their own software is written in Macromedia Flash (and as such pretty much sucks).

There is no shortage of render engines, because epub is pretty standardized.  The only portion of ADE that B&N really needed was the DRM.  According to an old Bloomberg article, B&N already had a DRM solution but the patent writing was on the wall, and the companies decided to cross license.

Here is the page on Adobe's site:

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200910/AdobeandBarnesNobleJoinForcestoStanda...

It sure sounds like only DRM technology came from Adobe.  It doesn't even mention the reader engine.

[gstone]

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icebike wrote:

Yes, I've seen that, but its rather unspecific.

There was a press release way back when nook first came out that it was the DRM technology that was being cross licensed such that B&N and Adobe would be compatible.

Yet I have seen significant changes in the way some books render as B&N moved from release to release even though we know Adobe hasn't done squat with ADE render engine in years, and their own software is written in Macromedia Flash (and as such pretty much sucks).

There is no shortage of render engines, because epub is pretty standardized.  The only portion of ADE that B&N really needed was the DRM.  According to an old Bloomberg article, B&N already had a DRM solution but the patent writing was on the wall, and the companies decided to cross license.

Here is the page on Adobe's site:

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200910/AdobeandBarnesNobleJoinForcestoStanda...

It sure sounds like only DRM technology came from Adobe.  It doesn't even mention the reader engine.

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I don't know what "rendering engine" is used if that is even the correct term for what is being discussed here. I thought a rendering engine was the software used to draw pixels on the screen.

What I can check easily is page numbers on the Nook, Calibre and ADE for the same NookBook. Smashword titles do not have DRM.

The Nook, Nook for PC and ADE all agree on page numbers. Calibre has a greater number of pages in every case.