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General discussionWhy do Apple/Amazon etc use such low-res scans?(14 posts)(14 posts)
(14 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted September 19, 2022
So I wanted to buy a book of artwork and unfortunately it's been out of print for a long time, and I was happy to see it has an ebook version..... until I saw the sample of the ebook. Low-res scans.... It makes me so angry seeing such great art butchered by using low-res versions and then charging for it. The Apple and Kindle PC both seem to use the same scans too.

This thread doesn't really have a point, just me being angry. Ebooks were supposed to change everything, suddenly every book no matter how old could be preserved for all time... which is fine for text, but when it comes to actual pictures it seems like because that requires actual effort they just do crappy scans.
Posted September 19, 2022
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Crosmando: So I wanted to buy a book of artwork and unfortunately it's been out of print for a long time...
That's what antiquarian/second-hand bookshops, and sites like booklooker are for.
Will it cost you more than an ebook? Probably.
But it will also be the real deal.
Post edited September 19, 2022 by BreOl72
Posted September 19, 2022
I can't imagine reading an ebook. Games, even Music, I can live with digital, but Books? That won't happen.
Posted September 19, 2022
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Crosmando: So I wanted to buy a book of artwork and unfortunately it's been out of print for a long time, and I was happy to see it has an ebook version..... until I saw the sample of the ebook. Low-res scans.... It makes me so angry seeing such great art butchered by using low-res versions and then charging for it. The Apple and Kindle PC both seem to use the same scans too.

This thread doesn't really have a point, just me being angry. Ebooks were supposed to change everything, suddenly every book no matter how old could be preserved for all time... which is fine for text, but when it comes to actual pictures it seems like because that requires actual effort they just do crappy scans.
I agree they skimp on image quality in ebooks. However, I don't know about Apple, but from my experience, ebooks from Amazon are created for reading on their dedicated ereaders. They use grayscale eink displays, have limited memory and storage. They're not devices suited for handling and displaying high resolution art albums.
Posted September 19, 2022
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Crosmando: So I wanted to buy a book of artwork and unfortunately it's been out of print for a long time, and I was happy to see it has an ebook version..... until I saw the sample of the ebook. Low-res scans.... It makes me so angry seeing such great art butchered by using low-res versions and then charging for it. The Apple and Kindle PC both seem to use the same scans too.

This thread doesn't really have a point, just me being angry. Ebooks were supposed to change everything, suddenly every book no matter how old could be preserved for all time... which is fine for text, but when it comes to actual pictures it seems like because that requires actual effort they just do crappy scans.
Ebooks didnt really change much at all, other than trying to get people to change formats. It's a touchy subject really and has many DRM arguments. Apple especially employed some dodgy tactics with ebooks pricing. Both vendors you mention are notorious for withdrawing access to previously available products, one of the most famous being the removal of 1984...

I am guessing that is not really your point though.

You should definitely post the title of the artwork you were after.

It may well be the samples are low res for a reason, and the purchased product could be superior.

What was the artwork you were interested in?
Posted September 19, 2022
bandwith. accessiblity for the lowest common denominator. a person in the middle of the wilderness using a saeltit link should be able to see the store page.
Posted September 20, 2022
Glad to see someone else complaining. But that is just the tip of the iceberg to me.
I add:
-Slipped pagination (Hello index!)
-Footnotes out of place (Reading references... Nahhh! What for!?)
-Huge margins (Enjoy when printing!)
-Lack of electronic index
-Stupid permissions (not print, no copy, no search, no annotations)
-In short, -a total lack of editing- (Like a centerfold poster that keeps divided in 4 separate pages... just because!)

And as usual, Who is going to take responsibility for all that?
The author?
The publisher?
The e-store?
The file format owner?
Enjoy the fruitless hunt!
And what a strange similar situation!... Just like in the vgames business:
Too many hands in the supply chain and nobody takes responsibility...



Because on real printed books a lot of money is -totally wasted- when doing a sh*ty work
-versus-
loop as many times needed {
,,Not a big deal,, to edit the PDF and ,,fix,, the sh*ty work ,,without harm,,
}

Should NOT mean sh*ty work got a permanent free pass...
But hey! who cares...

Anyway (many jackals say), if they don't like ebooks, they can get the printed books!
(Another awesome enlightened reasoning too ,,trendy,, to ignore!)
Posted September 20, 2022
For anyone interested, I'm into the amazing illustrations of Gustave Dore, famed for his illustrations of the Bible, Paradise Lost and Dante's Divine Comedy. Most of his stuff is in print, but his illustrations of Orlando Furioso and others are out of print.
Posted September 20, 2022
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Crosmando: Low-res scans....
Of the text or images?

Not that it maters much. Though some Ebooks I've looked into the raw contents of, text is generally correct and then all the symbols were scanned even if they were repeated of the same ones, or doing a bad version of page separation, etc.

Regardless, if the text is low-res it's probably just a space saving way to do in an interface that's intended to be all images, and doing raw text would just add confusion for some automated bots and probably add unneeded matches in metadata for search engines.

Alternatively it could be a browser/dynamic loading thing, where they have super low res versions that are automatically loaded to get it moving, and then are replaced by higher ones later.
Post edited September 20, 2022 by rtcvb32
Posted September 20, 2022
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tag+:
You should give a proper ebook a try. By proper I mean something else than a heavily DRM-ed PDF from a lazy publisher.
Posted September 20, 2022
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Crosmando: Low-res scans....
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rtcvb32: Of the text or images?

Not that it maters much. Though some Ebooks I've looked into the raw contents of, text is generally correct and then all the symbols were scanned even if they were repeated of the same ones, or doing a bad version of page separation, etc.

Regardless, if the text is low-res it's probably just a space saving way to do in an interface that's intended to be all images, and doing raw text would just add confusion for some automated bots and probably add unneeded matches in metadata for search engines.

Alternatively it could be a browser/dynamic loading thing, where they have super low res versions that are automatically loaded to get it moving, and then are replaced by higher ones later.
The images, the text is fine.
Posted September 20, 2022
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Crosmando: Most of his stuff is in print, but his illustrations of Orlando Furioso and others are out of print.
If the illustrations are all that you're interested in - here's the German first edition:
https://www.zvab.com/buch-suchen/autor/ARIOST-LUDOVICO-ARIOSTO---GUSTAVE-DORE?cm_sp=brcr-_-bdp-_-author

The seller is in Israel and ships to Australia, too.

SHipping costs to Australia: between €35,- and €61,-

"**Shipping costs are based on books weighing 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. **If your book order is heavy or oversized, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required. We ship with registered surface mail, unless otherwise stated or ordered. **Our displayed prices include registered surface mail worldwide**! RARELY CUSTOMERS MIGHT HAVE TO EXPECT LONGER DELIVERY TIMES THAN INDICATED FOR **THE INCLUDED SURFACE SHIPPING**. Please contact us for information on our convenient airmail or courier shipping rates. **When payment will be done via paypal, increased shipping costs for heavier or multiple volume items will be visible on your paypal-invoice.**
**When ordering from Australia, South-America or Far-Eastern Countries**, we kindly ask you to choose our convenient airmail rates, where parcels can be tracked, otherwise shipment will be on the customer's responsibility."
Posted September 20, 2022
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InkPanther: You should give a proper ebook a try. By proper I mean something else than a heavily DRM-ed PDF from a lazy publisher.
That's my point, IMO the ebook business is lazy as hell.
OP is pointing Apple & Amazon, I can easily add Google Play and many small e-books stores out there

Leisure reading? May barely pass, but when you go to academics, scientific, heavy referenced, arts (like op points out), diagrams, maps, hell... magazines! All the benefits of ebooks dilute to shameful results.
And no, its not just a problem of e-stores, publishers and rights management fear.

The file formats themselves have a lot of room for improvement...

Add the lazy work because -its digital- plus the easy money grab and we get what we have...

The problem: One of this days paper will be forbiden (just as plastic bags are here) and we will have to handle with the ebooks reality... no more excuses of "grab the printed book" anymore
Posted September 20, 2022
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Have you ever actually seen anything other than a badly scanned ebook in PDF?
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionWhy do Apple/Amazon etc use such low-res scans?(14 posts)(14 posts)
(14 posts)