Re: Why proofed and formatted digital text?
- From: Michael Hart <hart@[redacted]>
- Subject: Re: Why proofed and formatted digital text?
- Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 07:54:17 PST
On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 Bowerbird@[redacted] wrote:
> the answer to this question is so obvious that
> i'm a bit stunned that anyone would even ask it.
>
> digital text is simply _worth_more_ than pagescans.
> a lot more. so much more that the cost of digitization
> pales in comparison. as such, it is rather a no-brainer...
>
> put that in your "white-paper", jon...
While I must admit that I agree with bowerbird on this,
I must also point out that nearly every "major" player
in the eBook world starts out "quick and dirty," scans
are an easy inexpensive way to say you have 1,000 books
or 10,000 books, and the process can be nearly entirely
automated and improved in terms of speed and cost.
The cost/benfit ratios will continue to improve greatly.
However, once one goes for full text there is only just
so far that automation can take you, which is pretty far
these days, compared to 10 years ago, but no one planned
for waiting 10 years from now:
They all want it cheap.
They all want it fast.
They can't make it good
including both those two.
It's a bit of a lark, really, how they complain and moan
about eBooks being only 99.95 - 99.99% accurate, until a
little experience teaches them a little.
;-)
Give the world eBooks in 2006!!!
Michael S. Hart
Founder
Project Gutenberg