What are e-books, and why are they better?

What are e-books, and why are they better?

Books vs. e-books
Just as books have their strengths, they also have disadvantages. Many of the old texts we deal with are so rare or long out-of-print as to be almost impossible to obtain. For instance, only 400 copies of "Land and Water Bugs" were ever printed; a good-quality copy may cost £300 or more. This puts it well beyond the reach of most people, and yet it remains the classic work for the identification of the Heteroptera. What's more, using any book in the field, or for identification in the laboratory, runs the risk of damaging it. Photocopying the book is a poor alternative.

What is an e-book?
Pisces e-books are supplied on CD or by download as Adobe Acrobat PDF files. The PDF format is well known, extremely versatile, and will run on both Windows and Mac operating systems. The Acrobat Reader software to use them is available as a free download from Adobe.

Many e-books are simply photographic copies of the original pages. This can give a poor-quality image, with a huge file size, and means that the text can not be selected, or searched. Pisces e-books are carefully scanned from the originals, repeatedly proof-read, saved as fully-searchable text, and paginated exactly as the original, so that all page and index references remain correct. We do not make corrections or alterations to the original, except:

in the case of obvious typos, where the correction is added in [square brackets], and
where the original contains an 'Errata' section.

How do they work?
When we build an e-book, we create a bookmark system, based on the original book's chapters and sections, headings and keys, for navigation through the e-book. Hyperlinks are created from all references in the text (for instance "See Fig. 21.3"), and from the keys, tables of contents, lists of illustrations, index, etc. So when you see a reference to another page, just click, and you're there - no more scrolling up and down desperately looking for the right page.

All the text can be selected, and copied/pasted, if needed. Text and figures can be printed - ideal if you just want to take one key into the field with you. And best of all, you can use the Search function to find every reference to a key word or phrase. All this enables you to use a book to its fullest potential.

Where the book contains plates, they are also supplied as high-resolution images on the CD; likewise if updated species lists or changes of nomenclature are available, we add those too.

Why are they better?

Faithful reproduction of the original
Original pagination and indexing
Bookmarks and hyperlinks for easy navigation
Selectable/copyable text
Easy printing of required text and illustrations
Text searchable for words/phrases
Additional high-quality images of plates
Added species lists, nomenclature, etc.

Guide to using e-books
For a guide to using Pisces e-books, click here
(PDF document; click to open in browser, or right-click and choose 'Save...' to download).