Reading electronic text is tiring. It is tiring because of the clarity or sharpness of the letters on the screen. The clarity or sharpness of the letters is indicated with "DPI" (dots per inch). The more dots per inch, the sharper the letters and better the legibility, and less tiring to the eye. Louis Stiller wrote in the Automation Guide: "the major frustration (…) is the poor quality of the screen." That is easy to explain. The letters that you read in a magazine are comprised of a minimum of 1200 dots per inch. That is reasonably sharp. If you print the same text on a laser printer at home, the definition (sharpness) is only one-forth of that, 300 DPI.. The screen further reduces a quarter of the definition, so that you have only 72 dots per inch. (Pixels; You Don’t Know What You See, Louis Stiller, Automation Guide/ February 23, l996).

The current e-books have a DPI of 106 (Rocket e-book), that is somewhat better than a standard monitor with 72 DPI. Designers are currently working on improving the quality of clarity. Under the caption "New screens with high resolution" we see that researchers at IBM have developed a new screen that has a very high resolution image. The resolution quality approaches that of paper according to IBM. The new IBM screens have a resolution of 200 dots per inch and that is approximately 3 times that of a conventional monitor. Actually the prototype of the screen has a depth of about 20 centimetres and weighs a bit less than 20 pounds. The circumference and approximate 20 pounds is far too awkward for an e-book. Automation Guide, October 10, 1998.

Another development is the "electronic ink" that has been developed by Lucent Technologies. This too is still in the prototype stage, Automation Guide, October 29, l999 or www.eink.com.

The French cartoonist and painter Loustal and the Soft E-books. Website about Loustal

Advantages (Pros) and Disadvantages (Cons) of E-books

The e-books have advantages over conventional books but also a couple disadvantages. There will be quick acceptance of the disadvantages, and stimulate the growth of the e-book. E-books are just in the beginning stage of their development. In 5 years, the technical aspects of the e-book will mature, but from the cultural aspect it will be 10 years before it will be widely used by the Dutch community.

In the coming years, the quality of the screen will be greatly improved and therefore the legibility. In addition, the memory capacity will be greatly enhanced so that more books and magazines per "reader" are available. The expansion of e-book capabilities will be especially favorable. The e-book of the future must be a telephone, a web-browser, an agenda and memorandum that recognizes voice as well as manual commands. The e-book will be the connection between the internet PC and today’s bookcase.

In random order a couple Pros and Cons

• The acquisition price for a device that will quickly become obsolete.
• Every year there will be a new edition of the e-book that offers more capabilities. 
• In the devices there is a battery with limited capacity, that must be charged after 4 to 8 hours use.
• For many it remains psychologically inhibiting to read via an electronic device.
• Limited offerings of Dutch texts. Books and magazines available for e-books are only available in English.
• Reading a screen is less clear than reading from paper.
• In spite of the fact there is an agreement here over, the current e-books have no established standards.
• Acquisition of books and magazines is via credit cards and internet.

PROS for the consumer:

• Relatively small device.
• Variety of material per "reader"
• Eliminates page turning
• Contains a search function
• Electronic bookmark
• Letter size and lighting is variable
• Some books have sound functions
• Acquisition of books and magazines is less costly than paper versions.
• New titles relatively simple to acquire via internet
• Books that no longer have copyrights are free
• E-books are never sold out or reprints
• Reference books are always current (if published)

Advantages for the publisher:

• Distribution via the internet
• Texts are centrally altered and distributed
• Consumer-Publisher relationship will be more clearly defined. The customer can be kept abreast of all new publications, improvements and lectures by authors.
• No expenses for paper and other raw materials
• Price per book is far less expensive because there are not any printing costs
• No minimum printing and circulation requirements per book
• Relatively low investment for storage of e-books (never sold out or reprint)

Disadvantages for Publishers:

• Access to readers of e-books is different than that of paper readers which will require an entirely different marketing and promotion tactic.
• E-books have to be secured/protected against illegal copying.
• Circulation will principally be done via internet requiring publishers to establish their own websites and/or releasing their publisher’s listings on large "book websites".

Advantages for authors:

• The author can become his own publisher
• The author can collect his own royalties
• A writer can independently publish a book over the internet unencumbered by a publishing house.

Public Libraries and E-books

Ideally, we could make an E-book available to every library card holder. For each city the size of Oss, that would be an estimated 20,000 E-books at an approximate cost of $500,000.00. That is for the device alone. The cost for the downloading of individual books into the E-book is an additional cost. However, over a number of years, the estimate is that by the year 2010, twenty-five percent of all books will be digital. The situation will be such that every library card holder will have their own E-book, and will visit the library for “loading” purposes or will directly purchase over the internet.

For this type of service, Agreements will be negotiated between libraries and publishing houses stipulating the number of books loaned per member per visit. This is a minimal scenario but an ideal one for the publishers, who are then free to sell books over the internet. Or the libraries will be required to pay publishers a fee for every loan, and that is ideal for the users.

With digital books, the “feel” of a book is lost. Every e-book feels the same, if the story is a thick chronology or a short story. Megabytes weigh nothing. The cover of books will also be non-existent, and therefore loses its worth, a beautifully bound leather hard copy or a paper pocket book become the same.

Public libraries must have the right to loan E-books and to establish agreements with publishers regulating the loaning process. The political processes will have to ensure that the digital reading culture is available for everyone.

If the E-book is to be overwhelmingly successful, there are a number of requirements to be met:

• a sufficient supply of new books , magazines and articles for downloading;
• a balanced relationship between free and pay-for-use so called “content”;
• improvement of DPI legibility;
• improvement in battery capacity, preferably charged with “free” sun/solar energy as is now in use with certain calculators;
• enhancement of functions to include telephones, agendas, notebooks, calculators, etc.

The Pocket PC from Microsoft, introduced in the market 19 April 2000, will also capture a part of the E-book market with a “reader”. The current market leaders in handheld computers such as Palm, have a “reader”. A new hand-PC is the so called Handspring, a clone of the Palm with slightly more capabilities. The pleasure in reading of books and texts on these handheld devices is still being researched.

Dutch language E-books

Since early April 2000, at www.ebook.nl . There are a number of e-books for downloading. There are no longer copyrights on these books, thus are offered free of charge. They are appropriate for the Rocket e-book, Soft book or Standard HTML web browser.

This website offers good general information over e-book.

Dutch language titles:

• Multatuli: Max Havelaar
• Jacob Israel de Haan: Kwatrijnen
• Frederik van Eeden: De kleine Johannes
• Lodewijk van Deyssel: Een liefde
• Jacques Perk: Mathilde
• Bible (Authorized version)
• The Netherlands Constitution

Further Information and Dutch articles over e-books:

Empty school bag, thanks to the e-book, Algemeen Dagblad, 4 September 1999, section Enter, n7

Electronic Book Wins Territory, Algemeen Dagblad, 4 March 2000, section Enter, n7

Copyrights for Authors Remains a Problem, Automation Guide, 3 March 2000, p. 17 (article also to be found at <http://www.web> recht.nl/p19.htm

The Electronic Book Comes Within Hand Reach, Automation Guide, 1999, week 36

The E-book Gives the Book Market Another Face, Bibliotheekblad, 24 March 2000, nr. 6, p.30-31

The Second Wave Electronic Books are Coming, Information Professional, April 2000, nr. 4, p. 48-51

Old Books and Things from the Past: E-books, How every writer becomes his own Publisher, Volkskrant, 21 April 2000, p. 25

Electronic Books: Computable, 27 April 2000, p. 51, article by Ruud Pruijm

Oss Public Library

Jan de Waal

21 April 2000

info: janw@oboss.nl