Design: GQT5 Kindle Editions
2024-01-22
We did it, finally! It took a few years, but the fundamental tome of Wndsn knowledge, the 5th edition of the Grimoire Quadrantis Telemetrum (GQT5) is now available as an ebook for Kindle and similar readers.
What took me so long, you might ask?
An ebook is essentially one long continuous HTML page that is dynamically shown and flown in user-defined fonts and font sizes.[1] This mechanism is perfect for long-form, linear reads, but makes non-linear material -- where the reader would have to jump back and forth, like footnotes, the indexed glossary, as well as the multiple tables of content -- rather tedious to use in often not streamlined, attention-span unfriendly interfaces. Another issue is that HTML is notoriously bad at formulas, and GQT has quite a few of these, beautifully typeset using an editor that was specifically developed for typesetting scientific formulas.
Pages 344-345 from the Grimoire Quadrantis Telemetrum, 5th English edition. What you see is what you get.
The solution -- beyond ugly and unsatisfying hacks -- is to replicate the book pages in their familiar layout and numbering, with formulas, footnotes, etc., as is, similar to how comic book pages (note the irony) are treated in ebooks.
The result is as beautiful as the real book, because it looks like the real book, but, see above, the pages are not dynamically flown and the font sizes are not adjustable. Perfect for Kindle readers, tablets, and larger screens, more tedious maybe for the smallest devices.
Below is a list of the various GQT5 editions and excerpts that are now available as Kindle ebooks in what is technically called a "Print Replica" format.
In English
- Abridged Wndsn Quadrant Telemeters: Official Time & Space Manual (GQT5)
Abridged edition, user manual. - Description and Explanation of the Sine Quadrant
Excerpt from GQT5, contains the astronomy part and the material on the Sine Quadrant. - Description of the WNDSN NATO-MIL Quadrant Telemeter Field Manual
Same as the print edition.
In German
- Das gekürzte Wndsn Quadrant-Telemeter: Offiz. Handbuch (GQT5 DE)
Abridged edition, user manual. - Beschreibung und Verwendung des Sinusquadranten
Excerpt from GQT5, contains the astronomy part and the material on the Sine Quadrant. - Beschreibung des WNDSN NATO-MIL Quadrant-Telemeters: Ausbilder- und Benutzerhandbuch
Same as the print edition.
References:
- GQT is typeset as one long continuous page of LaTeX code that contains much more data and detail than HTML code can neither process nor display (especially in its ebook flavor). And dumbing it down is not an option. ↩