What is the best format available from Project Gutenberg?

[LandSurveyor]

As some of you know, I have an Aceeca PDA. Since I'm an ebook fan, I've loaded it with MobiPocket and find it to be a pretty capable reader, although I think my old Palm Reader was better.

I've been going through the titles on Project Gutenberg recently and I realize that I don't know what would be the best format to download. Would prefer to get illustrations and all when possible but can deal with text only if necessary.

Can anybody tell me what would work best? Do I need to get another reader?

[hal]

There is not a consistent format in the PG files, as you may have already noticed (hence the reason of your thread, I reckon ). I usually go for MobiPocket and eReader, when available. Plain .doc format is better when I don't find either, then I open OOo and I convert it to .pdf, then I send it to my Palm via Adobe Reader for Palm OS, cause even though it's a much hated resource, I find it quite appealing for getting ebooks into my Palm devices.

PG mostly offers texts without images. AFAIK, the eReader formatted books are fine, some include images, some don't.

[questionfear]

What HAL said.

Also, if a book you want isn't in your preferred format (say you want ereader and it's only in txt) just download Calibre and convert it.

[Hook]

I would start out with Manybooks.net. They have many of the same titles as Gutenburg, but already formatted for many different formats. You can get eReader (Palm Reader), mobireader, iSilo, whatever.

On Palm, eReader (formerly Palm Reader) is really the best ebook reader, in my opinion.

[hal]

Ah, Caliber! Yes, QF is totally right. It makes a lot of ebook readers of sparse reach actually obsolete.

Just like Hook, I consider eReader the best for a Palm device. Low memory footprint, effective and simple. As far as my stamina and spare time allow, a conversion to eReader is a good task to have a book available forever. I still use Adobe Reader, but I do consider it a lesser option against eReader. MobiPocket is also an excellent option, but I reserve it for ebooks I'm not willing to convert. More a tool in the toolbox that a primary reader.

[LandSurveyor]

I keep forgetting about Calibre.

Still have Palm Reader on my Axim but it's a lousy reader since is scarfs so much battery. Else it is pretty good.

I appreciate the advice, all.

[Varjak]

Does eReader use its own proprietary format? Or does it use the basic DOC format? I have eReader; but I mostly use WordSmith.

In addition to ManyBooks, Memoware has a lot of what Manybooks has, with good organization, and in multiple formats. As it started as a Palm resource, it has lots of Palm OS compatible files. I've actually found it to be better than Project Gutenberg.

[SGosnell]

I always preferred Plucker. I still have a lot of stuff in Plucker format, although I rarely turn on my Palm these days. HTML will work on a lot of platforms, don't know about yours.

[questionfear]

Does eReader use its own proprietary format? Or does it use the basic DOC format? I have eReader; but I mostly use WordSmith.

In addition to ManyBooks, Memoware has a lot of what Manybooks has, with good organization, and in multiple formats. As it started as a Palm resource, it has lots of Palm OS compatible files. I've actually found it to be better than Project Gutenberg.

eReader uses PDB format. I think it's proprietary...

I always preferred Plucker. I still have a lot of stuff in Plucker format, although I rarely turn on my Palm these days. HTML will work on a lot of platforms, don't know about yours.

Calibre works similar to plucker, IIRC. You can create "recipes" that will turn any article or site into a nice ebook file that you can sync to your device or program of choice.

[Varjak]

QF, before posting yesterday, I re-read the Memoware FAQ on formats. According to them, PDB isn't really a format. It's a file type, and more than one kind of format can be contained within (if we're speaking of the same thing: .pdb files). I'm no expert on this though.

MemoWare Help

MemoWare Help

Edit: Although both links above appear to be the same, they actually are different web pages. One on formats, one on .pdb file types for Palm OS.