Rand McNally Road Atlas on the Kindle

Comments:

• Shelley says:

  December 18, 2008 at 9:25 am

  Forget the sample. As is too typical, it’s front matter only.

  Someday the publishers will learn to provide a true sample, in order to sell their books.
• Joshua Tallent says:

  December 18, 2008 at 9:36 am

  Paul,

  I consulted with Rand McNally on this atlas project, and I think they have done a great job of designing a unique format that allows for very flexible navigation. The image resizing on the Kindle was a fun issue to work around, but after that was done the rest just fell into place.

  The final product is very useful, and surprisingly inexpensive.

  - Joshua
  http://kindleformatting.com
• Alan Wallcraft says:

  December 18, 2008 at 11:33 am

  Joshua: (completely off topic) I see that the Virginia M. Woolf Foundation large print books is one of your partners.

  I bought their “A Canticle for Leibowitz” on the Kindle. I am very happy to have this title on the Kindle in any form, but the “large type” just means that the 3 standard largest font sizes are 1-3, instead of 4-6, with fonts 3-6 being identical. So this is actually less capable that a standard type edition would be. Is this due to a limitation on the Kindle? Are there any devices where a “large type” ebook make sense (i.e. actually give a larger maximum font size)?
• Joshua Tallent says:

  December 18, 2008 at 5:58 pm

  Alan,

  Font Size 6 on the Kindle is equivalent to about 16-point. That is okay for some purposes, but the average large print book is set in at least 18-point. With the Virginia M. Woolf foundation, I figured out a way to hack the font size and force the Kindle to display in 20pt. That’s the extreme maximum it allows. So, the Large Print books are definitely large print, but the hack keeps the text from being able to scale the way it does in other books. Just for reference, Font Size 1 in the Kindle Large Print books is equivalent to regular Font Size 5.

  I think a larger-screened reader would be a better device for large print books. However, I have not tested the Woolf books on anything else yet.

  - Joshua
• Alan Wallcraft says:

  December 20, 2008 at 11:02 am

  Joshua: Thanks for the update. I see now that the font is indeed larger. Since the ebook is DRM-free, I tried it on my EZ Reader (Hanlin V3) and iLiad. It did not lead to a larger font size on either one. For screenshots see http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34346 which also discusses using font size=”4″ instead of “7″.
• Andrys says:

  January 10, 2009 at 7:48 am

  It’s only $1.59! For a review, why not download it?

  I’ve left my a problem-report on Joseph’s blog but it’s not visible yet. I’m hoping some of the issues I found can be clarified as to actual expected functioning of this road-atlas vs what’s described in the chapter re how to use it. It could be they uploaded a file that just needs to be fixed.

  I did report in emails and a phone call to Amazon that some items were not working in this Northern California one. They’ll check with someone. They recommended I call the publisher, but Joseph is likely the one to catch and if you are doing a report, I’d love to see what you’re experiencing. As mentioned, I’ll download it again to see if they put up a new file w/o announcing it.

  The ‘search’ process described in the “How to use” chapter doesn’t work -within- the map book – it searches all the books of the Kindle! but doesn’t catch city names that ARE listed in the indexes of the McNally atlas (such as El Cerrito). It shouldn’t search the Kindle as the chapter says the Kindle search-key press is for cities covered by the book and we should get a list of matching ones.

  It doesn’t see “Berkeley” in a search. Nor ‘Albany’ — and both are on its Calif. map of course. Re clicking on the Index for cities — for Monterey I just get the No.Calif map with a circle letting me know where Monterey is.
  Going ‘back’ one ‘page’ I get a street-level map of Modesto.

  The chapter says the indexes or searches allow you to get individual city maps but the customer service person and I couldn’t get those. Maybe we’re missing a key step but it could be a lot more intuitive. I realize scaling is different for each indexed city, but ‘Modesto’ showing streets in Modesto while ‘Monterey’ shows the city as a point on the Calif. map
  has scaling really too different for me.

  I will see if Rand McNally uploaded a fixed version.

  Other than the above, the graphics are done VERY well for the Kindle and the maps are very clear.

  Using the Northern California map was fine, although with a screen this size, one may want to use a magnifying glass for the smaller names. Resolution is excellent though on those map sections. I was impressed by how easy it was to read, not usually the case with maps on the Kindle or any small screen device.

  I didn’t take an offered refund, as what is there is worth the $1.59 charge for the piece. But I’m hoping they fix the functioning of this.
• Andrys says:

  January 10, 2009 at 7:50 am

  Whoops. I meant “Joshua’s blog”…
• Andrys says:

  January 11, 2009 at 6:20 am

  I have to question whether J. Brandt used this software particularly. His only Amazon review is about this Road Atlas release (for Washington state).

  Linking to an ‘above’ section or to a ‘below’ section is not exactly ingenious, but it’s smart basic programming.

  The Northern California atlas doesn’t have a “complete and searchable index of every city on the map” — Albany and Emeryville are seen listed on the overall map, but you cannot get to any such cities through the Alpha-character index-search.

  Any individual city maps differ in scale by quite a bit and are not particularly detailed for the city. Berkeley shows 3 roads or streets. That’s the lowest level and is still useful.

  If you know where the city is (which map sector) you can go to the main town (San Francisco) and get a lower map and go left and right to an extent to see where the other counties are within that map section.

  In the How to Use this Product chapter, it says, “You can also find a specific city by using the Kindle search feature. To do this, press the search button on the keyboard, enter the name of the city, and click the correct result from the list using the Kindle cursor. You will be taken to that city in the Index.”
  (This leads to the map-page or sector it is in.)

  HOWEVER, this Kindle search-button does not function for the Atlas. It’s the usual Kindle and SD card search and the search resulsts don’t find ‘El Cerrito’ or ‘Berkeley’ in the N.Calif. Atlas book on the Kindle though that text is in the book.

  Also, these cities in this “complete and searchable index” (Location 130-138)are -not- clickable to allow a “jump from the index to the right map” as Brandt says — they allow a jump to the overall-map’s section or sector for that region. The city is a dot or circle on that map section. We are taken to the right map-sector of the Northern California map and that’s it.

  The only individual city maps (and these are overviews showing few main roads) are retrieved from the second “selection” of cities in the Table of Contents under “California Cities” which is quite scant.

  For $1.59 I’m happy to have this to see on the Kindle at anytime where a city might be on that map.
  It’s just that the city-maps are few and are not especially enlightening. Not in the way a hard copy Road Atlas would be. And their recommended Kindle search-key function doesn’t work within the Atlas as they describe it.

  This isn’t quite a Road Atlas. It’s more like an Air Atlas. I’ll probably add a Comment to the book on Amazon.
• Andrys says:

  January 11, 2009 at 7:08 am

  I did download the Atlas again and have done a less-incoherent (I think) report at the Amazon product page, at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001O1O6CM