Books: Digital or physical?

[The_Xenologer]

I do that sometimes, but not if the readings are really long or there's a lot of them. Ink is too expensive! Haha.

Get a laser printer. You can get a good black and white one for about 50 bucks. Inkjet printers disposes of at least half the ink you buy for it in an internal compartment and you paid more per volume for that ink than you would if you were buying human blood (not an exaggeration or a figure of speech).

Go buy laser, you'll save a ton of money.

Here's a video about all the ink an inkjet wastes.

Wow...that's kind of horrifying. Now I know where all my unicorn blood..err...I mean printer ink has been going. Thank you sir! I might have to get a new printer pretty soon. You still have to use ink for laser printers though, right? Doesn't it just use a lot less?

[Dan]

Wow...that's kind of horrifying. Now I know where all my unicorn blood..err...I mean printer ink has been going. Thank you sir! I might have to get a new printer pretty soon. You still have to use ink for laser printers though, right? Doesn't it just use a lot less?

Laser printers actually use some form of powder it fuses to the paper with heat. It doesn't use any form of "wet" ink which means that a laser printer doesn't make the sheets you print kinda soggy like an inkjet do. Also an inkjet printer wastes ink even when you aren't printing because otherwise the print heads get stuck with dried ink. Laser do not have that problem which is a boon if you are an infrequent printer. And if you are a frequent printer, laser toners are so cheaper than it's worth it too.

It's estimated that an inkjet costs you 15-18 cents per sheet printed (plus whatever it costs you when not printing) and a laser printer about 3-5 cents.

[Historybuff83]

I'm a luddite in this regard.

Well played on this reference 

[The_Xenologer]

I'm a luddite in this regard.

Well played on this reference 

Huh? What do you mean?

[nakedrobot]

I have a kindle and iPad. Both have pluses and munuses to reading.   The kindle is way easier on the eyes and great for outdoors.

But Sometimes after a day of work where all I did was look at a screen I just want to hold something that isn't digital. 

[Gman707]

For me, part of the experience is in the feel and smell of a book. I love being surrounded by shelves lined with books. Digital cant match that for me.

[_tomo_]

i don't read much (trying to do it more often) but if i do, i prefer paper although tried to read on kindle, but didn't like it

[Westernyelp]

I always used to think that physical books were the only way, but when I see how lightweight and compact the e readers are now I am beginning to change my mind. although I do think they can exist side by side for a long time yet

[The_Xenologer]

I always used to think that physical books were the only way, but when I see how lightweight and compact the e readers are now I am beginning to change my mind. although I do think they can exist side by side for a long time yet

I'm afraid that they're going to phase out physical books though because of online competition and easy downloading of digital copies. What happens when the older generations that prefer physical books die off and there's only the digital generations left that hardly even know what a book is? It's a distinct possibility in my opinion. The Encyclopedia Britannica has already stopped producing the print version of their books. Now granted their books are gigantic, not very user friendly compared to an online version, and kill a lot of trees, but it still seems like a sign of the times to me.     

[Dan]

I'm afraid that they're going to phase out physical books though because of online competition and easy downloading of digital copies. What happens when the older generations that prefer physical books die off and there's only the digital generations left that hardly even know what a book is? It's a distinct possibility in my opinion. The Encyclopedia Britannica has already stopped producing the print version of their books. Now granted their books are gigantic, not very user friendly compared to an online version, and kill a lot of trees, but it still seems like a sign of the times to me.   

They stopped printing because the whole thing is extremely expensive, not nearly as up to date as things you can read online (and even if it was totally up to date when you buy it, it wouldn't be soon enough and you wouldn't want to buy everything all over again. And it's just slightly more accurate than Wikipedia.

Britanica was a bad fit for paper. I don't think that it not being printed anymore says anything about books disappearing.

And on the topic of disappearing, my favourite feature of the new books is that they don't have to go out of print anymore. They can always be downloaded (or pirated if the publisher is clueless and stops selling them) and for physical books we have print-on-demand which means that the book doesn't have to be printed until you order it (meaning you don't have to make a print run of thousands if you aren't sure to sell them all anymore).

[myAcores]

I also prefered the real book... then I bought the iPad 2 ... and since then I always read books in this digital form. Espacially for holiday trips with the airplane it's a lot better because of the weight. But only if you are not reading in the direct sun and having an anti-reflect foil on the screen.

[Kirito]

  I love to have a real book in my hand.

[The_Xenologer]

I'm afraid that they're going to phase out physical books though because of online competition and easy downloading of digital copies. What happens when the older generations that prefer physical books die off and there's only the digital generations left that hardly even know what a book is? It's a distinct possibility in my opinion. The Encyclopedia Britannica has already stopped producing the print version of their books. Now granted their books are gigantic, not very user friendly compared to an online version, and kill a lot of trees, but it still seems like a sign of the times to me.   

They stopped printing because the whole thing is extremely expensive, not nearly as up to date as things you can read online (and even if it was totally up to date when you buy it, it wouldn't be soon enough and you wouldn't want to buy everything all over again. And it's just slightly more accurate than Wikipedia.

Britanica was a bad fit for paper. I don't think that it not being printed anymore says anything about books disappearing.

And on the topic of disappearing, my favourite feature of the new books is that they don't have to go out of print anymore. They can always be downloaded (or pirated if the publisher is clueless and stops selling them) and for physical books we have print-on-demand which means that the book doesn't have to be printed until you order it (meaning you don't have to make a print run of thousands if you aren't sure to sell them all anymore).

That's only while the infrastructure for digital books exists. Who says that it's going to be around forever? I mean...the world is ending in a few months. 

[Dan]

That's only while the infrastructure for digital books exists.

It is. They're either going to be sold through legitimate channels or pirated but digital books don't disappear.

Who says that it's going to be around forever? I mean...the world is ending in a few months. 

Then the current infrastructure will endure until the end of the world.

[sammi]

I am a Kindle nut, I read so much and adding another heavy book to my backpack doesn't make sense! Once I even went to an office supply store with a physical book so that they could convert it to PDF which I then uploaded to my Kindle.