Real Page Numbers

[ElizabethJane_PaP]

I recently got a Kindle Touch for Christmas and, no matter what I do or where I look, I don't see the "real page numbers" they're talking about.  Help?

[Betsy the Quilter]

Not all books are set up to have page numbers, it's a fairly recent thing.  But, if the book you are reading has them, here's how you see them, per the user's guide:

Many Kindle books also contain page numbers that correspond to the real page numbers in an actual print book. To view the page number of the book you're reading, tap the top of the screen to display the toolbars. The current location, page number, total number of pages, and percentage of content read are displayed below the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. (Not all Kindle books include page numbers.)

Betsy

[mooshie78]

Another way to check is to look at the e-book page on Amazon.com.  If it has real page numbers, the book info section will have a field with the ISBN # of the print version the page numbers are drawn from.

[wdeen]

That irritated me for a while. Now I'm used to reading by %. I Don't even think about the page numbers anymore.

[QuantumIguana]

As e-books take over more of the market, page numbers are going to become less relevant. The page number can vary anyway, the hardcover may well have a different number of pages than the paperback. I'm not quite sure what a "location" exactly is, but it is more meaningful than a page number. Is location an industry standard, or does it vary between companies?

[Ann in Arlington]

As e-books take over more of the market, page numbers are going to become less relevant. The page number can vary anyway, the hardcover may well have a different number of pages than the paperback. I'm not quite sure what a "location" exactly is, but it is more meaningful than a page number. Is location an industry standard, or does it vary between companies?

I think Nook and Kobo use page numbers . . .but, as you say, they're not particularly meaningful because you can change the font size and the number of pages changes.  At least, that's how it seemed to work when I played with a nook a while back.  With Kindle it's tied to some specific physical edition at least.

For Kindle books, a 'Location' relates somehow to the amount of data.  So a location is, say, x 'bits' of data which might be several words, or might be part of an image.  The key is that if you say 'location #403' in a book, you'll be at the same word whether you're using teeny print or huge print.  It's just another way of thinking about it that takes some getting used to.  AND, there isn't yet a standardized way to cite using locations. . . which is where the 'page numbers' from some physical edition can be useful.

[mooshie78]

AND, there isn't yet a standardized way to cite using locations. . . which is where the 'page numbers' from some physical edition can be useful.

Even those are far from perfect since there can be 2 print pages of text on one Kindle screen and you don't know where one page ends and the next begins, so you could still mis-cite the page by 1 in either direction sometimes.

Moot for me as I prefer print books for my research work anyway as they're easier to highlight and jot notes in.

[Jan Strnad]

My first generation Kobo has "real" page numbers, but I don't know what they relate to. I've never tried to compare them with a paper book.

I find them annoying, since they impose on the text and sometimes obscure it.

The location bar on the Kindle gives me all of the information I need. I do like knowing about how far I am in a book.

[Cardinal]

I love page numbers.   

[KingAl]

I think Nook and Kobo use page numbers . . .but, as you say, they're not particularly meaningful because you can change the font size and the number of pages changes.  At least, that's how it seemed to work when I played with a nook a while back.  With Kindle it's tied to some specific physical edition at least.

The nook page numbers, like the Kindle, now correspond to a paper version if the shook file was formatted that way.

[rehmana]

I thought Amazon actually recommended not putting page numbers in kindle ebooks because of the way kindle works. If one type of kindle can recognise it and another can't doesn't that make it kind of confusing?

[Sean Patrick Fox]

I'm just used to the % by now. Doesn't really matter either way, I guess.

[jmiked]

I thought Amazon actually recommended not putting page numbers in kindle ebooks because of the way kindle works. If one type of kindle can recognise it and another can't doesn't that make it kind of confusing?

Amazon recommended authors not putting hard-coded page numbers in a book in order to let the software work properly. If an author puts the page numbers in in their own, they won't be right, they would be showing up amidst the text, not at the bottom of a page.  Amazon has developed another way of putting page numbers in a book, but it is not available for all books yet. It's not the type of Kindle per se that makes the difference, it's what version of the software it has. It may be that the only Kindle that won't show page numbers (if available) is the original one.

Mike

[StephenLivingston]

At first I wanted page numbers but now I'm getting to like the percentage display.
Best wishes, Stephen Livingston.

[Sandra Edwards]

I've gotten used to the percentage marker and don't miss page numbers at all.

[Randirogue]

I too am acclimating to using the percentage marker and location bar instead of page numbers. 

[mooshie78]

Only problem with the percent bar is you don't know the length of what is left.  If you're sitting at 93% done and trying to decide whether to finish the book or go to sleep, only looking at the % bar doesn't tell you how much longer you have to go.  7% of a 300 page book is a lot less than 7% of a 1,000 page book!

So I kind of like real page numbers for that as I can better estimate how long it will take me to finish say 100 pages than 738 locations as I haven't quite wrapped my head around locations, but have a feel for pages from years of reading paper books.

[Eltanin Publishing]

I recently got a Kindle Touch (not sure whether I'll be gifting the Touch or my K3) and I do slightly miss the progress bar that used to be there. I will be emailing the kindle feedback email and suggesting that they just give a choice - checkboxes in the settings to say whether you want page numbers (if available), percent, locations, and the progress bar. I know they want to keep things simple for non-techie users, but putting a page of choices in the settings wouldn't be hard to do. Particularly with a collection of short stories, if the progress bar had the navigation points for the start of each story, I was able to see how far through the story I was. Now I can't see that.

Also, I got used to locations on the K2, and then the K3 didn't show them (without pressing Menu) and so now I'm not used to seeing them, and seeing them there at the bottom seems odd to me. Guess I'll get used to it.

[jbcohen]

I use this formula to calculate the page number - page number = total number of pages * percentage that the kindle gives.

[Jan Strnad]

Without "real pages," "real page numbers" don't mean much.

You'd think that it would be possible to compute the number of pages (screens) at any particular type size, but I'm sure it's more complicated than that.

[Ann in Arlington]

Without "real pages," "real page numbers" don't mean much.

You'd think that it would be possible to compute the number of pages (screens) at any particular type size, but I'm sure it's more complicated than that.

Well, sure.  The original nook did that, as I recall.  But what's the point? If I'm reading on size 3 and you're reading at size 5 and I say, hey, there's a great bit on page 174. . . .you won't be able to find it.

Locations make much more sense for this media, I think.  I've gotten used to the progress bar. . . .I pay attention when I start a book as to how long it is and, when I begin reading, how fast the percentage increases, so I always have a sort of an idea of how much is left to read.  I used to do actual calculations in my head to figure how many locations was 1% but now I just kind of know. . . . .

[Betsy the Quilter]

If it's a good book, I don't want it to end, so I don't really want to know how close the end is, LOL!
 

Betsy

[Eltanin Publishing]

Without "real pages," "real page numbers" don't mean much.

It does mean something if you are chatting with a friend who is reading the same book in paperback. They might say, "what do you think it means when on page 47, the character does such-and-such..." With real page numbers, the kindle displays the page number that those paragraphs are on in the real book. This helps a lot with book clubs and reading books for school.

[mooshie78]

Well, sure.  The original nook did that, as I recall.  But what's the point? If I'm reading on size 3 and you're reading at size 5 and I say, hey, there's a great bit on page 174. . . .you won't be able to find it.

Only point of those is you can tell exactly how many screens you have left in a book.  Useless for citing or telling someone a friend to check something out on a certain page.  But it's the best system I've seen for telling me exactly how much more I have to go based on my settings.  That said, I usually don't care about that, so I prefer the Kindle's system of location and real page numbers.

As note earlier, they just need to update the real page number system so you can click on words and see what page number it is on for sure, since one screen can have parts of two pages of the print version with no indication of where one page ends and the next begins which is problematic if needing to include a direct quote with page number citation in an academic publications.

[Hoosiermama]

On my Touch, it shows:

Loc 579                                                                                              6%

If I hit Menu, it shows:

Loc 579 of 9377                            Page 39 of 568                                   6%