Formats
Medley of Publications
The Core at MintKit is designed to house publications in a variety of forms. The resources at hand range from brief articles to full-length books. The publications are grouped into a number of categories: books, ebooks, reports, and articles. The distinctions among these groups are explained below.
Book
A book is a conventional volume of the traditional type. A hallmark of the publication is a sheaf of front matter at the outset. The frontal is apt to include an orientation for the reader in the form of a preface.
Another feature of a book is a pagination scheme in which Roman numerals are used to delineate the frontlet. By contrast, Arabic figures are used to count off the rest of the text.
A representative size for a book is 6 by 9 inches (15.24 x 22.86 cm). Moreover, any book featured at this site is likely to be available in hard copy as well as soft form.
Ebook
In the broad sense of the word, an ebook is any book in electronic form. On the other hand, the moniker is apt to take on a narrower meaning in the context of online publications.
In the Internet culture, an ebook often refers to a compact volume. A representative length is around 20 to 50 pages.
Even so, the ebook usually shares a common trait with the traditional book: a midsize layout. In this light, an example of a standard trim is a profile of 6 by 9 inches.
On the other hand, an ebook usually has little or nothing in the way of front matter. As a rule, the closest thing to a frontal is a title page for the entire volume.
Moreover, a common practice is to consider the cover of the document as Page 0. In that case, the second panel counts as Page 1, and so on.
As an offspring of the digital culture, many an ebook lacks a physical counterpart. In other words, the document comes only in electronic form.
Report
A report is an expository document with its roots solidly entrenched in the olden days prior to the age of computers. A publication of this stripe can vary hugely in length, ranging from a snippet of several words to a tome encompassing thousands of pages.
On the Web, however, a report is apt to be a publication of modest size. Moreover, this type of resource is often available only in digital form.
A popular trim for a report is the letter size (8.5 x 11 inches) used in America. Another standard shape is the A4 layout (21 x 29.7 cm) found in Europe and other parts of the globe.
The system of pagination can vary depending on the source of authorship. Despite the variation, though, one common scheme is to regard the cover sheet as the first page. In that case, the next unit is labeled Page 2; and so on.
Article
An article is a shortish write-up dealing with a focused subject. An article is apt to be a few pages or less, although the occasional oddball can run much longer.
In terms of the structure, the conventions for an article often resemble those of a report. An example in this vein is the trim or the pagination.
Digital Encoding
In order to preserve the design and formatting, the longish publications are encoded in a precise setup: the Portable Document Format (PDF). In spite of its proprietary origins, PDF is now an open standard backed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
A lot of software utilities contain built-in modules for displaying any files configured to the PDF specs. An example in this vein is a modern release of a Web browser.
An alternative for the user is to obtain a standalone package for the purpose. The software tool, called a reader, may be downloaded from the Web site for Adobe Systems. The vendor offers the program at no cost to all comers.