Something we were discussing at lunch today: what do the location numbers inside each ebook in Kindle represent. They obviously don't correlate to actual page numbers, yet they keep your reading location in sync across various devices.
Does anyone know what they actually mean? Character count? Paragraphs?
(For those wondering what the heck we're talking about, check out the following screenshot from the Mac Kindle app that shows location numbers: cl.ly/3W3J302H3v2a0Y1Q1M3o)
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What do the location numbers in a Kindle ebook represent?
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Someone did some experimentation to figure out the formula and he came up with one that seems to work across most of the books he tried:
pageNumber = positionNumber / 16.69
link: www.edukindle.com/2008/08/page-number-versus-posit...
pageNumber = positionNumber / 16.69
link: www.edukindle.com/2008/08/page-number-versus-posit...
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Digging through Amazon's help forums, I've found some speculation (that has since been repeated all over the internet as definitive) that a location is equivalent to 128 bytes of data. Check out the link below -- a number of commenters break it down and do some crazy tests (creating test mobi files and trying to predict location information).
www.amazon.com/forum/kindle/Tx2S4K44LSXEWRI?_encod...
KinderKindler, a commenter on the Amazon forum, breaks it down this way: "A location is a 128 byte chunk of data - not just visible characters. The reason the 128 character count didn't work when you tested it was that the data that's counted to equal a location includes all the underlying code you can't see. This is why you can have a single screen that contains anywhere from 1 location to over 400 locations. 400 is rare, I've only seen it once, in the formatted table of contents of War and peace, but 100 isn't rare. The amount of characters in the markup used to insert paragraph marks, tables, lists, etc. can vary in weight in a big way, depending on the coder and the material."
If it *is* in fact related to 128 bytes, man. How convoluted is that for your average user? (That said, yes, I agree there needs to be some form of precise measurement for syncing reading locations and such.)
www.amazon.com/forum/kindle/Tx2S4K44LSXEWRI?_encod...
KinderKindler, a commenter on the Amazon forum, breaks it down this way: "A location is a 128 byte chunk of data - not just visible characters. The reason the 128 character count didn't work when you tested it was that the data that's counted to equal a location includes all the underlying code you can't see. This is why you can have a single screen that contains anywhere from 1 location to over 400 locations. 400 is rare, I've only seen it once, in the formatted table of contents of War and peace, but 100 isn't rare. The amount of characters in the markup used to insert paragraph marks, tables, lists, etc. can vary in weight in a big way, depending on the coder and the material."
If it *is* in fact related to 128 bytes, man. How convoluted is that for your average user? (That said, yes, I agree there needs to be some form of precise measurement for syncing reading locations and such.)
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It's the Kindle equivalent of pages. Because paper page count is irrelevant in a digital format that can be resized, Amazon made another standard to use for syncing location on your multiple devices. It will also show you page count, which ought to correspond with the pages on the physical copy of that exact same published work (as opposed to the same work published under a different book).
Pogue brought this up in Feb of this year: pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/page-numbers-fo...
www.kindleboards.com/index.php?topic=17274.0
Pogue brought this up in Feb of this year: pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/page-numbers-fo...
www.kindleboards.com/index.php?topic=17274.0
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I would guess it is paragraph number.
*Updated*: Just tested and it looks to be more like a sentence number.
*Updated*: Just tested and it looks to be more like a sentence number.
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I think its line count. But I haven't tested it fully yet.
It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, or it isn't intuitively displayed.
It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, or it isn't intuitively displayed.
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It is more like a sentence counter. It sort of makes sense when you think about the different mediums, page #'s only have a meaning if you are looking at the same version of a book, hardback vs paperback vs editions, etc. Sentence count is probably the closest thing they can use and still get you to where you where reading across different sized devices, etc.
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If it is line numbers it would have to be line numbers at a certain font size.
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When I started graduate school many journals were being made available for the first time in electronic form. Since page numbers were irrelevant, the APA writing guides for citations stated to use the paragraph number instead of the page number. I wonder if this would be a more manageable alternative than the location number being used by amazon.
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Look at the bottom of the Screen Shot is says 56%, as in 56.24%
This may be synced with the Amazon server to ensure that you can start reading wear ever you left off on another device.
This may be synced with the Amazon server to ensure that you can start reading wear ever you left off on another device.
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