Pisces CD-books are one of the most innovative developments in natural history and conservation publishing in recent years.

They cleverly harness commonly available software to bring some of the great classic natural history books back to life, including Southwood's 'Land and Water Bugs', many Ray Society monographs, and seminal works by Darwin, H.E.Bates and Alfred Russell Wallace.

Pisces is an unusual publisher because they combine technical wizardry with a real passion and commitment to field natural history and conservation. They are keen to expand their range of CD-books, and would welcome suggestions. Just email either nmassen@nhbs.co.uk, or pisces@pisces-conservation.com.

NHBS is calling these fabulous products 'CD-books', although Pisces themselves refer to 'e-books'. We are trying to steer clear of ebook because this conjures up a straightforward facsimile of a printed edition in most people's minds, and the
Pisces titles are re-engineered versions of the original books, offering readers far more than just a copy.

Background information on the Pisces electronic production process and format is given below, plus further explanation on the advantages to readers that this new approach brings. We understand that customers may want to try out Pisces titles before committing to a purchase. NHBS is therefore offering all Pisces titles on a sale or return basis until 30 September 2005. Full refunds will be given for returned titles, so long as they are posted back to NHBS within 14 days of receipt.

Pisces titles are different from normal e-books
Many e-books are simply 'photographic' copies of the originals. This means that the pages are scanned images of the book. This can give a poor-quality image, with a huge file size, and means that the text can not be selected, or searched. Pisces e-books are carefully scanned from the originals, repeatedly proof-read, saved as fully-searchable text, and paginated exactly as the original, so that all page and index references remain correct. We do not make corrections or alterations to the original, except in the case of obvious typos, where the
correction is added in [square brackets], and where the original contains an 'Errata' section.'

What are Pisces CD-books?
Pisces e-books are supplied on CD as Adobe Acrobat PDF files. The PDF format is well known, extremely versatile, and will run on both Windows and Mac operating systems. The Acrobat Reader software to use them is available as a free download from Adobe - and we also supply the 2 latest Windows versions on the e-book CDs.

How do they work?
When Pisces build an e-book, they create a bookmark system, based on the original book's chapters and sections, headings and keys, which you can use to navigate through the e-book. Jumps (which work exactly like hyperlinks on a website) are created from all references in the text (for instance "See Fig. 21.3"),
and from the keys, tables of contents, lists of illustrations, index, etc. So when you see a reference to another page, just click, and you're there - no more scrolling up and down desperately looking for the right page.

All the text can be selected, and copied/pasted into other documents, if needed. Text and figures can be printed - ideal if you just want to take one key into the field with you. And best of all, you can use the Search function to find every reference to a key word or phrase. All this enables you to use a book to
its fullest potential.

Where the book contains plates, they are usually also supplied as high-resolution images on the CD. And where an updated species list, or details of changes of nomenclature, are available, we add those to the CD too.

Why are Pisces CD-books better than the paper originals?
- Faithful reproduction of the original
- Original pagination and indexing, tables of contents, etc.
- Bookmarks and hyperlinks for easy navigation
- Selectable/copyable text

Forthcoming volumes in this series will be added to this page as soon as we become aware of them.
Please contact customer.services@nhbs.co.uk about setting up a standing order, or if you would like to be notified when we add new volumes.

  
related organisations include:
Linnean Society of London
Natural History Museum
If you are involved in a scientific, conservation or environmental organisation and would like to be listed, please see our NHBS-Xchange information page.