Lonely Ring-necked Parakeet (Halsbandparkiet) on a rainy morning

Eenzame Halsbandparkiet ( Psittacula krameri ) op
een regenachtige ochtend in de krentenboom

The Ring-necked Parakeet is originally a bird from Africa but has established itself in the wild in the Netherlands. It very likely depends for a large part of food (peanuts) provided by humans, especially in the winter. Although it can be found in towns and villages, it is still shy of people. They mostly can be seen in small groups.

Gele biologische tulpen in de vroege ochtendzon

 

gele biologische tulpen met rode appel

met dank aan Susan voor de tulpen!

ik heb er doelbewust 'biologisch' bij gezet, want

 Tuinplanten uit tuincentra vaak vol met voor insecten schadelijke pesticiden

Big disappointment: KOBO ebook doesn't display figures and tables correctly

The Evolution of Imperfection

I have now 153 (non-fiction) e-books on my ten years old KOBO Auro HD reader. I never encountered problems with reading any of the books on it. A few days ago I bought Laurence D. Hurst (2025) 'The Evolution of Imperfection'. For the first time I discovered annoying problems with displaying content. In my e-reader a graph (Figure 6.1) is either displayed in an extremely small and consequently non readable size or is not displayed at all depending on the font size settings. 

To check whether this fault is specific to the e-reader, I checked the display in the online KOBO browser application. Unexpectedly, Figure 6.1 in chapter 6 refused to show up with any font size or page setting. A large table, Table 6.1, is only visible and readable at specific settings, but is truncated at more comfortable bigger font sizes.

Empty space where fig 6.1 should show up (browser)

However, the graph is definitely present in the e-book:

Display of the page in the e-book reader

As can be seen in the above picture, although the graph is displayed, and the caption is readable, the graph itself is so small that labels cannot  be read. This makes the illustration useless. This is not the only illustration that gives troubles For example, Figure 2.1, 2.2, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2 and 6.2 are also absent in the browser or too small in the e-reader. This is very annoying. The problem is that the illustrations don't scale with font size. The font size can be huge while the illustration is still microscopic. 

In a scientific book graphs and tables are essential. They are included for a good reason: they convey information. So, the book is kind of damaged and should not be sold in this condition. These errors make you think twice before buying a scientific e-book. The problem is of course that you don't know in advance.

This is not the only KOBO e-book that fails:

from: Donald Canfield: Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History,
chapter 6. The early history of atmospheric oxygen: biological evidence
Plate 5.

" To view this image, please refer to the print version of this book."

In this case, readers of the e-book readers are kindly requested
to buy the printed version of the book! I must admit that after discovering these unpleasant surprises, I haven't bought a single new e-book.

Has anybody experienced similar problems? For example with the Amazon Kindle e-reader or browser?

 

update 5 May: Figure 6.2 added.

update 3 Oct 2025: Plate 5 added.