Are Japanese counters the same when viewing items online?


As an example, I read three books online, would the counter 冊 still be used? I
know that counters are based on size and shape of physical items, do the same
rules apply when reading a book online?




> counters are based on size and shape of physical items

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but not really --- I'd say we choose
counters based upon what we perceive the object to be.

So, for ebooks (as in Kindle), 冊 is used. When you see an object in immersive
VR, corresponding counter for that object in real world is used. (On the other
hand, developers of the VR might count them with '個' when they consider them
as [object](https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Object.html) that needs
to be rendered, rather than what they represent.)

For e-books, things can get a little complicated. When you read three articles
on [wikibooks](https://ja.wikibooks.org), I don't think 冊 is appropriate
because they are more like online documents rather than books. Documents that
are built to be books, on the other hand (like [Learn You a Haskell for Great
Good!](http://learnyouahaskell.com/)), I'd use 冊. I feel that PDF documents
and EPUB documents are more likely to be considered as books in this sense
because of how they are styled. Anyway, although the exact line between online
documents and books can depend on the writers' preferences, I think those
meant to be books can be counted with 冊.

(Edit: This is my personal observation, but I feel that the essence of the
counter of 冊 is pages [not necessarily in physical form]. E.g. 巻物 are not
counted with 冊. Thus some e-books without the concept less likely matches 冊.)




> counters are based on size and shape of physical items

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but not really --- I'd say we choose
counters based upon what we perceive the object to be.

So, for ebooks (as in Kindle), 冊 is used. When you see an object in immersive
VR, corresponding counter for that object in real world is used. (On the other
hand, developers of the VR might count them with '個' when they consider them
as [object](https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Object.html) that needs
to be rendered, rather than what they represent.)

For e-books, things can get a little complicated. When you read three articles
on [wikibooks](https://ja.wikibooks.org), I don't think 冊 is appropriate
because they are more like online documents rather than books. Documents that
are built to be books, on the other hand (like [Learn You a Haskell for Great
Good!](http://learnyouahaskell.com/)), I'd use 冊. I feel that PDF documents
and EPUB documents are more likely to be considered as books in this sense
because of how they are styled. Anyway, although the exact line between online
documents and books can depend on the writers' preferences, I think those
meant to be books can be counted with 冊.

(Edit: This is my personal observation, but I feel that the essence of the
counter of 冊 is pages [not necessarily in physical form]. E.g. 巻物 are not
counted with 冊. Thus some e-books without the concept less likely matches 冊.)

