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Tanzaku · 12-11-2007, 09:57 AM

Admittedly, I am new to the entire eBook thing, but I love the concept! I do not, however, love the aesthetics. But, I am a publisher, and perhaps my eye use just trained too well for the current state of the art.

What do I mean?

There are certain typesetting and layout aesthetic conventions in publishing that are routinely missing from the eBooks I have seen. For example . . .

Widows (a single line or word at the top of a page)
Straight quotes (rather than curled quotes)
Straight apostrophes
Simple words at the end of line (e.g., "I", "a", etc.)
Words too widely spaced to fit justification
Slanted fonts rather than true italics

. . . just to name a few of the most obvious. Here is an example:

The formatting of eBooks seems very crude and jarring to the eye -- and doesn't need to be! There is nothing in the creation of an eBook that is any different from the process of creating a pbook. It's the skill of the typesetter and book designer that is missing from the eBook world. I suspect quantity is trumping quality in this regard -- which is perhaps a virtue in it's own right. For cranking out thousands of titles, tools like BookDesigner are great for what they do, but why can't we do a better job of making something that is pleasing to the eye as well as content rich?

Here is a draft I'm working on that addresses these issues. I'm using InDesign CS3 to create the layout design using Gutenberg text and then outputting as a PDF. (The Warden by Anthony Trollope.) The idea is to develop the InDesign template so it is easy to format books as needed for different screen readers/dimensions, as well as the easy change of fonts document wide via paragraph style definitions. (For those familiar with InDesign.)

I've uploaded both the PDF and the InDesign file to my website if anyone wants to look or play with this idea.

http://www.brooksjensenarts.com/warden.pdf
http://www.brooksjensenarts.com/warden.zip
(The zip file contains the InDesign file.)

The InDesign file uses Minion Pro font, so if you don't have that, simply replace the paragraph definition with the font of your choice. If you don't like the font sizes, easy to change them in the InDesign original. Also, the page size is set up for my Sony Reader -- which can easily be changed to another page size or margin distance. Have a ball and create the PDF of your visual dreams! Consider InDesign in this regards as BookDesigner on serious steroids!

Which, BTW, brings to the issue of PDF and readability on eBook readers. The problem is not in the PDF format, but rather the page layout and design. True, many PDFs are created for the "letter size" world, but they don't need to be. A PDF designed for an eBook reader will look fabulous! In fact, it will look far better, more polished, and professional that anything possible in the LRF format. I know that creating high-quality PDFs is probably not something lots of folks will want to do, and the InDesign CS3 program is not inexpensive, but if you are so inclined, I'd encourage you to do so. I will be! Personally, if I am going to spend 20-40 hours reading a long novel, I'd prefer to have the visual experience be as good as it can be.

And, if anyone is interested, as I create my own eBooks, does anyone else want them? I'd be happy to upload them. What if we had an special upload area for these -- PDF books as well as the InDesing (or Quark, or Publisher, or PageMaker, etc.) files that created them? Just an idea!

12-11-2007, 09:57 AM	#1
Tanzaku Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 225 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Anacortes, WA Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle 3	Ugly formatting Admittedly, I am new to the entire eBook thing, but I love the concept! I do not, however, love the aesthetics. But, I am a publisher, and perhaps my eye use just trained too well for the current state of the art. What do I mean? There are certain typesetting and layout aesthetic conventions in publishing that are routinely missing from the eBooks I have seen. For example . . . Widows (a single line or word at the top of a page) Straight quotes (rather than curled quotes) Straight apostrophes Simple words at the end of line (e.g., "I", "a", etc.) Words too widely spaced to fit justification Slanted fonts rather than true italics . . . just to name a few of the most obvious. Here is an example: The formatting of eBooks seems very crude and jarring to the eye -- and doesn't need to be! There is nothing in the creation of an eBook that is any different from the process of creating a pbook. It's the skill of the typesetter and book designer that is missing from the eBook world. I suspect quantity is trumping quality in this regard -- which is perhaps a virtue in it's own right. For cranking out thousands of titles, tools like BookDesigner are great for what they do, but why can't we do a better job of making something that is pleasing to the eye as well as content rich? Here is a draft I'm working on that addresses these issues. I'm using InDesign CS3 to create the layout design using Gutenberg text and then outputting as a PDF. (The Warden by Anthony Trollope.) The idea is to develop the InDesign template so it is easy to format books as needed for different screen readers/dimensions, as well as the easy change of fonts document wide via paragraph style definitions. (For those familiar with InDesign.) I've uploaded both the PDF and the InDesign file to my website if anyone wants to look or play with this idea. http://www.brooksjensenarts.com/warden.pdf http://www.brooksjensenarts.com/warden.zip (The zip file contains the InDesign file.) The InDesign file uses Minion Pro font, so if you don't have that, simply replace the paragraph definition with the font of your choice. If you don't like the font sizes, easy to change them in the InDesign original. Also, the page size is set up for my Sony Reader -- which can easily be changed to another page size or margin distance. Have a ball and create the PDF of your visual dreams! Consider InDesign in this regards as BookDesigner on serious steroids! Which, BTW, brings to the issue of PDF and readability on eBook readers. The problem is not in the PDF format, but rather the page layout and design. True, many PDFs are created for the "letter size" world, but they don't need to be. A PDF designed for an eBook reader will look fabulous! In fact, it will look far better, more polished, and professional that anything possible in the LRF format. I know that creating high-quality PDFs is probably not something lots of folks will want to do, and the InDesign CS3 program is not inexpensive, but if you are so inclined, I'd encourage you to do so. I will be! Personally, if I am going to spend 20-40 hours reading a long novel, I'd prefer to have the visual experience be as good as it can be. And, if anyone is interested, as I create my own eBooks, does anyone else want them? I'd be happy to upload them. What if we had an special upload area for these -- PDF books as well as the InDesing (or Quark, or Publisher, or PageMaker, etc.) files that created them? Just an idea!