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Old 12-10-2007, 12:34 PM   #5
cfw123
Enthusiast
cfw123 began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 41
Karma: 10
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: San Jose, Calif., USA
Device: Kindle
Reading speed on the Kindle

I have been checking myself re reading speed with my Kindle. I know I read faster, and have these reasons apparent to me:

1. Page turning is much faster, and can be done with one hand. My right hand thumb is positioned perfectly to advance a page almost instantly. The actual page turn is very fast, and I can keep reading without losing connection with the ideas I am absorbing while reading. If you don't believe this, just try page turning with one hand, especially trade press paperbacks with very stiff splines.

2. The Kindle displays text well staced top to bottom -- like double spacing. This is much faster to read since it's difficult to make an error when going to one line to the next, either jumping a line or reading the same line twice.

3. The Kindle has a relatively short line length of 3" with a 1/4" border on each side. It's easier than trying to read very long line lengths where by the time you reach the line end, you don't remember what you read at the start of the same line. Also a shorter line length is easier on your eyes to retrace back to the start of the line when moving to the next line.

4. The fonts are consistent. There are thousands of fonts in the print media whch adds difficulty to the reader. But only one is used with the Kindle, although it can display that in up to 6 sizes to accomodate eyesight demands of people with vision difficulties.

5. The preprocessor designed to make Kindle documents look good and be consistent uses line length justification, so that all lines are the same length as opposed to ragged edges on the right border. Tests made by the print media -- books, magazines, and newspapers have shown this adds to ease of reading.

All in all, I certainly feel that my reading speed is increased on the Kindle.

Charles Wilkes
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