Blank Lines

[acprinter]

I had not seen this poll before and I would like to express my personal preferences toward line breaks between paragraphs. It probably comes from my days as having been a book printer. Yes I actually was involved in printing books with paper.

[acprinter]

I forgot to say that we always added line breaks in the books we produced.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by acprinter

I forgot to say that we always added line breaks in the books we produced.

A break of an entire line, so that, for example, a passage of dialogue with lots of short lines is, in effect, "double spaced"? That just looks "wrong" to me.

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by HarryT

A break of an entire line, so that, for example, a passage of dialogue with lots of short lines is, in effect, "double spaced"? That just looks "wrong" to me.

I agree, Harry. For most of the ebooks I read, there is very often only one paragraph break per page and that becomes tedious for me for some reason if there are no blank lines. But The Wind In The Willows, for example, contains lots of short dialogue and in that case I find a full blank line between paragraphs rather annoying. I think I would quite like the ability to control that property myself.

[acprinter]

This is just one of the reason that the e-book is so great. Anyone with a little time and patience can create the book that they enjoy to read. On the other hand most people and I don't mean Mobileread type people, think that this is a waste of time, my spouse for instance.

But I think I'm still right, there should always be a break after a paragraph. Remember the more breaks in the book means ultimately more pages for the printer to print making them more money.

And thanks HarryT for the wonderful tutorial for book designer.

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by acprinter

And thanks HarryT for the wonderful tutorial for book designer.

You got that right!

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by acprinter

Anyone with a little time and patience can create the book that they enjoy to read.

Ideally, things like margins, font, idents, spacing, etc. should be options in the reader, no need to change the book, just set your preferences.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Ideally, things like margins, font, idents, spacing, etc. should be options in the reader, no need to change the book, just set your preferences.

I agree with you, and that's one of the reasons I prefer to use the MobiPocket format, because that's the approach that Mobi takes - don't "hard code" such things as font, justification, margins, etc, in the book (unless it's vital) but leave them for the user to choose. With a Sony book, on the other hand, it's all "hard coded".

[acprinter]

OK, I give up my wife just pulled out several books off the shelf at random and showed me that none of them had paragraph breaks. They all had large indents and looked good. Jeez that's hard to admit.

But I still like line breaks. I wish that one could control the size of the breaks.

So I will say it again all you non paragraph line break people are right.

[HarryT]

I don't think it's an "all or nothing" thing, acprinter. I think that most people would agree that a space between paragraphs looks better on a small screen, such as a PDA, but when you get up to a 6" screen size, I personally prefer indented paragraphs like most printed books have.

Being able to choose would be the best option!

[Spad]

For my own conversions I simply add 6pts between paragraphs and indent by 12pts. This is easily done and gives the most readable and pleasing display on my 505.