Dropcaps code wanted

[Jellby]

The problem with drop-caps, is that they require some individual tweaking, and that's only effective if you know the exact font, font size and page size... which goes against the ebook philosophy. Without font embedding and fixed layout, all solutions are only good-enough, and sometimes that's not enough.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Jellby

The problem with drop-caps, is that they require some individual tweaking, and that's only effective if you know the exact font, font size and page size... which goes against the ebook philosophy. Without font embedding and fixed layout, all solutions are only good-enough, and sometimes that's not enough.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, Jellby:

Better to have dropped and lost then ne'er to ha' dropped a'tall.

Hitch

[roger64]

Originally Posted by Jellby

The problem with drop-caps, is that they require some individual tweaking, and that's only effective if you know the exact font, font size and page size... which goes against the ebook philosophy. Without font embedding and fixed layout, all solutions are only good-enough, and sometimes that's not enough.

I will certainly not argue with the fact that a successful dropcap implementation requires extra care and tweaking, including knowing the exact font used. I am not so sure why it would require a fixed layout even if it's true that a standard EPUB, with its ragged (non justified) text is not the nicest format to go along with drop caps.

But why argue about "ebook philosophy"? This is maybe going a little too far. After all, one of the features of EPUB3 is to allow a fixed layout for enriched texts. So, I cannot see why dropcaps should be condamned for philosophy or principle reasons. They are part of the game. Ragged text will disappear from the EPUBs of tomorrow long before the dropcaps do.

Further, two more twoliners exemples coming from a printed book with the "unaccceptable" Q behaviour (Q is often very tricky...) and a drop cap with a previous quote mark.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by roger64

But why argue about "ebook philosophy"? This is maybe going a little too far. After all, one of the features of EPUB3 is to allow a fixed layout for enriched texts. So, I cannot see why dropcaps should be condamned for philosophy or principle reasons. They are part of the game. Ragged text will disappear from the EPUBs of tomorrow long before the dropcaps do.

For me, the "ebook philosophy" is to let the user change things like font, font size, line separation, margins... With this requisites, the use of dropcaps (and similar things, like figures around which the text wraps) is fragile, make some (maybe unusal) change to the font, screen size, etc. and you get undesirable results.

I don't say dropcaps should be proscribed, but this fact should be kept in mind when deciding whether or not to use them (and how).

Further, two more twoliners exemples coming from a printed book with the "unaccceptable" Q behaviour (Q is often very tricky...) and a drop cap with a previous quote mark.

The Q example is indeed unacceptable. A self-respected typesetter would never allow that, and would apply some tweaks to prevent the clash between the Q's tail and the i's dot (make the Q slightly smaller, change the word spacing a bit to move the i away...). The quote mark example is acceptable, although some might not like it.

[DiapDealer]

even if it's true that a standard EPUB, with its ragged (non justified) text is not the nicest format to go along with drop caps.

Ragged text will disappear from the EPUBs of tomorrow long before the dropcaps do.

What does justified or ragged text have to do with "standard" ePub?

[roger64]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

What does justified or ragged text have to do with "standard" ePub?

Nothing but the standard nearly unavoidable implementation of this standard made by ADE forces it for our unwilling eyes, at least for the PRS-505 users like me a a lot of others, I suspect . One day, our display will be fine.

PDF display, for this point of view, is much more pleasant, though of course it has other well-known drawbacks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by roger64

Nothing but the standard nearly unavoidable implementation of this standard made by ADE forces it for our unwilling eyes, at least for the PRS-505 users like me a a lot of others, I suspect . One day, our display will be fine.

PDF display, for this point of view, is much more pleasant, though of course it has other well-known drawbacks.

I highly doubt Sony will be upgrading ADE on the 505. The only way to get justified text via ADE is to get a newer Sony or a different brand reader.

[roger64]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I highly doubt Sony will be upgrading ADE on the 505. The only way to get justified text via ADE is to get a newer Sony or a different brand reader.

I highly doubt it too. Not only justification is missing but also hyphenation, as I consider it to be also a standard feature.

Meanwhile, I recently learnt, thanks to Jellby's expert and friendly help, how to convert automatically cleanly formatted EPUB to PDF which can give me these above features to the exact format of my reader. Of course, it's not a replacement, just a workaround. So, if I wish, I can get now justification and hyphenation on my reader.

Throwing my still working reader to the rubbishbin is not yet an option. Though...