09-01-2009, 12:49 PM | #1 |
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Why E-Books Look So Ugly
update
Last edited by jankovicgood; 12-16-2009 at 09:33 AM. |
09-01-2009, 01:08 PM | #2 |
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It may be true for Kindle and especially Kindle 1, but Sony's designs are bangerang!
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09-01-2009, 01:26 PM | #3 | |
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Quote:
- Ahi |
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09-01-2009, 01:28 PM | #4 |
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09-01-2009, 01:35 PM | #5 |
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The author of the Wired article is talking about the actual formatting (e.g. font, grayscale, covers etc), not the devices.
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09-01-2009, 01:47 PM | #6 |
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A good story always overcomes the limitations of the display device. However, there *are* some marginal works which benefit - maybe even greatly - from the enhancements of multiple fonts, styles and graphics. Plus, the author of the article completely ignores that as the e-ink medium advances, the levels of grayscale available will improve, the memory for storing of multiple font families will expand and we will even see color.
Of course, the breadth and depth of photographic art that was-and is being-created using solely black & white film and paper shows how lazy these designers have become. Derek |
09-01-2009, 01:54 PM | #7 | |
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Quote:
I, like you, suppose it will not really lead towards high-end ebooks, but it may lead to somewhat less awful ones. The article basically is just suggesting improvements on the basis of font diversity and cover design. Those are issues that may in fact be remedied in the future. The things I worry about: a) being complacent with low-quality e-paper b) ignoring advanced book typography (including general novels) c) focusing on gimmickry rather than on qualitative improvements Last edited by LDBoblo; 09-01-2009 at 01:57 PM. |
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09-01-2009, 02:08 PM | #8 | |||
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Quote:
1) foundries stop being paranoid about their expensive high-quality fonts. 2) customers accept DRM formats instead of stripping them (in which case font licensing is a non-issue due to legal "embedding") 3) nothing changes except customers' qualms about "illegally" extracting expensive high-quality fonts from the DRM'd eBooks they purchased in order to use with the (possibly already also illegal) de-DRM'd eBook. Quote:
Fortunately I do not see this being a choice that is influenced by customers. Publishers can and do get away with printing utterly garbage books, and they still sell... sometimes exceedingly well. But despite that, respectable publishing houses still put reasonable efforts into the quality of their products. As you know, my expectation is that eBooks will follow down that same road once the market matures. Quote:
- Ahi |
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09-01-2009, 03:24 PM | #9 |
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This thread seems familiar somehow. Perhaps someone ought to bring up PDF, possibly in relation to its viability as an ebook format.
I wonder though, does a 5-month old article still quality as "news"? |
09-01-2009, 03:59 PM | #10 |
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09-01-2009, 04:01 PM | #11 |
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09-01-2009, 04:39 PM | #12 |
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09-01-2009, 04:40 PM | #13 |
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I'm not picky, if I can read it I'm happy. I don't care much about how good the formatting is
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09-01-2009, 04:43 PM | #14 |
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09-01-2009, 04:43 PM | #15 |
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