Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
The problem with the way you've formatted your eBooks is that they look awful.
You start at chapter 1. You read the first paragraph. No problem there. Then you come to the space. Problem there. You are then take away from the reading to focus on a space that should not exist. So, now you get past the space and you get stuck with no indent. Is this the start of another section or is this just poor formatting? So you manage to get past the second paragraph.. wait.. we have yet another line space to take away from the book. Ok, you then have to manage to get past that to get to the third paragraph. Wait, it this a section break or is this yet again a missing indent?
See the problem? Basically, the extra spaces and lack of indents makes the book rather annoying to read. You have things added and removed that cause the eyes to not follow along the way they should. So really, add in the indents and remove the extra line spaces and the book might be readable (depends on the content after that).
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I haven't found a blank line after each paragraph to be much of an problem for reading since I use a visual marker on a line by itself to indicate the beginning of a new section (as mentioned before I normally use "~~~" centered on a line by itself with a blank line after it). That's a very clear visual indicator of where a new section begins. Likewise, I format different types of headings (such as chapter headings) in a way that makes them stand out from the main text while still being followed by a blank line.
I'm used to my documents being formatted that way (mainly because that was the mandatory way paragraphs had to be formatted in all documents where I used to work), and I find it very readable and not awful at all, more so than with a first-line indent. For me, the blank line provides a very clear indication of where a paragraph begins and ends, and is much clearer to me than a first-line indent.
However, its a matter of choice and there are many answers (much like if you ask which is the best font for an ebook). But with ebooks, you are able to format them any way that you choose.