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Originally Posted by pdurrant
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What is absent from the major ePub rendering software (ADE) at the moment is any support for the smallcaps CSS attribute. ...
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That is not the ebook format's fault. The ability to do good design is present.
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One can, I agree, embed a proper smallcaps font, but this does not actually help when the user of the reading software chooses a different font for the body text.
Good ebook design should not depend on the use of a specific body text font.
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If the user intentionally overrides aspects of the design it is their lookout.
Also, good pbook design requires using a specific font so why doesn't ebook design need the same requirement. No software can automagically generate a good small font rendering with any and all fonts. Adequate in some cases maybe, but not truly good.
This thread started in response to statements that extant ebooks in general are poorly designed and that new formats are needed to remedy this. The first, in my experience, is all to often true, but the second is totally false. The vast majority of "ugly" ebooks that I've encountered are ugly because lazy, inept, ignorant, and pinch-penny publishers fail to properly redesign their old pbook source files when creating ebooks.
Pbook designs don't convert to ebooks well using any automated software. Such conversions are only a starting place. The designs need to be altered by an skilled designer to fit the abilities of the ebook formats and the reality of the available readers hardware and software.