MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Do you prefer justified or left-aligned text on a your ereader?

AnotherCat · 01-02-2017, 06:35 PM

Personally I prefer justified, as is found in most books, but am not fussed by such trivialities if it is not easily corrected.

I started reading ebooks in earnest way back on PDAs, which have, of course, LCD displays. Although these had screens significantly smaller than a 6 inch reader, I never really experienced much odd spacing of words on lines due to justification.

When I later got an E ink display reader one of the first things I noticed was that due to the poor contrast of E ink displays I tended to use a bigger font than I did on the PDAs. That resulted in odd spacing on lines being more common than it ever was on the smaller PDAs.

Over time I gave up on E ink (even though I continue to review current models along the way) and went back to LCD display tablets which for many reasons suit my own needs best. Currently, I usually use a 10.1 inch tablet reading in 2 columns, so like a book laid out open, each column (i.e. half the display) is about the same size as a Kobo Aura H2O as a comparison. The font size I can use is now considerably smaller than I can comfortably use on E ink readers due to the much superior contrast of the tablet's LCD display and I very rarely get any odd spaced lines.

In fact the only times I can remember is very, very infrequently when an inconveniently placed very long word (typically some long German word in amongst English text) gets flipped to the next line. Once in a blue moon type stuff.

And yes, for the sake of good order, I know that 10.1 tablets are far too big (but, of course one can get smaller ones if desired), and some find that for physical reasons low contrast displays are more comfortable for disabled eyes, and that some think E ink is the saviour of all good men and woman who read, etc., etc. So I don't need to be reminded of any of that by the fan-children of other device and display types, I know already that my own preferences are deplorable

. I am rather just relating my own experience as to the effect of different device and display types on font size used and observations as to the effect (the observations I have also seen as being the experience of others too).

01-02-2017, 06:35 PM	#89
AnotherCat .... Posts: 1,547 Karma: 18068960 Join Date: May 2012 Device: ....	Personally I prefer justified, as is found in most books, but am not fussed by such trivialities if it is not easily corrected. I started reading ebooks in earnest way back on PDAs, which have, of course, LCD displays. Although these had screens significantly smaller than a 6 inch reader, I never really experienced much odd spacing of words on lines due to justification. When I later got an E ink display reader one of the first things I noticed was that due to the poor contrast of E ink displays I tended to use a bigger font than I did on the PDAs. That resulted in odd spacing on lines being more common than it ever was on the smaller PDAs. Over time I gave up on E ink (even though I continue to review current models along the way) and went back to LCD display tablets which for many reasons suit my own needs best. Currently, I usually use a 10.1 inch tablet reading in 2 columns, so like a book laid out open, each column (i.e. half the display) is about the same size as a Kobo Aura H2O as a comparison. The font size I can use is now considerably smaller than I can comfortably use on E ink readers due to the much superior contrast of the tablet's LCD display and I very rarely get any odd spaced lines. In fact the only times I can remember is very, very infrequently when an inconveniently placed very long word (typically some long German word in amongst English text) gets flipped to the next line. Once in a blue moon type stuff. And yes, for the sake of good order, I know that 10.1 tablets are far too big (but, of course one can get smaller ones if desired), and some find that for physical reasons low contrast displays are more comfortable for disabled eyes, and that some think E ink is the saviour of all good men and woman who read, etc., etc. So I don't need to be reminded of any of that by the fan-children of other device and display types, I know already that my own preferences are deplorable . I am rather just relating my own experience as to the effect of different device and display types on font size used and observations as to the effect (the observations I have also seen as being the experience of others too).