Quote:
Originally Posted by graycyn
Here's the thing. I like *some* space around chapter headers. It's pretty normal in print. Yes, ebooks aren't print. I get that if you go too far, it's not ideal. And I may well go with less space. I try to stay on the conservative side.
But we might have different definitions of what works and what doesn't. As far as I'm concerned, I don't mind too much in the way of publisher styling on an ebook as long as I can read the book. As long as I can access all the content, I'm good, the book works, IMHO.
I've run into books where I can't access everything, either because font size was fixed very small and not adjustable or images were too small to see necessary details, or a font was embedded that simply was too light and thin for visibility on e-ink. Or color use that didn't account for how certain shades can be near invisible on e-ink. Those are things that makes a book NOT WORK, because they prevent accessing content.
I'm not embedding fonts. I'm not mandating crazy margins. The graphics will be high resolution. In black and white PNG. Main text is 1em.
Yes, some screen space is wasted around the chapter header. But ONLY for the chapter header. And nothing is unreadable.
I've seen and read books from the major publishers where they have set larger top and bottom margins than I have, but the books are readable. I've got one from the library now. Anne Boleyn, A King's Obsession by Alison Weir. The header is centered and takes 50% of the vertical screen space at my preferred font size on my Kobo Aura ONE. It consists of the chapter number, an ornamental graphic and a date. But it doesn't look awful, it looks much like a print book would. Yes, if you blow the font size up much further, this look goes south pretty quick, as with enough font size, the header occupies the page by itself or worse, goes to two pages. Even so, there is no impediment to reading this particular book. Therefore, again, IMHO, it works.
The current book is for myself, but one of my Dad's books hits public domain next year, so if I do that one, for MR, I will certainly consider what you've said for chapter header margins.
|
There are lots of things you can do in an eBook that don't work. But yes, you can still read. Just because it's readable doesn't make it enjoyable. The example chapter heading you gave is readable but not enjoyable. Having paragraph spaces is readable but not enjoyable. That's the difference. Readable doesn't not always mean enjoyable. So it has to be enjoyable to read which is why the formatting has to be done well so it is enjoyable to read.
When you format an eBook, you want to keep to n many defaults as possible so when the software in use has options to override things, that the overrides work The overrides you (at least) want to work are font size, the font, line hight, and margins. Leave the margins at 0, no line height, no body font size and that goes for offset text (do not make it smaller), do not embed a font unless you have to, and when it comes to widows and orphans, it is more readable if they are set to 1.
I've seen a lot of eBooks made poorly that are readable. So don't just go with can it be read as your criteria for a well formatted eBook. That doesn't work. I can take a plain text file and read it. But it's not going to look all that nice.