Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks
Unfortunately that usually breaks down to K.I.S.S.
AS YOU ARE TRYING TO WORK ACROSS MANY DEVICES AND BRANDS (and those all do their version of the 'correct' way ) Don't even count on the Brand.
My K4nt won't handle a drop cap font that works fine on the Kindle Android app, Windows Kindle app, Kindle previewer and even in Calibre.
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I simply want to add--yes, it's true that "emulating" print layout doesn't work (well) on most smaller devices. But you know what? (Here goes ALL my credibility with Jon, lol!)--I love it. I infinitely prefer a creative approach that makes me feel like I'm reading a print book.
For example, the "Cthulhu Casebooks [of Sherlock Holmes]" which were put out by Titan. Totally crazy eBook formatting--the book designer decided to make each chapter head an entire "page/screen" by itself. And it really works, for those 3 books. When you go to chapter X, you get an entire page of drawings, (of Chthulu's tentacles, presumably) with a cool font for the chapter number and name/title. It resizes nicely on a lot of devices; the person who made the eBook should have done a better job for Kindles, BUT, I still like it. So there!
And I like space around chapter heads, too.
Neener-neener-neener. So what? If done wrong, yes, it's unhappy-making, but when done right, it works on all devices and nobody's member or girls are going to fall off, just because there's a bit of whitespace above the chapter head.
What doesn't work is when David Dilettante decides to "create" his chapter heads and does that with a whack-load of "enter-enter-enter" or a font size that's 50% larger than it ought to be and it's set in px so that you can't change it.
We've all looked at and seen and loved books that make good use of whitespace and design for eternity. It's not that easy to just switch one's brain off, on what you expect to see to something ELSE that is already different, and think, "oh, well, it doesn't matter if the chapter head is boring and bland and all that, it's JUST an eBook." Phooey on that.
Sure, I am extremely careful with clients' books. We don't do anything too "out there" unless we have an adventurous client. We did a book with illos, above/below each Part Page announcement (e.g., "part 1," etc.) in a book for a client, like the Chthulu Casebooks, and
he loves it. I'm waiting to see what the public reception of it is, assuming the thing sells. But...you can hardly blame ebook creators/designers/formatters for wanting to inject a bit of elegance or TLC or creativity or
something into their work for their clients. When done right, it can really make a book stand out, in a world of many millions of poorly-done books and eBooks.
Hitch