[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I did download one of these eBook from the library and there are some good and bad points to it. The chapter header is definitely different. On my laptop with Calibre's Viewer, there is some space left at the bottom of the screen. On my iPhone, there's not enough room at the bottom of the screen. So in this case, it's best to do it the way it's done. It does work. The font used for the chapter titles works. But, the font used for the body text doesn't work. It's just way too light. It's Times New Roman and that is a terrible font to embed. That is a big fail.

Well. I gotta admit, I've never seen anyone embed TNR before, and I didn't notice it. I read those on my Voyage--and they seemed fine. FWIW.

Some space maybe, but not some silly amount of space. ANd don't do it with a % as that changes depending on what device is being used. The space needs to be consistent. So use em and not % and don't go more then 2em. Don't use 1/2 the screen for the chapter header.

Again, that depends on the header.

What amount of space around the chapter header do you prefer?

I don't. I'm not being evasive. I see many, many different headings and there's nothing standard about it. I'm reading a supernatural series right now (that I suspect is really YA or new adult or the like, 20-something protags), but it's SO damn bland that it's interfering with my ability to enjoy it. Block-style paragraphs; and the chapter heads have NO space around them. I mean...they're barely noticeable. Kind of a bummer. I could have had a LOT of fun with that book! (Demon hunters, supes, vamps, werewolves...lions and tigers and bears, oh my!). The formatting, I mean. We had a nice gab about fonts. ;-)

Yes, be creative. Don't be boring. A lot of blank space in the chapter header is boring. Cthulhu Casebooks [of Sherlock Holmes] chapter headers works because they are creative in a good way. But to have "[too much space]Chapter 1[too much space]start of the chapter text" is boring and for me, it doesn't work. Either be creative or don't have so much excess space.

I actually reached out to the book designer on that (The casebooks) and congratulated her, in fact. Nicely done.

For example, with the amount of space wasted in chapter headers in a Jame Patterson book, you can get an extra screen of text then you would if a reasonable amount of space for the chapter header was used. Because there are over 100 chapters, you can get way too many extra screens.

I have to admit, I haven't tried one. I'll have to take a look. But I have to say--given that we're talking about an infinitesimal about of extra space, Jon--who truly CARES about "extra screens?" It's not like we have to click them all at once, is it? We click them as we go along. Nobody's going to notice that you've added 100 extra clicks to a book, with them spread out throughout. They're just not. If the book is a good read, and it's beautiful...I genuinely don't think anyone will notice Jon. Maybe you--but then, you're not your average bear, now, are you?

Hitch