After having to add paragraph indentation to a self-published e-book version of a web serial that had neither space between paragraphs nor first-line indentation (and learning way more about CSS and e-book publishing than I ever thought I would want to know), I realized that I don't know what indentation size I prefer.
The truth of it is that you can get used to almost anything (except for a complete lack of paragraph differentiation!), particularly in light of past Kindle Store purchases—they're all wildly all over the place. Full line spacing is probably ideal for web, but on an e-reader, it's an unnecessary waste of space; moreover, most physical books use first-line indentation.
What is the ideal size? Butterick's Practical Typography
suggests that
Quote:
|
Typically, a first-line indent should be no smaller than the current point size, or else it’ll be hard to notice. It should be no bigger than four times the point size, or else the first line will seem disconnected from the left edge. So a paragraph set in 12 point should have a first-line indent of 12–48 points. (Recall that there are 72 points to an inch, so this works out to 0.17–0.67″.)
|
I played around with the e-book in question and found that I think that 1(r)em is too small, 1.5em is slightly too big, and one book that is probably close to right uses 5%, which is ever-so-slightly more than 1.25em. (What is 5% in ems, anyway? Is there an advantage in defining
text-indent with one unit over the over?)
What do you use when creating or customizing e-books?