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Old 03-24-2026, 07:35 PM   #27
QuietShelfLife
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QuietShelfLife began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 43
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Join Date: Feb 2026
Device: iPad
Got the rendering report, thanks - that's exactly what I need to dig into this properly.

You're right on all counts. Here's what's happening under the hood:

Widows/orphans: The app defaults to widows: 2, orphans: 2 on all paragraphs. For short paragraphs (2-3 lines), that effectively means they can't split across pages at all - the engine pushes the whole paragraph to the next page rather than leaving a single line behind. That's where the white space is coming from. Dropping to 1/1 would fix the worst of it, and making it a user setting is the right move.

Line height: Default is 1.6 when the book doesn't specify one. Too generous for a lot of books - especially ones with already-loose paragraph spacing. No user control for this yet, which is the real problem.

Margins: Left/right are fixed at 40px on macOS. Should be adjustable.

All of this points to the same gap: the reader needs a proper typography settings panel - line height, margins, widows/orphans, font selection beyond the theme presets, custom font loading. I've been tracking most of these as feature requests already, but your report makes it clear they need to move up the priority list.

I'll start with widows/orphans (quickest win for readability) and line height. Will post here when there's a build to test.
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