Quote:
Originally Posted by mjh215
I have recently seen an excellent (not released) epub, heavily image laden with remarkable layout. It reflowed quite well on my Sony.
As to a 'standardized' size, I don't think you will see that. And I don't want it. Personal preference is a wonderful thing and something we should be moving towards. Some people like 6" screens, some a little bigger, others like a 5" or even a 4" screen so they can fit it in their pockets. Others again prefer larger screens like as the 9.7" eInk, sometimes for poor eyesight, others for larger format texts, manuals, magazines, comics, etc. And then there are those wishing for even larger readers available.
-MJ
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Again, I think there just needs to be some maximum size screen and no e-magazines or newspapers or books exceed that. Not just one size screen period.
Then you'd know you could buy one that size and display anything without having to reflow it as everything would fit in the aspect ratio it was designed for. Kind of like wide screen TVs and movies. The TV is a set size, but you have movies in 2:35:1, 1:85:1, 1:78:1 etc. aspect ratios with different size black bars and so fort.
Readers need a set screen ratio and a set maximum size since text is too small if a large page is shrunk for a smaller screen. Then you can have all kinds of content in different sizes, some reflowable and some not.
Those who prefer a smaller reader could buy still buy one smaller than the standard maximum sixze, but may have reflow issues with magazines optimized for a larger screen etc. But text books would still be fine since reflow isn't an issue.
In any case, it's just key to get e-magazines and newspapers to more closely resemble their print counter parts. I hate the Kindle version of magazines etc. as I just don't end up reading nearly as much when I'm looking through lists of headlines etc. vs. flipping through the print magazine and getting drawn in by pictures, the layout of stories etc. Layout and typesetting etc. is huge with those media, where I really don't care when it comes to novels--text is text for the most part.
If I'm ever going to shift to e-magazines, it will be on a larger reader and when the content is near identical to the print versions. Until then, I'm fine keeping my Newsweek subcription etc. as it's cheap and magazines are easy to recycle. Unlike books that you really have to either keep, give away, sell or donate if you're like me and seldom re-read. Point being I don't have the main incentive to go to e-versions with magazines that I did with books.