[ahi]

Originally Posted by bkilian

Oh, and I'm not upset at all. The fact that you find my analogy stupid is amusing to me too.

Your complaint is that machines obviously can't do the job of a properly trained expert in the field, and therefore people have to be stupid to prefer the machine version over the human version.

I'd say my analogy fits that quite well. It also points out that in the end, the consumer will choose what benefits them most, and not what the "literati" believes is best for them.

No. The analogy does not fit well. In fact it makes no sense at all.

Medieval illuminated manuscripts perhaps have "character", but certainly aren't higher quality or better "typeset" than the vast majority of everything that technologically follows them.

How much do you know about either handwritten books or mechanically/digitally typeset ones? And if your knowledge and understanding of them and their production is only superficial, why do you feel you have insight into the subject we are discussing?

My complaining about about eBooks' lack of professional typography is, at best, like monks complaining about people deciding to write continuous (non-paged) scrolls with letters that have no curves. Of course, that is still a very very poor analogy... but, at least, it is analogous to the situation being discussed. i.e.: A bookmaker choosing to do a low quality job rather than satisfying the quality requirements that have become status quo.

The main difference is that writing a beautiful illuminated codex takes far more time than scribbling hastily on a scroll. Creating professional eBooks, however, doesn't take a lot of time, or effort, or money.

Your << not what the "literati" believes is best for them >> comment does strike me as exactly the type of anti-intellectualist drivel I've already lamented earlier. Whether you like it or not, typographers and bookmakers really do know better how to maximize the readability of a document or a book.

It makes about as much sense to begrudge them for it, as it does to get upset with your car mechanic for understanding how engines should be maintained, or your favourite restaurant's chef for knowing what flavours compliment each other in a well prepared dinner.

Originally Posted by bkilian

Someday, when Amagooglezon is beaming books directly into peoples implants so they scroll past our eyes virtually, someone will say the same thing you did, except they'll be referring to the old perfect tech of ebooks on a physical device.

Really? "Beaming" books into "implants" so they "scroll past our eyes"? And not regularly scrolling either, but "virtually"?

What does all that mean?

Originally Posted by bkilian

people have to be stupid to prefer the machine version over the human version.

People do, in fact, prefer the human version--so no, they aren't stupid.

There are three reasons why people on this board claim to prefer reflow eBooks instead of professionally typeset eBooks (which, most of them, have never even seen before): (1) they value some other aspect of eBooks too much to feel like they have a right to complain about the appearance; (2) they, like most people, do not notice typography... and since due to convenience factors they now read mostly eBooks, they are rarely confronted with the quality difference between professionaly typeset works and eBooks and are unaware of the subtle ways in which their reading experience is negatively impacted; and (3) they want to stick it to the pretentious jackass that's acting like they can see some mysterious aesthetic difference between one set of bunch of letters on a page and another set of bunch of letters on another page.

Did you read what tompe wrote earlier? It's far more insightful than your thinly veiled insult of an analogy was:

Originally Posted by tompe

The goal of silent typography is to maximize the readability. So if the readability is reduced by 20% compared with a paper book you will most likely not notice it if you do not know what to look for. Less readability will lead to slower reading speed since the amount of "reading" errors increases.

- Ahi