[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by ngrant

Agree 100%! It surprises me when I read other people's preferences for full justification (I like left-alignment) and no blank lines between paragraphs (I like the space, and mentally "take a breath" as if reading aloud...) So I think it's good that we get as much control over the formatting as possible for PERSONAL customization.

With RTF files I can pack a huge number of ebooks on a 2GB SD card for my reader and am never short of something to read.

I think one of the main reasons that first-line-indented paragraphs with no space between them are common in printed books is to reduce the cost by reducing the total number of pages. Those extra lines can add up to a large number of additional pages.

To check this out, I took a Project Gutenburg version of "A Christmas Carol" that I formatted for my ereader, removed the space between the paragraphs, and set a first line indent for each paragraph to 0.2 inches (approximately 5mm). Just those two changes reduced the page count by 25 pages (from 307 pages down to 282 pages).

With ebooks the total page count isn't that much of an issue. This allows a reader to choose how he/she want their ebooks to appear, and not have to be concerned the total number of pages.

Like you, I prefer the space between the paragraphs (and also ragged-right paragraphs). It provide a clear visual division between the paragraphs. It also makes it easy to have consistent formatting because I simply put the same amount of space between all paragraph elements (such as titles, scene heading, main text, and interruptions).

File size isn't much of a concern for me because even with the additional space that PDF files take, the combination of my reader's internal memory along with a 1GB SD card gives me plenty of room for ebooks. It's only when I start loading music on my reader that memory space becomes an issue.

Returning to the topic of plain text ebooks, a blank line between each paragraph is one of the few types of paragraph formatting that plain text does allow. It is also the type of formatting that can be easily translated into other formats.