Content Why 7%?

JSWolf · 10-18-2022, 12:27 PM

Why is it that a lot of eBooks i download from Amazon have a 7% text indent? That's a bit too large.

Sirtel · 10-18-2022, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why is it that a lot of eBooks i download from Amazon have a 7% text indent? That's a bit too large.

As well ask why a lot of ebooks have line-height 150%, small base font size, side-margins 30px or even only one side-margin 25px (the other is unspecified). And these examples are all tradpubs. Why do humans make so many stupid decisions?

Barty · 10-18-2022, 08:07 PM

I'm truly baffled by publishers setting the main text font to something like .867rem. Like hey I know you dingbats out there make your display font too large so here lemme fix it for ya you're welcome.

Sirtel · 10-18-2022, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barty

I'm truly baffled by publishers setting the main text font to something like .867rem. Like hey I know you dingbats out there make your display font too large so here lemme fix it for ya you're welcome.

More likely they use a program which has the default size like that and no one will bother to fix this later. Probably they think that users can easily enlarge the font if they want to, so why change it.

hobnail · 10-18-2022, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why is it that a lot of eBooks i download from Amazon have a 7% text indent? That's a bit too large.

Because I told them to. I asked for 10% but 7% was as much as they'd give me. I like large indents.

Next I'm going to tell them to make them have a ragged right margin.

JSWolf · 10-19-2022, 05:31 AM

Just imagine a 7% indent on the Kindle Scribe. That's going to look really bad.

A Lurker · 10-21-2022, 09:04 PM

I agree that's too large.

But I'd rather have a large indent than a book in "blog" format, meaning paragraphs that are delineated by spaces rather than indents.

JSWolf · 10-22-2022, 04:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A Lurker

I agree that's too large.

But I'd rather have a large indent than a book in "blog" format, meaning paragraphs that are delineated by spaces rather than indents.

I've also seen plenty of eBooks with both indents and paragraph spaces.

0.0721" is the the amount of space a 7% indent will (roughly) take up on a 10.3" screen.

Quoth · 10-22-2022, 06:29 AM

Or more accurately 0.721". The 0.0721" would be more like 7% of a 1" screen?

JSWolf · 10-22-2022, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

Or more accurately 0.721". The 0.0721" would be more like 7% of a 1" screen?

Thanks for the correction.

10-18-2022, 12:27 PM	#1
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,474 Karma: 145863170 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Why 7%? Why is it that a lot of eBooks i download from Amazon have a 7% text indent? That's a bit too large.

10-18-2022, 08:07 PM	#3
Barty doofus Posts: 2,543 Karma: 13089041 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kindle Voyage	I'm truly baffled by publishers setting the main text font to something like .867rem. Like hey I know you dingbats out there make your display font too large so here lemme fix it for ya you're welcome.

10-19-2022, 05:31 AM	#6
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,474 Karma: 145863170 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Just imagine a 7% indent on the Kindle Scribe. That's going to look really bad.

10-21-2022, 09:04 PM	#7
A Lurker Connoisseur Posts: 98 Karma: 335288 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: Kindle	I agree that's too large. But I'd rather have a large indent than a book in "blog" format, meaning paragraphs that are delineated by spaces rather than indents.

10-22-2022, 06:29 AM	#9
Quoth Still reading Posts: 13,837 Karma: 103895653 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	Or more accurately 0.721". The 0.0721" would be more like 7% of a 1" screen?

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