How do you like your eBooks to look?

[Amalthia]

For scene breaks I've become a fan of centered ~*~ with a line break before and after. I also prefer indented paragraphs and no blank lines between the paragraphs.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Angst

I know this isn't an ebook, but without spaces between paragraphs, your post reads as:

And that's why no-indent no-space is filed under my pet peeves.

Like I said, I prefer text-indent/no-space (with no-indent only on the first paragraph of a section) and I can live with no-indent/full-line space, but "neither" or "both" situations grate on my nerves, though at least the latter is still reasonably readable.

[derangedhermit]

If someone can suggest some markup code for paragraphs and scene breaks that would easily support such user choices (e.g. in EPUB), I would like to see it. Perhaps a new thread in the appropriate forum(s)?

What I have in mind would be a flag at the top (if conditionals are allowed):
IF user_is_spaced_out
THEN p-indent=0; p-bottom-margin=1em;
ELSE p-indent=2em; p-bottom-margin=0em;

IF user_is_splatted
THEN scene_break=" * * * * ";
ELSE IF user_is_squiggly
THEN scene_break="~ ~ ~";
ELSE scene_break=3em;

or commented out sections (ugh), or something like that.

[dwig]

Personally, I NEVER want any ebook formated with anything scaled in fixed units.

Spacing lines in a fixed unit like pixels is bad form in my book (pun intended.) Line spacing, indents, font sizes, ... should be done relative to a base size so that when the base font size is changed in the reader all related metrics scale proportionally.

[elemenoP]

I know that on the Sony, these settings vary by book (epub format). But what about the Kindle? Are the indents and paragraph spacing always the same, and if so what do they look like?

eP

[The Terminator]

What do you mean by indented?

[Sweetpea]

Other.

What I absolutely hate is spacing between paragraphs, unless it serves a function such as the scene change.

I prefer the indentation of a paragraph, except at the very first paragraph of the chapter. But on my PDA (3.4"), I prefer no indentation.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by THE TERMINATOR

What do you mean by indented?

What do you mean by indented?

What do you mean by indented?

<the white space in the left margin for the first line of each paragraph

[Quexos]

Indented why not, but what is really important to me is that the
text be justified on both sides just as in paper books.

[cybmole]

well results to date show that 2 out of 3 readers want some kind of line space - only 1 in 3 prefer NO line space.

not what the OP expected ?

when I voted, I had not yet learned that it's possible to have fractional line spaces & that e.g. 0.3 em looks excellent on my Kindle.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by cybmole

well results to date show that 2 out of 3 readers want some kind of line space - only 1 in 3 prefer NO line space.

not what the OP expected ?

when I voted, I had not yet learned that it's possible to have fractional line spaces & that e.g. 0.3 em looks excellent on my Kindle.

But given the results, if you have to pick just one way to format, it would be indented with no extra space between paragraphs. Followed closely by 2 or 3 pixel space between paragraphs.

But with ePub, it's easy to to remove or add the spacing.

[cybmole]

maybe - early days & small sample size - I am surprised it's not been studies more by the ebook makers but maybe they prefer not to share findings ?

I've avoided pixel settings because you knows what hardware I will be reading/re-reading on on in a couple of years time, nevertheless it has been a fascinating study.

& you have have convinced me to give up full line size spacings already!

[rogue_librarian]

I want clean, semantic XHTML. I'll take care of the rest via CSS.

[GreenMonkey]

I want just like a paper book - idented paragraphs, no space between them.

I don't understand the spacing between paragraphs thing at all. I agree with the others - a space is normally reserved between paragraphs is a scene change in a normal book.

I've spent a lot of time dealing with Calibre's tendency to modify the default and add spaces between paragraphs.

It's just weird. I really don't understand why that is the default. Paper books aren't like that, nor are the few commercial ebooks I've read. I don't understand it at all.

Plus, it's a lot of extra page turns.

I guess it looks more like internet typing than a book to me.

[JeremyR]

Heh, you know, until now, I've never realized that a blank line in a book formally meant a "scene change".

So single blank lines between paragraphs don't bother me, I've always just gone by context.

It is internet typing. But why is it people type like that on the internet, instead of writing like they do in a book? After all, there is a tab key, so indenting shouldn't be a problem.

I guess because starting from scratch, as opposed to years of formal writing rules, people realized it's just a lot easier to read (and write) doing so.