New Kindle Voyage

[badgoodDeb]

HEY! Quit fighting!
I too like the Kindles the way they are. I can read faster if the text isn't wider than a paperback's text used to be. But I don't want to fight over it. It's all OPINIONS!

[Barty]

Originally Posted by tompe

Are you bothered by that in paper books also?

I think you need margins for a good experience and I understand Amazon's decision not to let people change it to much. Having the text to near the side will for most people look very strange and not be optimal for reading and is not good advertising for a Kindle.

Books are generally larger than 6 inch diagonal. Also you need some place to place your thumb. And you can actually write on the margins of a real book. On an e-reader you already have some place to put your thumb, the bezel.

Of course it's good to have a bit of space, .2em or so, between the bezel and the text. But that is only because with the current tech we have there is a clear delineation between the display and the bezel. Imagine if you can make the bezel indistinguishable by sight and touch from the display. Then your bezel becomes the margin and there is no need for any virtual margin at all. Or if you can make the entire front face the display and have no bezel at all. In that case, it's really like a book and it's entirely up to the publisher or user how big a margin to have. For some content, like comics or photos, you'll want an edge to edge display.i

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

HEY! Quit fighting!
I too like the Kindles the way they are. I can read faster if the text isn't wider than a paperback's text used to be. But I don't want to fight over it. It's all OPINIONS!

Precisely. And if the Kindle doesn't meet your needs, then buy another reader that does.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

HEY! Quit fighting!
I too like the Kindles the way they are. I can read faster if the text isn't wider than a paperback's text used to be. But I don't want to fight over it. It's all OPINIONS!

I totally agree.

I have a Kobo Aura I love that has lots of tweaking settings, however tonight it threw a wobbly and lost half of them, I was able to revert to an earlier firmware then back up to the one I was on, and fix the problem. The issue happened when I was playing around with the settings. However what I did was way beyond the average ebook reader who doesn't lurk around Mobileread.

I think Amazon keeps their settings simple and basic to avoid the kind of situation I found myself in tonight. Yes I'd love more options but then again I want software that just works, as it's supposed to, Amazon provides that.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

While a lot of people don't exactly mind, a lot would like more options to have smaller margins and lesser line height.

A small but vocal minority on here seem bothered about it, but as far as the general public the amount would almost certainly be far lower and then there is the obvious point that if Amazon did make this change then those complaining about it would probably just move onto a new reason to object to the Kindle anyway.

Yes, worthless. 100% worthless. Some books would just be a total nightmare to try to read at such a setting. I bet the percentage of people who like that setting would be less then 1.

Worthless to you, but maybe there are others who happen to prefer it for some reason, in any case it hardly merits the ludicrous hyperbole of your declaration.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I think Amazon keeps their settings simple and basic to avoid the kind of situation I found myself in tonight. Yes I'd love more options but then again I want software that just works, as it's supposed to, Amazon provides that.

Excellent point.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I think Amazon keeps their settings simple and basic to avoid the kind of situation I found myself in tonight. Yes I'd love more options but then again I want software that just works, as it's supposed to, Amazon provides that.

I'm not against "simple and basic," what I have a problem with is stupid. I wold like to see Amazon use some common sense in the size choices of their margins. The Nook Simple Touch has three margin settings. They start with a narrower margin than the Kindle, go to a setting that is a bit wider than the Kindle -- and then one that basically makes a column in the middle of the page (kind of like the Kindle's widest but not as extreme). The Kindle starts with a margin that is too wide, goes to worse (and probably never used) and even worse (and if EVER used I'd be shocked). Who made the margin decisions on the Kindles? They simply don't make sense. I got along with the narrowest setting "as is" on the K4 -- but when I found the non-root margin hack, I'm was extremely happy. Made my Kindle more like my Nook Simple Touch. Do you suppose Amazon ever asks if anyone wants to use the widest margins ... ever? What's the point of a margin setting if two of the settings are something no one would EVER use? I just don't get it.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

It is still possible to read - and if it stops you from buying a Kindle, then by all means buy a different ereader.

Or ... we could buy the Kindles and lobby Amazon to change the margin settings. Or, if they won't change them, we could find hacks to get around their shortcomings ... Oh, wait a minute, that's what we're already doing.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

And why exactly do we need to squeeze as much text on a page as possible? With current readers battery life or speed of a page turn should not be such an issue that it really matters.

Because we want to (although I -- personally -- don't run my text right to the edge, I do like my margins narrower than the standard). Here's the thing a lot of people don't seem to get ... one size doesn't fit all. And not everyone is inclined to "take it or leave it." They take it and lobby to get Amazon to change it, or hack it if they won't.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Precisely. And if the Kindle doesn't meet your needs, then buy another reader that does.

Or lobby Amazon to change it ... or apply hacks to change it. Choice is a good thing. And, honestly, do you know of any purpose for the widest margin setting on the Kindle? Any at all? Don't you agree that it is kind of stupid?

[badgoodDeb]

I never even noticed there WERE margin settings. I'm too busy reading my books, to have looked.

edit: Ahh, there aren't any such settings on the K4 and presumably all earlier. And I've never missed them.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Or ... we could buy the Kindles and lobby Amazon to change the margin settings. Or, if they won't change them, we could find hacks to get around their shortcomings ... Oh, wait a minute, that's what we're already doing.

I turned against hacking. When I did, all it would do is rob my time. Time I now rather spend enjoying my Kindles to read. And for me it turned out that the less I fiddled with my Kindle, the more I could just simply read. If I want to upgrade to the Voyage, then I don't have to worry about waiting for a hack. Out of the box it would work good enough.

[carpetmojo]

Hate to be a killjoy, but ...... is this margin spat going on much longer ?

The suspense is terrific, of course, but could someone please wake me up when it does .......

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

I never even noticed there WERE margin settings. I'm too busy reading my books, to have looked.

edit: Ahh, there aren't any such settings on the K4 and presumably all earlier. And I've never missed them.

That is because they decided to call it "Words per Line" in the "Change Font Size" menu. Please give it a try.

[GoSharks]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Hate to be a killjoy, but ...... is this margin spat going on much longer ?

The suspense is terrific, of course, but could someone please wake me up when it does .......

On the other hand, what else is there to do with this thread until someone actually gets a Voyage in their hands?...