Finding the perfect paragraph indentation size

[Calenorn]

Reading on a six inch screen, my choice is a line space between paragraphs without any paragraph indent.

Just feels better to me.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I could format a book where words alternate between normal, bold, and italic and see how long it takes to drive you crazy.

But seriously I'm like that as well even though I always reformat my books to meet my standards; indented paragraphs, no extra white space between them, ragged right, and all font-family stuff deleted. Then one time I had been reading a book for at least an hour or more and then I noticed that the right margin was straight (justified) and there was extra white space between the paragraphs. So much for my fussy standards.

It takes something pretty drastic to throw me out of a book. Like my wife throwing a pillow at me to get my attention.
Apache

[Argon]

Originally Posted by ElspethB

The first thing I do after buying a book is to import it into Calibre (de-DRMing it at the same time) and take a look at the CSS. My favorite paragraph indent value is 1.2 em. As you said, 1 em seems slightly too small and 1.5 slightly too big. For me (and Goldilocks), 1.2 is just right.

Yeah, looks like I'm going to have to, now! I never knew it was so simple to customize these things.

[Argon]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

% is a really bad idea. It changes based on the screen being used. And you get it right on one screen and move to another and it can be different.

I prefer 1.2em. Simon & Schuster also uses 1.2em for their Star Trek eBooks.

It seems that most who have replied prefer 1.2em for an indent.

I think that's exactly what I want, actually. I want it to be a consistent proportion of the width of the line. If I increase or decrease the text size with a fixed line width, why would that mean I want a different indentation size?

1.2em is probably fine by me, but when I fiddled with it, I found that 1.25em was better, and 5% even better (which is slightly more than 1.25em), but maybe, maybe, slightly too small.

Does anyone know what 5% is in ems? What is in between 5% and 1.5em?

[Argon]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I could format a book where words alternate between normal, bold, and italic and see how long it takes to drive you crazy.

But seriously I'm like that as well even though I always reformat my books to meet my standards; indented paragraphs, no extra white space between them, ragged right, and all font-family stuff deleted. Then one time I had been reading a book for at least an hour or more and then I noticed that the right margin was straight (justified) and there was extra white space between the paragraphs. So much for my fussy standards.

I think I'm going to as well, now. It's outrageous how much nonsense mainstream publishers put in their e-books. I want the body text to look the same in every book I read.

Is ragged right that much better? I keep flipping back and forth between the two options on my Kindle. Why ragged right when physical books are almost all justified?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Argon

I think I'm going to as well, now. It's outrageous how much nonsense mainstream publishers put in their e-books. I want the body text to look the same in every book I read.

Is ragged right that much better? I keep flipping back and forth between the two options on my Kindle. Why ragged right when physical books are almost all justified?

It's a matter of taste. I can't stand ragged right, personally. Others swear by it.

I format all my books in Calibre too. No spaces between paragraphs, text-indents 1em - no smaller, no bigger, fixed line-spacing and embedded body font must go, ditto for too small or too big base font size (I don't want to constantly adjust font size on my ereaders with every new book), text justified.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

Reading on a six inch screen, my choice is a line space between paragraphs without any paragraph indent.

Just feels better to me.

Heresy!

[Argon]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I remove the extra space for chapter titles, make sire the indents are 1.2em, remove paragraph space. Remove most embedded fonts (depends on the fonts), remove any left justification, make sure the base font size is set to the default, remove line-height except for drop caps, and some other cleaning up. All in all, when I am done, it's a much nicer read as the formatting can then be ignored.

Totally agreed. What's left justification?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Argon

Totally agreed. What's left justification?

Ragged right.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Argon

Yeah, looks like I'm going to have to, now! I never knew it was so simple to customize these things.

When you use the Calibre editor to edit the eBook, the first thing to do is remove unused CSS classes. Depending on the book, this can remove over 100 unused CSS classes.

Also, make sure you have the epubcheck plugin installed. You will want to validate the eBook before you are done. I use both the built-in checker and epubcheck.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Argon

I think that's exactly what I want, actually. I want it to be a consistent proportion of the width of the line. If I increase or decrease the text size with a fixed line width, why would that mean I want a different indentation size?

1.2em is probably fine by me, but when I fiddled with it, I found that 1.25em was better, and 5% even better (which is slightly more than 1.25em), but maybe, maybe, slightly too small.

Does anyone know what 5% is in ems? What is in between 5% and 1.5em?

5% varies depending on what device you are using to read with. A 6" Reader will have a smaller indent and a 7" Reader will have a larger indent and an 8" Reader will have an even larger indent. em is consistent. Once you find an em you like, just use that and it will work on whatever screen you use.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Argon

Totally agreed. What's left justification?

It means ragged right and in CSS it's...

text-align: left;

[Argon]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

5% varies depending on what device you are using to read with. A 6" Reader will have a smaller indent and a 7" Reader will have a larger indent and an 8" Reader will have an even larger indent. em is consistent. Once you find an em you like, just use that and it will work on whatever screen you use.

I'm pretty sure that's what I want. The indentation should be a certain unchanging proportion of the line/paragraph width, no?

[Argon]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When you use the Calibre editor to edit the eBook, the first thing to do is remove unused CSS classes. Depending on the book, this can remove over 100 unused CSS classes.

Also, make sure you have the epubcheck plugin installed. You will want to validate the eBook before you are done. I use both the built-in checker and epubcheck.

What does validation do?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Argon

I'm pretty sure that's what I want. The indentation should be a certain unchanging proportion of the line/paragraph width, no?

By using em, you get an indent that works with the font size you choose. I've seen 5% and it's too large. A good indent should be less no more then 2em and preferably less.