Gizmodo article: How To Fix Today's Ebook readers

[kennyc]

Well, when they care more about how it looks than what it says, that's pretty idiotic to me.

[vaughnmr]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

But personally, I couldn't give a crap less about typography. As long as it's a standard font, and there aren't major formatting errors (lack of paragraphs etc.) I couldn't care less what font it is, whether it's justified or right aligned etc. etc. etc.

Maybe for you, but for a lot of us it does matter. To me it makes a world of difference. And I think the article nailed it.

[Logseman]

The typography limitations are one of the most sensitive issues which impedes eBook readers to become a handy tool for research alongside with hardship for quoting and difficult or impossible text marking. Pulp fiction are no more than mere blocks of text, but when you come to texts that need to be analysed in depth, processing them typographically is a must, for the sake of mere readability.

[charleski]

Originally Posted by nolaviz

Yeah, I've already seen the trolls above dissing typography. I don't care.

The aim of good typography is to disappear, and most people fail to understand why a piece of text that's set properly is easier to read than one that's not, so they continue to stew in their own delusions.

I'm willing to bet they aren't going to send in a C.V. printed in monospaced courier* though.

*the font that dominated business communication for decades and is about as 'standard' as you can get. It was ditched for a reason.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by charleski

The aim of good typography is to disappear, and most people fail to understand why a piece of text that's set properly is easier to read than one that's not, so they continue to stew in their own delusions.

Exactly. That is why good silent typography is so important when you are of the opinion that only the text matter. You should not be distracted and you should read it as fast as possible and not have to slow down (unconsciously) because of bad typography.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by BillSmithBooks

With books, interactiveness actually harms the product.

How is it any different than an online version of a book club? I'd love to be able to share a book with my brother and both of us make comments on it as we're reading. We do that now with paper books and post-it notes, but neither of us read many pbooks anymore.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Has this generation gotten so far away from the core concept of reading (or, for that matter, of doing anything as an individual instead part of a swarm?) that they can't even just sit down and read a book?

"This generation" (man you guys all sound ancient) does plenty of recreational reading, it's just not always in the format that you old fogies see as 'reading'. Most of it is done online; things like blogs and, yes, social networking sites. I don't think that devalues the reading simply because it's not what I do for recreational reading.

I don't really care about extras on dvds; my husband does. It's another way for the movie industry to drive sales, and this is just the publishing industry version of that. I don't want the extras, but I don't see why others can't enjoy them.

[TallMomof2]

When I read on a small PDA screen I didn't care all that much about typography but with the larger screens it would be nice to have good typography again. But, I'd rather have a well edited ebook not chock full of typos.

[drmaxx]

Originally Posted by tompe

Exactly. That is why good silent typography is so important when you are of the opinion that only the text matter. You should not be distracted and you should read it as fast as possible and not have to slow down (unconsciously) because of bad typography.

This is soooo true. I am reading large amounts of scientific text and typography does matter! A lot! Especially if the content is very important.
And then there is the factor of pleasure. I like the reading experience to be a nice one. What's wrong with that.

[K-Thom]

Nothing in general

but

keep in mind that typography sets the form of a text while the strengh of eBook (reading device)s is the flexibility.

On LCD screens fonts without serifs are much more readable than those with. One eInk screens it's a totally different reading experience. So who's to choose which font the THE right one? For which device?

Optimal page layout? It isn't a given with reflowable text. Some prefer to read in upright mode, others in landscape. The page layout changes completely. Any way to determine THE best layout? Nope.

Font size? Some fonts look good at 10, 11 or 12 pt. Now, what about readers with visual impairments who need to switch to 15, 16, or even 20 pt? Still sure that the chosen font in the chosen size is THE best solution?

So, for typography to be a valid issue for eBooks, typography itself has to evolve and to adapt to a new technology and reading experience.

But still, some things should/could be added to enhance the readability of an digital text with some due respect to typography.

1.) Hyphenation, and a good one. This will solve lots of problems.
2.) Addition of own fonts. No need to force readers to use just the built-in.
3.) A lot of different font sizes. Let the reader decide which size does suit him/her best.

[BillSmithBooks]

Originally Posted by queentess

How is it any different than an online version of a book club? I'd love to be able to share a book with my brother and both of us make comments on it as we're reading. We do that now with paper books and post-it notes, but neither of us read many pbooks anymore.

I find the whole idea pretty distracting, like delving between the text and an endless series of footnotes that may or may not be relevant. The point of a book IMO is to create an ongoing narrative, one idea building upon the other -- constantly changing narrative stream through comments, etc. is pretty distracting IMO -- I'm not saying it shouldn't be available for people who really want it, but it seems pretty remote from the fundamental concept of reading a book.

It'd be like going to a watch a movie and alternating between reviews and web comments and the movie itself, resulting in a disjointed experience.

I would much rather experience the secondary content (reviews, etc.) either before reading the medium (so I know what to "look" for) or after the fact ("Oh, so that's what he meant.")

Old fogey that I am, I don't see "books as an interactive medium" as an improvement of the medium. My mind just doesn't work that way.

[BillSmithBooks]

Quick follow up -- yes, blogging, message boards, etc. are reading but very interactive, they are ongoing conversations and I love them for that. I just see "reading a book" as a very different experience -- online works tend to be much shorter, often addressing a subject in far less detail (non-fiction) or just shorter in general (the dominance of short and flash fiction over novels online) and much of the value comes from other peoples' insight.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by queentess

How is it any different than an online version of a book club? I'd love to be able to share a book with my brother and both of us make comments on it as we're reading. We do that now with paper books and post-it notes, but neither of us read many pbooks anymore.

the difference in a book and book club is sort of like Mark Twain said about the difference in Lightning and Lightning Bug.



Reading a book should be an experience between the reader and the author.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by queentess

"This generation" (man you guys all sound ancient) does plenty of recreational reading, it's just not always in the format that you old fogies see as 'reading'. Most of it is done online; things like blogs and, yes, social networking sites. I don't think that devalues the reading simply because it's not what I do for recreational reading.

...

How do you read a novel on a blog or are you saying you don't read novels and that your recreational reading IS reading blogs?

Maybe there's a language barrier and this ol' ancient guy is not understanding you young whipper-snappers.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by charleski

The aim of good typography is to disappear, and most people fail to understand why a piece of text that's set properly is easier to read than one that's not, so they continue to stew in their own delusions.

I think we all understand that. Some of us aren't anal about it.

As long as it's a standard font (and not some weird one) and the paragraph breaks etc. are in the right places, I'm good to go.

I've never read anything on the Kindle where I was bothered by the layout, font etc. For novels--text is text. As long as it's a normal font and the paragraph breaks etc. are in the proper places. So on that front, current e-readers are fine for me as long as the book in question is edited properly.

Scholarly PDFs are another stories, but those will suck until we start getting color screen tablets with 8.5x11" or larger screens.