combining text and image

[theducks]

Nay! I say

There was not a big problem UNTIL those LCD monstrosities became common.

EINK displays with Page turn BUTTONS forever

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Doits:

I admire Ruben's code, I do. He knows this, I've told him privately.

Thank you very much again Hitch!

But the OP probably doesn't know that the background-image won't work on some devices, and he does need to know, if it's that important to him. Ruben sort of always assumes that "everybody knows," but someone like the OP doesn't know, and likely, doesn't have all the devices to test. That's it. No worries.

Well, is not that I assume that "everybody knows", just I prefer to forget about the k7 format Things would be easier if we had not to worry about it. But k7 is still there (to complicate life )

In this case, when I posted my solution, I didn't think that Stephaan wanted that the ebook also worked in Kindle; I thought he only wanted an ePub. But after he answered your post, it was clear that he wanted an ebook that were readable on as much devices as possible. And my code doesn't work for the old Kindle models (that is, he won't see any background images in those devices).

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

And me!! *waves hand in the air*

Originally Posted by theducks

Nay! I say

There was not a big problem UNTIL those LCD monstrosities became common.

EINK displays with Page turn BUTTONS forever

QED, or res ipsa loquitur--so to speak. Take your pick. ;-) In English, "see what I mean?" ;-)

Hitch

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by theducks

Nay! I say

There was not a big problem UNTIL those LCD monstrosities became common.

EINK displays with Page turn BUTTONS forever

Three cheers for theducks!

Hip Hip, Huzzah!
Hip Hip, Huzzah!
Hip Hip, HUZZAH!!!

I prefer good ol' e-ink. I want a device dedicated to READING BOOKS, not watching movies/playing games (I have a TV/PC for that).

Plus the battery life, it cannot be beat!

[Toxaris]

I love my good old E-Ink readers. It reads more pleasantly and I agree that you can't beat the battery life.

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by jimmyyy

----- [Spammer now banned. QUOTE REMOVED - MODERATOR]

This is totally not related. This cannot work in an ePUB.

[GMcG]

How does it look like with a background image, if a reader prefers to read white text on a black background?

George

[exaltedwombat]

Hopefully the black background would win!

But it reminds us of an important point - eBooks are built very much around the concept of reader choice, not author control. When I overlook people using readers on a train journey, a surprising number have the text size turned WAY up. Design your page with this possibility in mind.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

Hopefully the black background would win!

But it reminds us of an important point - eBooks are built very much around the concept of reader choice, not author control. When I overlook people using readers on a train journey, a surprising number have the text size turned WAY up. Design your page with this possibility in mind.

Yes. It's really shocking how large the font sizes are that are used. We all tend to think, when we discuss ADE or KP, sort of around the default font size, but a key selling point for e-readers is people being able to read without glasses, or to read on public transportation without having to squint, thus, the large fonts. It's never really a problem with fiction, but with non-fiction, it can be a bitch. (Design-wise, I mean).

Hitch

[mrmikel]

Interesting design question how you lay out a book when it can suddenly become a large print book. Makes narrow columns and pull quotes not so pretty.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

Interesting design question how you lay out a book when it can suddenly become a large print book. Makes narrow columns and pull quotes not so pretty.

Floating pullquotes will break at a certain size font... and even small tables at three columns wide will (most likely) go off the screen.

Couple this with a small device (smartphone, ereader, tablet), and you break nearly all design decisions beyond the very basics (left/center/right alignment, margins, padding, bold/italics/smallcaps, ...).

Here is an actual EPUB that I posted + code + images showing a floating box that I use (it looks good at small/medium fonts, and breaks at larger fonts):

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=222952

This also brings up the whole what to do with Tables... You have the camp who would plop an image of the table into the EPUB, and the camp that converts the table fully to HTML.

I tend go on the side of the HTML tables:

Pros:

• It follows all user preferences
  • font, font-sizes, margins, ...
• Extremely small file size
  • It is HTML, which compresses VERY well
• Perfectly crisp digital text.
• Follows CSS.
  • This allows you to easily update the look of all tables in one fell swoop.
• Easy to edit
  • In some cases, you might want to "verticalize" a table (to make it easier to read on a small/thin device).
• Searchable
• Copy/Pastable

Cons:

• The table may flow off the edge of the device at large font-sizes.
• May not transfer well to a device which cannot handle tables (original Kindle).

Tables as Images:

Pros:

• Can easily scale the image to fit an entire table on any device size.
• Will look the same on all devices (Kindle, Nook, PC, Kobo, ....)
• Easy to code (just treat it like any image)
• Works on any device as long as it can display that image format.

Cons:

• Does not follow user preferences
• On a small device, even if you stretch the image to fill up the entire screen, the actual information in the table can be unreadable.
  • Although there are certain readers where you can click on an image, and pan/scan the full resolution image.
• Once you create the image, it is stuck at that resolution
  • The thing that irked me initially about these was the EXTREMELY small resolution certain tables were inserted with. On higher resolution/larger devices, these images will become unreadable postage stamps.
  • I see this problem getting only worse as the really high resolution devices come out (think newest Kindle).
• Text in the image does not scale well.
• Depending on how many tables/images there are in the book, this can seriously bloat your EPUB.
• Not easily editable.
• Not searchable.
• Let us say you come back to your book when a future format has come out (let us say, a decade from now), you will have to redo all of these images and update them to higher quality/resolution.

It is up to you to weigh the pros/cons of the design decisions, and keep this in mind when designing the ebook.

I personally believe trying to match the look of the original book will outweigh the con of someone somewhere making an EXTREMELY LARGE size font on their small ereader.

[mrmikel]

I think us in the old eyes camp will rise up in revolt at pretty but unreadable pages!

Down with beauty (a rather ephemeral concept), Up with legibility!

[theducks]

Large type books did NOT have the same physical page size as their standard type counterpart.

So why would you destroy a good looking book just so some idiot can cram it on a suboptimal screen?

A single line of text (minimal margins, Under 1.5em indent) at Medium zoom on my 5" Astak appears (every word is there) just as it does in the mass market paperback. All that is missing is the extra lines because a paperback is 9:16 and the screen is 3:4


If they really need to magnify it that much, they need to use a larger screen, similar to obtaining the 'Large print edition'

One size does not fit all and it is time to tell the PC regulators where to go. Cram them into a 6cm office

[mrmikel]

So us old folks have to have a 10" tablet, eh? Wait til the kids hear about this. They won't want to be caught dead with an OLD FOLKS tablet!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

So us old folks have to have a 10" tablet, eh? Wait til the kids hear about this. They won't want to be caught dead with an OLD FOLKS tablet!

A 7" tablet is about the size of the Large print books I have seen

And yes, you should be required to use the proper tool for the job rather than force others to suffer for your vanities sake.

Why don't the governments require all telecom devices sold support communication for: Vision Impaired, Hearing impaired use. Someone with one of those limits may want to call you.


OSFA is an absurd concept.

We have wheel chair accessible restrooms (WC) at the top of ski chair lifts because of OSFA regulation.

FWIW there are programs (funded by taxes on your phone service) for those that need to use special devices. TTY relay service is one. Strobe light (bells) and other specialized needs phones are subsidized.