Ebooks formatted as two columns

[ShellShock]

I have just got my latest Asimov's Science Fiction epub, and the publisher has now decided to format it into two columns, a skeuomorphic attempt to emulate the print magazine. It looks horrible, and that is on a Kobo Aura HD; I hate to think what it looks like on a smaller 6" screen.

To add insult to injury, they achieved this dubious technical feat by using the epub-standard breaking Adobe extensions (ade:template), and compounded this by the worst sin of all: rather than creating a single xpgt file to define the page layout, instead the publisher has inserted a huge ade:template element inline into each xml file in the epub. This makes it time consuming to strip out.

I have worked around the two column problem by replacing column-count="2" with column-count="1", which makes the necessary changes to all the inline ade:templates.

Anyway, how do you like your emagazines/enewpapers: one or two columns?

[susan_cassidy]

Definitely one column. A 6-inch screen is too small for 2 columns.

[Purple Lady]

Definitely one column only.

Have you tried Calibre's E-book Editor? It can search and replace thru all files.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Have you tried Calibre's E-book Editor? It can search and replace thru all files.

Yes thanks. That's what I used to convert them to one column.

I did email the magazine when they first changed to two columns last year, but I never got a response back.

This is what is looks like:



But I much prefer this:

[Ntsimp]

This should be a no-brainer. These multi-column formats were historically a natural adjustment to the media in use. There's no reason at all to preserve them in new and different media.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by Ntsimp

This should be a no-brainer. These multi-column formats were historically a natural adjustment to the media in use. There's no reason at all to preserve them in new and different media.

Nobody uses a 7" or bigger tablet in landscape mode? You can display multiple columns perfectly well in landscape, and it looks pretty good.

[theducks]

2, 3 on n column display c/should be a Device (display) option.

IMHO
The content must always display properly in a single column without sideways scrolling being required ( what a way to destroy 'readers trance')

All other display (column) formats are optional

Originally Posted by teh603

Nobody uses a 7" or bigger tablet in landscape mode? You can display multiple columns perfectly well in landscape, and it looks pretty good.

The ereader software that I use on my tablet has a two page mode, which effectively gives you two columns. That sort of arrangement sounds much better since it facilitates different devices.

[faltradl]

Only one column isn't the whole truth. Using tables instead of columns is a way. Not for a whole book, but for short parts in the book. (OK, not every reader can handle tables.)

For the general dicussion 2 oder 1 columns look to real books. You will not find so many books in the size of an ereader with 2 columns. You mustn't compare normal sized books with ebooks. Ebookreader are pocket books.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by teh603

Nobody uses a 7" or bigger tablet in landscape mode? You can display multiple columns perfectly well in landscape, and it looks pretty good.

I use my Nexus 7 in portrait mode normally. I was looking at the Press Reader app to get my newspaper and it gives you two columns in both portrait and landscape in their "SmartFlow" mode. SmartFlow is pretty stupid though - it is hyphenated very poorly. Dema-nd, rest-rictions, agreem-ent, sanctio-ns, and even t-hat all on one page.

[Katsunami]

"Just put the hyphen wherever it happens to fall."

Yeah bro, nice one

If one can't do it properly, then don't do it at all.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

"Just put the hyphen wherever it happens to fall."

Yeah bro, nice one

If one can't do it properly, then don't do it at all.

Hey!
No need for fancy justification or kerning algorithms

[ST-One]

For my 8" Icarus8 I adjust all my books for 2 columns; this gives my more words per screen-page than in a single column text.