Indentation in right aligned long line poems

[AlexBell]

I know how to get long lines of left aligned poetry to indent after the line break. But I am doing some poems for an author who has the text in some of her poems right aligned, and some of those lines are longer than the width of the screen. The lines break of course, but the text after the break is flush with the right margin.

Is there a way to make the text after the break indented say 2em from the right margin? Can anyone point me to poems in ePub format in which the lines are long and indented from the right margin after the break? Or tell me how to do it?

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I know how to get long lines of left aligned poetry to indent after the line break. But I am doing some poems for an author who has the text in some of her poems right aligned, and some of those lines are longer than the width of the screen. The lines break of course, but the text after the break is flush with the right margin.

Is there a way to make the text after the break indented say 2em from the right margin? Can anyone point me to poems in ePub format in which the lines are long and indented from the right margin after the break? Or tell me how to do it?

Hi Alex;

You can do that by using the property "direction". The issue is that not all ereader can support it (you can't use it for example in ADE 3.x). In your css stylesheet, write the following:

.right_aligned {
   direction: rtl;
   text-indent: 3em; /* or whatever indent you wish */
   text-align: right;
   margin: 0em;
}

and in your .xhtml file do the following:

<div class="right_aligned">
   <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla ac tellus nunc. Phasellus imperdiet leo metus, et gravida lacus. Donec metus ligula, elementum at pellentesque pellentesque, suscipit ac nunc. Etiam lobortis, massa ac aliquam auctor, augue nisl sagittis urna, at dapibus tellus erat ullamcorper ligula. Praesent orci dui, pulvinar id convallis a, faucibus non mauris.</p>

   <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla ac tellus nunc. Phasellus imperdiet leo metus, et gravida lacus. Donec metus ligula, elementum at pellentesque pellentesque, suscipit ac nunc. Etiam lobortis, massa ac aliquam auctor, augue nisl sagittis urna, at dapibus tellus erat ullamcorper ligula. Praesent orci dui, pulvinar id convallis a, faucibus non mauris.</p>
</div>

This is how it looks in Sigil:



Regards
Rubén

[Turtle91]

Try spans around the line(s) you want indented.

<p class="v-ind-rt"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse est ante, <span>venenatis quis arcu nec, hendrerit tempus erat. Mauris varius elit id rhoncus accumsan. Vestibulum imperdiet magna et elit gravida maximus.</span></p>

<p class="v-ind-rt">In non sodales erat. Nam posuere diam sagittis turpis lacinia, nec rutrum metus efficitur. <span>Donec mattis nisi in leo aliquam, eu sodales elit laoreet. Mauris molestie mattis lacus sed facilisis. Maecenas a fermentum turpis, quis dictum mauris.</span></p>

<p class="v-ind-rt">Curabitur a diam ut ante cursus porttitor. Quisque mattis est eget facilisis ornare. <span>Cras aliquet auctor commodo.</span></p>

With this in the css:

p.v-ind-rt      {text-align:right}
p.v-ind-rt span {display:block; margin-right:3em}

Depending on screen size, font size, font style, etc. The lines wont always break at exactly the place you would like, but at least those particular spanned lines would indent.

Here's how it looks in Sigil for both wide screen and small screen:



If it has to look EXACTLY right, then you are stuck with using fixed format or an image.

Cheers!

[Turtle91]

You can even have parts of the same paragraph indented (multiple spans):

<p class="v-ind-rt"><span>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.</span> Suspendisse est ante, venenatis quis arcu nec, hendrerit tempus erat. <span>Mauris varius elit id rhoncus accumsan. Vestibulum imperdiet magna et elit gravida maximus.</span> In non sodales erat. Nam posuere diam sagittis turpis lacinia, nec rutrum metus efficitur. <span>Donec mattis nisi in leo aliquam, eu sodales elit laoreet. Mauris molestie mattis lacus sed facilisis. Maecenas a fermentum turpis, quis dictum mauris.</span> Curabitur a diam ut ante cursus porttitor. Quisque mattis est eget facilisis ornare. <span>Cras aliquet auctor commodo.</span></p>

To look like this:

[AlexBell]

Thanks to you both for the suggestions. I'll have to look at them for a while.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Thanks to you both for the suggestions. I'll have to look at them for a while.

Alex:

Is it that you actually go OUT to find these clients? What on earth are you doing, sitting on a street corner in locations like Soho with a sign saying "lonely eBook-maker, masochistic, seeking picky Poets as clients?"

Sheesh, and I thought MY life was hell.

Hitch

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Alex:

Is it that you actually go OUT to find these clients? What on earth are you doing, sitting on a street corner in locations like Soho with a sign saying "lonely eBook-maker, masochistic, seeking picky Poets as clients?"

Sheesh, and I thought MY life was hell.

Hitch

No, they chase me. I guess I'll have to learn to say no.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

No, they chase me. I guess I'll have to learn to say no.

Alex:

Y'know, for all I know, you charge hourly. If you do, hell, son, march on. But if like us, you charge a prix-fixe, then, RUN FOR THE STRONGHOLD, Braveheart!

Hitch

[Notjohn]

What if you just reminded your client that nobody reads poetry any more, and certainly not in e-books?

Check the sales figures for Juan Felipe Herrera. His best-selling poetry book sits at #624,878 Paid in Kindle Store. That means he sells a book every second or third month.

He's the poet laureate, for crying out loud!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

What if you just reminded your client that nobody reads poetry any more, and certainly not in e-books?

Check the sales figures for Juan Felipe Herrera. His best-selling poetry book sits at #624,878 Paid in Kindle Store. That means he sells a book every second or third month.

He's the poet laureate, for crying out loud!

nj:

If those of us in the bookie trade were to tell clients that we don't think will sell, that they won't sell, well....we wouldn't be bookmakers very long. ;-)

Ours is not to reason why; ours is but to code and die.

Hitch

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by Hitch

nj:

If those of us in the bookie trade were to tell clients that we don't think will sell, that they won't sell, well....we wouldn't be bookmakers very long. ;-)

Ours is not to reason why; ours is but to code and die.

Hitch

My experience exactly. I expressed my concerns to the publisher and the poet, and now they aren't returning emails.

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

My experience exactly. I expressed my concerns to the publisher and the poet, and now they aren't returning emails.

I think you're well out of it.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

My experience exactly. I expressed my concerns to the publisher and the poet, and now they aren't returning emails.

The important Q: did they PAY?

My attitude on books like this is, I usually end up putting 1-2 hours in, upfront, that's "sales" time. After that, you can't go much further, or you end up broke. And I only do it if I think that the publisher has the right mindset and BUDGET for the book.

(We got an 800 page, 4-col. Bible in today, that is purportedly translated into 26 languages. Can't wait to see how this goes! The last Bible we had in is the biggest single rip-off of Booknook's history--the guy took his book and never paid us, nearly $1K in dough. I admit, I'm leery of Bibles.)

Hitch

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by Hitch

The important Q: did they PAY?

Silly me was doing it as a favour. Never again.

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by Hitch

The important Q: did they PAY?

My attitude on books like this is, I usually end up putting 1-2 hours in, upfront, that's "sales" time. After that, you can't go much further, or you end up broke. And I only do it if I think that the publisher has the right mindset and BUDGET for the book.

(We got an 800 page, 4-col. Bible in today, that is purportedly translated into 26 languages. Can't wait to see how this goes! The last Bible we had in is the biggest single rip-off of Booknook's history--the guy took his book and never paid us, nearly $1K in dough. I admit, I'm leery of Bibles.)

Hitch

Hmm, aren't the ten commandments in the Bible: Thou shall not steal?