Best way to do three-line space/pause, for accessibility?

[bookman156]

And not all devices have CSS.

Really? I may as well supply plain text files!

[bookman156]

I see what you mean about using centered asterisks, except again it is not what I intend and I am altering what is intended because no real solution is available. I don't like doing that. A space is what I intend, it's achievable with CSS, but it doesn't currently translate for blind people. If I can't achieve what I intend, that's usually a sign to not do an ebook, since a plain text file in Markdown is what I'm forced to provide.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by bookman156

Really? I may as well supply plain text files!

There are:

• readers that completely override publisher CSS
  
  • Like Moon+ Reader.
• CSS getting separated from the content
  
  • For example, when copying/pasting a chapter onto a website. You may not be in full control of the CSS on the larger site.
    

I highly recommend watching the fantastic talk from ebookcraft 2019: "Building Ebooks that Last", which was an editor from Houghton Mifflin describing the realities of long-term ebook production.

And read my discussion of that in:

• 2020: "Colored Text, EPUB, Android Dark Mode"

This is why you use proper HTML+visual markup. Not relying on pure CSS solutions.

[bookman156]

readers that completely override publisher CSS

Like Moon+ Reader.

I've never even heard of that. But should I be bothered really? There are windows that are bricked over, I don't try to look through them.

[bookman156]

CSS getting separated from the content

For example, when copying/pasting a chapter onto a website. You may not be in full control of the CSS on the larger site.

I don't have to worry about that, that's just user error. I can at least take care. The only CSS I'm interested in is that I have written to do what I want.

[bookman156]

I mean people are forever copying stuff of mine and pasting onto the web without bothering to supply my italics. That's beyond my control.

[bookman156]

I highly recommend watching the fantastic talk from ebookcraft 2019: "Building Ebooks that Last", which was an editor from Houghton Mifflin describing the realities of long-term ebook production.

Yeah, I've watched that, pretty good. Certainly nails drop caps. Why would anyone give themselves that problem, doesn't even work properly on the web. Get it great in Firefox on Linux and then you find they are misaligned in Firefox on Windows. If they can't even work for the same browser on different platforms, what chance in ereaders?

[bookman156]

I was surprised that my Kindle Paperwhite loads a humble .rtf file and preserves the limited styling of rich text. Made me wonder what an EPUB was actually offering beyond this, though I suppose other ereaders wouldn't load .rtf.

[Tex2002ans]

I highly recommend taking your time and reading through those previous topics.

They cover and discuss the pros/cons of scenebreaks (and others) in-depth.

I'd also recommend checking out that ebookcraft talk, where she describes the reality across thousands of books + dozens of storefronts + running across every kind of obscure reader/use-case out there.

Hint: A ton of the work is redoing old/crappy/poorly-done ebooks, and "bringing them up to current standards". (That's a huge fraction of the work I do too!)

Learn from the mistakes, and try not to repeat them.

Do your best to follow the standards, while still keeping in mind the actual readers. (Like use the actual Unicode characters, not ant-sized images of obscure characters!!!)

- - -

PS. On MobileRead, there's a multi-quote button. It's right next to the QUOTE button.

You're able to gather+respond to multiple posts in a single post.

It would help keep from flooding the threads with multiple tiny responses minutes after each other.

[bookman156]

I highly recommend taking your time and reading through those previous topics.

I certainly will, thank you.

It would help keep from flooding the threads with multiple tiny responses minutes after each other.

Less of a flood, more of a dribble for the active mind. We all have our forum styles, that's the way I see that.

[phillipgessert]

Originally Posted by bookman156

I was surprised that my Kindle Paperwhite loads a humble .rtf file and preserves the limited styling of rich text. Made me wonder what an EPUB was actually offering beyond this, though I suppose other ereaders wouldn't load .rtf.

Given that you’re concerned about accessibility, quite a lot. RTF files are completely unsemantic and all styling is purely visual. Absolutely nothing is conveyed about the structure of the document.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by phillipgessert

Given that you’re concerned about accessibility, quite a lot. RTF files are completely unsemantic and all styling is purely visual. Absolutely nothing is conveyed about the structure of the document.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by bookman156

I don't like removing the rule that way either, but you would see the 3-line space of its margins, that would be displayed as hoped for.

After thinking about it, what you can do is use an image instead of the <hr/> line. That way you can use alt="section break" in the <img code and the accessibility reader should pick up the alt and read it.

[bookman156]

After thinking about it, what you can do is use an image instead of the <hr/> line. That way you can use alt="section break" in the <img code and the accessibility reader should pic up the alt and read it.

That's quite an interesting idea, could be like an invisible email tracking pixel, though that seems a bit of a hack. If using a visible image as a fleuron that could be put on an hr tag anyway, but then may as well use an invisible hr of zero width, as originally suggested by the accessibility expert.

[bookman156]

Given that you’re concerned about accessibility, quite a lot. RTF files are completely unsemantic and all styling is purely visual. Absolutely nothing is conveyed about the structure of the document.

Yes, you're right, I was momentarily thinking like a sighted person.