How can I make my books look all the same ?

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Drop caps and decorative caps reduce readability, that's fact.

I find it hard to believe that 30-40 drop caps in a 400 page-turn eBook do anything significant to readability. Spamming them on every paragraph...yeah, that would cause problems.

But, compared to things like font choices, font size, line spacing, contrast, etc., any reduction caused by drop caps is insignificant.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

I find it hard to believe that 30-40 drop caps in a 400 page-turn eBook do anything significant to readability. Spamming them on every paragraph...yeah, that would cause problems.

But, compared to things like font choices, font size, line spacing, contrast, etc., any reduction caused by drop caps is insignificant.

But they all add up. And oddly, quite a few of the books where dropcaps are used also tend to have fonts such as Times New Roman, Droid, etc. forced as body fonts, lines height such as 1.4 for body text, spacing between paragraphs and indents both being used, etc. All too often, I've seen dropcaps not only used on the first paragraph in a chapter but also after any scenebreaks. I won't get into the dropcaps using cursive fonts other than to say blechhh!

In ebook design, dropcaps are a venial sin but they are a gateway sin.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

I find it hard to believe that 30-40 drop caps in a 400 page-turn eBook do anything significant to readability. Spamming them on every paragraph...yeah, that would cause problems.

But, compared to things like font choices, font size, line spacing, contrast, etc., any reduction caused by drop caps is insignificant.

It varies with person. Some people aren't affected. The more lines it spans and more decorative it is, the worse it is.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

But they all add up.

...

In ebook design, dropcaps are a venial sin but they are a gateway sin.

Apparently

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to DNSB again.

Though I'd have to look up venial sin. I suspect they are on paper too.