How do you like your eBooks to look?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by carld

After years of reading online I've gotten used to not having indents. I now find them a little off-putting. I also prefer one line-space between paragraphs, two to mark scene changes, and asterisks if there's any ambiguity.

But with an eBook, you cannot have asterisks for ambiguity as youdon't know where the section break will land on the screen. So if you want asterisks, it's bets to have them in every section break or just space in every section break. having them where they are in a pBook to make the end or beginning of a page is sloppy slipshod unprofessional work.

[hgwlackey]

As long as there's some sort of non-intrusive visual indication of paragraph breaks, I'm good. In fact, I probably won't even notice whether it's first-line indents or space between grafs or both--I'll only notice if there's nothing at all (or way too much). When I open a new ebook, the only two things I look at are is the font size my usual, and do I have left and right margins? (I don't like the text going right up to the edges of the screen.) Calibre usually takes care of that for me, but sometimes I forget to run a book through its converter.

[carld]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But with an eBook, you cannot have asterisks for ambiguity as youdon't know where the section break will land on the screen.

Well yes, you're right of course. I was thinking in terms of online reading. I should have restricted my comment to ebooks.

[ldolse]

.3em space for me (don't like pixels because they're too variable based on screen resolution).
3% text indent to scale based on the device.
No indents on first chapter lines, right after scene breaks, and after blocks of verse.

[ldolse]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But with an eBook, you cannot have asterisks for ambiguity as youdon't know where the section break will land on the screen. So if you want asterisks, it's bets to have them in every section break or just space in every section break. having them where they are in a pBook to make the end or beginning of a page is sloppy slipshod unprofessional work.

Use page-break-before:avoid for either white-spaced scene breaks (defined as a blank paragraph with an nbsp) or asterisks/dingbats. This guarantees that the wherever they fall there will always be at least two lines of text above them, at least on my testing with ADE.

I realize that defining an empty paragraph with an nbsp is sometimes considered bad html coding vs using css margins alone, but I think there is too much of a risk that format shifting software will discard those margins, while blank paragraphs will typically be retained, and can have their own style applied.

[Maggie Leung]

I'm not picky. As long as paragraphs, chapters or other breaks are indicated one way or another, I'm good.

I enjoy reading e-books, as well as print books. E-books are more portable, but content is what really counts with me.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

For scene change: I would like a short video clip of a movie director's clapper board slamming down and someone yelling "aaaaaand.... SCENE!"

Because what we all want from our readers is more multimedia, right?

eP

[astra]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

For me a line space between paragraphs indicate a change of scene. So, please no blank lines for me between paragraphs.

[astra]

I like *** as an indication of scene change.
Nonetheless, I absolute HATE spacing between paragraphs besides scene change, because I am used to the fact that spacing between paragraphs indicates scene change and it is very frustrating.

[jlbfoot]

If we are getting picky.... I prefer ~ ~ ~, instead of * * *, for a scene change. It centers better vertically between scene changes. It is just SO much more classy! The * * * falls much too close to the bottom of the prior paragraph. Okay, time to go take my pill!

[GeoffC]

I prefer an indent, not too worried about its size.

However, I get annoyed with format set-ups where it's a scene change and not obviously indicated.

[TenaciousBadger]

i chose "other" and here's my why: i'm really really really choosy about how my ebooks look. i prefer:
- indentation
- space between paragraphs aaaaand..
- justified.
right-hand jaggedness simply distracts my eye.
if they don't meet the three requirements (and most don't), i make sure they're brought to order

and space/asterisk/line/whateva for the scene change, as long as it's one of them and only one. not all at once, as i found out yesterday when i bought a book from amazon.
and what do you know, a couple of days before i had bought my first topaz. oy, i tell you! oy!

[sakura-panda]

I have no idea!

I'm going to guess a slight indent at the start of a paragraph OR with little spaces between paragraphs (more than what is normally between the lines but less than the height of a line with text) and more significant spacing between sections.

I also like new sections to start off with a big space before it and three or four words in all capitals -- or some other adaptation of the letters. I do not like the stars or bars or any other divider -- I'd rather the distinction appear in the text itself.

[frquixote]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I prefer a visual indication, such as three centred asterisks, for a scene change.

[Angst]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

When reading on my Kindle, I like the typography to look more like a paper book. Thus:

No-indent on the first paragraph of a scene/section. Drop caps for the first letter in a chapter and/or small-caps for the first line of a new scene optional but appreciated.

Succeeding paragraphs indented, with either no obviously noticeable space between them (preferred) or no-indent with obviously full-line height between them (I usually edit this to switch it to the first option if I can). A minor spacer which separates paragraphs without looking like it does is okay, but if it's something like a blatant quarter-to-half line, it makes the text look wonky and subtly grates on my nerves.

Blank space for scene breaks is fine, though for longer works I prefer a more obviously visual separator like asterisks or horizontal rule or a little decorative image, especially for those books which have no chapters, but do have separate scenes and sections containing said scenes.

Chapters start on new pages. Don't have huge side-margins or too-deep text-indent (about the space of 4-6 letters should be it).

For stuff I read on my Mac, paragraphs with no-indent and spaces between seem to work better, if only because I'm used to reading text that way on a computer screen. Though my Kindle preferences apply when I read e-books in the smaller window space of a dedicated reader app like Lucidor or NOOKStudy, possibly because I associate them with book-reading to begin with.

Pet peeves:

Books which have both no space between paragraphs and no-indent, of which several have been recently free via Amazon. Also, books with more than one line-space between paragraphs and very ambiguous scene breaks (unless the story was actually meant to be told continuously).

I assume these are formatting errors caused by incompetence during the conversion process or KindleGen's notorious bugginess with handling CSS.

I know this isn't an ebook, but without spaces between paragraphs, your post reads as:

When reading on my Kindle, I like the typography to look more like a paper book. Thus:
No-indent on the first paragraph of a scene/section. Drop caps for the first letter in a chapter and/or small-caps for the first line of a new scene optional but appreciated.
Succeeding paragraphs indented, with either no obviously noticeable space between them (preferred) or no-indent with obviously full-line height between them (I usually edit this to switch it to the first option if I can). A minor spacer which separates paragraphs without looking like it does is okay, but if it's something like a blatant quarter-to-half line, it makes the text look wonky and subtly grates on my nerves.
Blank space for scene breaks is fine, though for longer works I prefer a more obviously visual separator like asterisks or horizontal rule or a little decorative image, especially for those books which have no chapters, but do have separate scenes and sections containing said scenes.
Chapters start on new pages. Don't have huge side-margins or too-deep text-indent (about the space of 4-6 letters should be it).
For stuff I read on my Mac, paragraphs with no-indent and spaces between seem to work better, if only because I'm used to reading text that way on a computer screen. Though my Kindle preferences apply when I read e-books in the smaller window space of a dedicated reader app like Lucidor or NOOKStudy, possibly because I associate them with book-reading to begin with.
Pet peeves:
Books which have both no space between paragraphs and no-indent, of which several have been recently free via Amazon. Also, books with more than one line-space between paragraphs and very ambiguous scene breaks (unless the story was actually meant to be told continuously).
I assume these are formatting errors caused by incompetence during the conversion process or KindleGen's notorious bugginess with handling CSS.