Line Break Madness on Nook

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Wolfie:

What we did worked then. There wasn't anything "wrong" with it. Today, it would be sloppy bookmaking, and it would not work with all the myriad devices flying around, and certainly not with the hi-rez screens. {shrug}. Things change, Wolfie. You gotta stop being so black-and-white about everything. Time alters perceptions, memories, and procedures. When you look at a book and think that the bookmaker made it 'wrongly,' or used a left-hand-only blockquote, you have to look at when the book was made, to put the building into context.

Hitch

But a left only margin was wrong then and it's still wrong now. The reason being is because the eBooks I am talking about are ePub and ePub never had a problem with a right margin. Also given that back before KF8, when the ePub was converted to Mobi for the Kindle, the right margin was ignored anyway, so it would not have been a problem had it been done properly for ePub. The other option is to make two CSS, one for the ePub to be read and one for the ePub to be converted.

Anyway, I do get it that sometimes things have to be done a certain way and that way becomes not the optimal way after software and hardware moves on.

Given that Sony was able to fit a version of ADE onto a Sony PRS-500, I would think that Amazon could add KF8 to the older Kindles and then Mobi could fade away.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But a left only margin was wrong then and it's still wrong now. The reason being is because the eBooks I am talking about are ePub and ePub never had a problem with a right margin. Also given that back before KF8, when the ePub was converted to Mobi for the Kindle, the right margin was ignored anyway, so it would not have been a problem had it been done properly for ePub. The other option is to make two CSS, one for the ePub to be read and one for the ePub to be converted.

Wolf: we have clients. We don't get to do what you do, which is make ebooks to suit yourself and your own TASTES. A left-only-margin isn't "wrong," as in, "slavery is WRONG," or "wife-beating is WRONG." It's just not perfect typography. Honestly, in ebooks, what IS perfect typography? We can all get as close as we wish, but 98% of our clients NEVER sell their ePUBs on any platform, whatsoever. When I was making books in 2009, 0% were selling ePUBs; they were ALL for MOBI. I was forcing them to take ePUBs, for the day when they would decide to sell on other platforms. Still am, still do.

And frankly, given how small most e-reader screens are, I'm not sure I agree with you. Sure, pretty blockquotes "should" have indents on both sides. But the average e-reading screen is 3.5" wide. How many characters do you lose for symmetry? I think the left-indent achieves the same effect, in that it clearly indicates to the reader that the content is removed from the normal narrative flow, and you don't lose the usable space. JMHO. I, too, like symmetry; I like good typography; I have Bringhurst's book on my desk. But...sometimes, it's good to be practicable, above and beyond merely pretty.

Anyway, I do get it that sometimes things have to be done a certain way and that way becomes not the optimal way after software and hardware moves on.

Given that Sony was able to fit a version of ADE onto a Sony PRS-500, I would think that Amazon could add KF8 to the older Kindles and then Mobi could fade away.

I doubt it. I don't think that the hardware will support it. I'm 99% sure that if they could, they would. They're not Apple, trying to force everyone to buy the latest and greatest device, upgrade OS's, etc. (Ask me how many of my apps on my first-gen iPad can still run. Ummmmm....almost none?).

[JSWolf]

I do sometimes read on my iPhone and 2em for the margins in a blockquote are a bit large. But I find 1.5em is not that bad on an iPhone. I use Marvin and I can get the main margins very close to the edges of the screen. So when a blockquote is used, not so much space is wasted as it is on iBooks, Bluefire, and Kindle. Even when I read on the iPhone, I want blockquotes (simulated or real) to look like they should with margins on both sides of the screen. It just looks off to me when only the left side has a margin. My taste is to use the features that exist in ePub like a right margin in blockquotes. Doing it only on the left makes me feel like I'm using Mobipocket (gah!).


I do have an original iPad and most of the apps I want to run do run. Some don't run well. The ones that have to run the Facebook app to connect to Facebook don't always run well. Some require a newer iOS and I can only run an old version. There are some I cannot run at all because they require I newer iOS.