displaying 2 pages on kindle like a REAL book

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

You can do this on an iPad in iBooks, but not in a Mobipocket-format book.

I don't like it, because I can only read one page at a time, anyway, and I want to use the screen real estate to display more of one page.

MobiReader on the PC will do it, but personally I don't like it. An electronic reader isn't a paper book; I honestly see no particular reason to try to make it look like one.

Originally Posted by Zanshin

I did a test with the attached mock image (smallest font size on my DX). It's certainly doable on the DX, the text is readable (on the 6", it would indeed be too small), but I don't see the reason for reading like this.

Just because it does not work for you does not mean it would not work for others. The world does not revolve around you. It would be a good thing for myself. As others have mentioned, it works well with the Sony PRS-900. I had a 900 and it was more comfortable to hold the reader in landscape. With Sonys, putting the reader in landscape increases the font to cover roughly the same amount of text per line as in portrait. The two-column mode allowed a more natural reading experience. Putting a Kindle in landscape does not adjust the font size. As you can see from the screenshot attached, on my DXG landscape in small text is readable but it causes you to adjust your neck to read the entire line. Two-columns would alleviate a lot of unnatural neck movement and make reading a lot better in landscape.

Originally Posted by HarryT

An electronic reader isn't a paper book; I honestly see no particular reason to try to make it look like one.

In science this is kinematics being improved. There is a reason and it is physical comfort. Would you read a large hardback book if it were printed entirely in landscape?

...

[kjk]

iBooks has a two page display-but while it looks pretty cool, I don't use it.

I can definitely see it being more useful for illustrated childrens books, for example-the included Winnie the Pooh book looks gorgeous in two page view.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jswinden

In science this is kinematics being improved. There is a reason and it is physical comfort. Would you read a large hardback book if it were printed entirely in landscape?

...

No, I'd read it in portrait orientation. Which is exactly what I do on my iPad.

To each their own, and to lack the imagination to see that is rather sad. Thankfully some are imaginative and innovative or we would still be in the dark ages...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jswinden

To each their own, and to lack the imagination to see that is rather sad. Thankfully some are imaginative and innovative or we would still be in the dark ages...

Sorry, Jack, I honestly don't know what you mean by that. Have you seen the "iBooks" application running on an iPad? It displays one page in portrait orientation, and two side-by-side pages in landscape orientation. I just don't "get" the appeal of the side-by-side-landscape view, though; it looks like a paper book, yes, but it's actually less effective to read from. There's a lot more white space on the page (because of the gap between the two pages) so you actually end up having to do more page turns. It's not a question of "lack of imagination", but of having tried this way of reading and found that I don't like it.

[susan_cassidy]

Regarding columns, our newspaper just changed format, and now some of the columns are only about 4 words wide. Much harder to read than the former column width. At this rate, I'll have to subscribe to the e-version that they are just coming out with, since it displays the articles more like in a magazine or on the web.

The DX screen is almost 8" high, or long if in landscape. If you use a smaller font size then 7.9" is an awfully long line of text to read without physically moving your head. Some people actually prefer holding their DX in landscape mode. So with a little imagination you should be able to see why two columns of text would be good for some people. I'm not talking about the iPad's cheesey looking similated book pages. I'm talking about two columns, each about the width of the K2 and K3 screen in portrait mode. It looked and worked great on the Sony 900 so I know it would look good on the DX. Not everyone would like it, but some would. Now on the K2/K3 it probably would not be very good because the screen is too small.

[volwrath]

Personally I would love for the ipad Kindle app to have the two column mode. Sometimes on the ipad I like to prop it up and read landscape. Very tough to do with the amazon app, but iBook is great (except for the wasted space). Since I am going Kindle format only in the future, why not add it as an option amazon?

[SamuraiXSendai]

The two pages are just an artifact of the new technology. When scrolls became books, that is. Go back to the original one page and be happy (cave wall paintings)

[vugtitan]

Originally Posted by trekchick

When I read e-books on my computer screen, I almost always use 2-page view (it just feels natural to display them that way), but I didn't like the 2-column mode on the Sony 900. I think it's the vertical:horizontal ratio of the columns. They're not the rectangular shape that my brain expects; I felt like I was reading a folded paper, and I had the desperate, uncontrollable urge to somehow unfold it. Maybe that's just part of my weirdly-wired dyslexic brain, but it was a distracting and uncomfortable way for me to read.

That said, I'm all for anything that allows users to customize their reading experience to best suit them. You should contact kindle-feedback@amazon.com (and/or kindledx-feedback@amazon.com) with a suggestion to add a two-colum display option - it could be a new justification selection.

Hello,

I'm sorry to inform you that we don't have the feature to display two pages like an ordinary spread out book on the Kindle latest generation.

I've taken your comments as feedback and have sent to the Kindle team for consideration. We're regularly working on improvements to your Kindle experience. we're glad you took time to write to us.

Customer feedback like yours helps us continue to improve the service we provide.

I hope this helps. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Did I solve your problem?

If yes, please click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=ryhegtax3368892220

If no, please click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=ryhegtax3368892220

Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail.

To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help section of our web site.

Best regards,

Madhu Y
Amazon.com
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---- Original message: ----

To the kindle design team.


I am interested in the kindle 3.

Will it be possible to display 2 pages like in an ordinary spread out book
on the kindle 3?

Has anyone every done this on the previous kindles?

Is there any software which could enable this?

Since small fonts are available it should be quite easy to do this via
software.

Especially in landscape mode it could behave like a real book.

Your software designers could easily write this simple software as the
requirements seem small.

It would make the kindle even more popular and natural to use if you could
display both pages of a book either in portrait or landscape mode. Remember
the small size of fonts in paperbacks and in cell phones.

Regards,

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

If more people asked for the feature as above they might write it in the sogtware.

Reading 2 pages is more natural and seeing todays screen shots in landscape mode of people who got their kindle 3 early ,2 pages would in fact be just like reading a paperback so I urge everyone to petition for this feature as I have above.

[jupstin]

Originally Posted by SamuraiXSendai

The two pages are just an artifact of the new technology. When scrolls became books, that is. Go back to the original one page and be happy (cave wall paintings)

I've lately been thinking of my eBooks as scrolls and the "next page" and "previous page" buttons as "up" and "down" arrows.

Originally Posted by jupstin

I've lately been thinking of my eBooks as scrolls and the "next page" and "previous page" buttons as "up" and "down" arrows.

Actually that is exactly the idea behind HTML (web pages) and ebooks. HTML was designed to display text in a scrollable manner wherein the user could adjust the text size and font family. Ditto (almost) on ebooks. We might not always have font family control, though we should, but ebooks are basicaly HTML that is formatted for reader software (a specialized browser purposed especially for viewing ebooks) and should reflow as the text size and/or font family is changed by the user. Your analogy of ebooks as scrolls (but with added hyperlinks) is right on. Ebooks are in fact modern, hypertext versions of scrolls.

PDFs don't fit this analogy, but then PDFs were never intended for viewing in the same manner as hypertext (HTML) and thus they do not lend themselves well to readers designed to display hypertext.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by SamuraiXSendai

The two pages are just an artifact of the new technology. When scrolls became books, that is. Go back to the original one page and be happy (cave wall paintings)

Scrolls have pages just as books do. eg:



In fact a scroll is made by stitching together lots of separate pages into a roll.

[Zanshin]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Just because it does not work for you does not mean it would not work for others. The world does not revolve around you.

Where did I say that it shouldn't work for others?
I said I didn't see it and asked somebody to explain why they liked it.
"If you don't know, ask", right? (or be stupid forever)

What I don't like is people like you calling others jerks just because they don't understand something and ask a question (and particularly implying that because you've been here longer, you're somehow better). If everybody was like you, the world sure wouldn't go anywhere.

Just because something makes sense to you doesn't mean that it does to everybody. The world does not revolve around you.
So get off your high horse and try to actually understand what people write. Thanks.


That being said, thanks to the people who actually answered.