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View Poll Results: Should a landscape image be pre-rotated?
No! Make it match the text and have the user reorient his device. 10 50.00%
Yes! Something other than the above. 10 50.00%
Voters: 20. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 03-09-2013, 08:42 PM   #1
tooolbox13
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Post eBook Graphics Orientation

(If this already has a thread or article or page or anything covering this topic, please feel free to direct me to it--I wasn't able to find anything in my searching.)

Hello! (I'm not a regular poster, but I do lurk and read things sometimes )

Okay, so I'm working on a physical-book-to-ebook-conversion project. Most things are going well.

One issue is that the physical book has a big landscape chart which is sideways in the book--no big deal, turn the book sideways and read it. However, when you put the chart image into the epub with the same orientation, certain readers will just rotate along with you (iPad, Kindle Fire, basically anything with an accelerometer).

To be clear, imagine that your device is in portrait and you're reading along. You hit a chart that is sideways, the next at 90 degrees to the rest of what you've been reading. You rotate your device 90 degrees to see it properly, and the content then rotates again so that it's still 90 degrees off.

So, here's my inital reaction, since I'm an iPad user and used to rotating the device based on the content: rotate the chart 90 degrees so that it's properly oriented to the rest of the text. Then, if you're reading along in portrait, you can rotate your device into landscape to get a good view of the thing. Then you can go back to portrait. To my knowledge this will work on a Kindle (though I don't own one, I have tried several models out). Even if the landscape chart is "squashed" in portrait, when you click on the chart it goes "fullscreen" and rotates to whatever orientation best matches the dimensions of the picture.

On the other hand, if the chart could somehow be "locked" so that it doesn't rotate at all, that might be preferable. (I think you could have two versions of the image and do some CSS hacks or something. I've seen something like this done on the Fire.) Here's potential problems with the above scenario that would make locking seem like agood idea:

1) When you first view the page (in portrait) the chart will be squashed.
2) The user will have to know to rotate his device/click on the image.

Anyway, in spite of the above 2 points, my gut (and several years using devices that change orientation) tells me that we should just "straighten" the chart and force the user to view it in landscape if he wants a good view. But I can't find anything to back this up--any articles on best design practices, ebook UX, stuff like that. I also don't read ebooks on all available devices, so I may not be factoring in some certain reader's behavior--and we want to make files that are maximally compatible with everything.

So I'd like to see if anyone can weigh in! I know there's a lot of knowledgeable people on this forum, with years of experience in both reading and creating ebooks, so I'd like to hear some opinions. Also, if anyone can point me to any articles or wikis or anything that specifically cover this topic, I'd appreciate it.

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Old 03-10-2013, 09:59 AM   #2
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Definitely have it the same orientation as the rest if the document. If the device supports zooming on an image great - if not then they can rotate the device. Users are savvy enough to figure it out.
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Old 03-10-2013, 10:46 PM   #3
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Not all devices support Zooming.

Why does EPUB3 not have a 'Rotation' property because of all the devices with accelerometers, or portrait viewing?

rotate:
right-bestfit, left-bestfit ;rotates (with respect to the text) in the direction, to fit the aspect as needed.

none,right,left,flip ; locks the image to the text (note that text should also have a rotate property for Tables charts and captions). flip is a 180 rotate (just in case)


Meanwhile, I pre-rotate maps and pictures for my fixed, Portrait display to get the biggest image on the (5") screen
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Old 03-18-2013, 07:33 PM   #4
tooolbox13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks View Post
Not all devices support Zooming.
Hm, I did wonder about that. To your knowledge, what devices don't support zooming?

Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks View Post
Why does EPUB3 not have a 'Rotation' property because of all the devices with accelerometers, or portrait viewing?

rotate:
right-bestfit, left-bestfit ;rotates (with respect to the text) in the direction, to fit the aspect as needed.

none,right,left,flip ; locks the image to the text (note that text should also have a rotate property for Tables charts and captions). flip is a 180 rotate (just in case)
I can't totally tell if you are giving examples of existing CSS or postulating how such CSS would work?

Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks View Post
Meanwhile, I pre-rotate maps and pictures for my fixed, Portrait display to get the biggest image on the (5") screen
What do you do when those same files have to go onto a device with an accelerometer?

Thanks!

Last edited by tooolbox13; 03-18-2013 at 07:37 PM.
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Old 03-19-2013, 05:40 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tooolbox13 View Post
Hm, I did wonder about that. To your knowledge, what devices don't support zooming?
My PEz (ADE) Only text Zooms. There is no scrolling.


I can't totally tell if you are giving examples of existing CSS or postulating how such CSS would work?
Postulating EPUB 3 should be keeping up with what is out there as devices or Apple will rule the world


What do you do when those same files have to go onto a device with an accelerometer?
Turn it OFF (But I prefer to read on E-Ink. The Tab is great for work related parts diagrams). I make (edit) these books for my own use only
Thanks!
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