01-22-2013, 09:32 AM | #16 |
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I'm still at the testing stage: I'll try both options, on Kindle and iPad (which are the only formats we'll be distributing on). Personally I prefer range left setting on my Kindle. Justified text also looks especially bad in iBooks, regardless of type size, so we're possibly leaning to range left setting.
I'll update you! |
01-22-2013, 09:39 AM | #17 | |
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When I'm reading, I'll usually notice ridiculous gaps before a ragged-right edge. But mostly, I really don't care. If the book is engaging, the justification tends to "go away." Obviously people are more accustomed to full justification in books. But they've frankly never been given a choice in the matter until very recently. So I suspect what they prefer is yet to be determined. Now that choices are available, time will tell. Last edited by DiapDealer; 01-22-2013 at 09:46 AM. |
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01-22-2013, 10:13 AM | #18 | |
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Blast you JSWolf (Jon?)!! I had things to do this morning but you made me go research the history of typesetting!! lol
Jon IS correct in that fully justified text was considered to be "professional" and left justified to be "amateurish". Amusingly however, that opinion was promulgated by none other than the typesetters guild - you know the guys that laboriously hand set the type to go on the printing presses. They would take pride in the fact that it took them several hours to properly space the words on a page to achieve the full justified effect. It was also pretty comical that the articles that were written extolling the virtues of full justification were all....wait for it.....left justified!! lol I don't think there is that sense of pride anymore since the same effect can be had with the click of a button. So to continue to say that left justified is amateurish is like saying "only peasants ride in anything less than 4 horses and 2 coachmen." Aside from the obvious - that what you like to see is purely personal preference - there have been some arguments that the erratic spacing employed by full justification might unwantingly emphasize certain words over others and cause eye strain (no, I'm not kidding - full quote below). I will concede that full justification CAN look better in a narrow multi-column document like a newspaper...but on most of today's devices/apps there just isn't the real estate available to make multi-column an acceptable solution (yes Faterson, except of course with Marvin on an iPad). For a single column full justification just doesn't make sense. Here's a part of one of the articles I read - and the one I paraphrased above. It can be found here. (Emphasis added) Quote:
Last edited by Turtle91; 01-22-2013 at 10:16 AM. |
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01-22-2013, 10:36 AM | #19 |
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Another reason ragged was considered second rate, is good justification (in solid type) takes time (and SKILL).
The sloppy justification we commonly see, just inserts space between words. Better justification will also insert thin (lead) spaces between letters to help avoid monster gaps between words, that took time and skill on the part of the type setter. Letterspacing is the closest control we have, and not all devices support it |
01-22-2013, 10:47 AM | #20 | |
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I think letterspacing for an ePub on a computer would be very impractical...wouldn't you have to set that for each and every line to properly fill that line....and then wouldn't it change on different devices with different widths and/or portrait vs. landscape mode?? I'm asking because I haven't played with letterspacing much. |
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01-22-2013, 01:24 PM | #21 |
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Good typesetting systems (like TeX) have some clever algorithms to find the best set of linebreaks possible, this takes into account the whole paragraph, and not just on a line-by-line basis, considers hyphenation and allows for character protrusion (optical margins) and font stretching (to an unnoticeable extent, but making a different in the visual spacing). There's no reason why an ePub reader could not use some slightly more advanced algorithm that the "typewriter" engine we usually see...
Anyway, a book should not specify any alignment, or font, or line-spacing, or margins... except where needed for particular designs. Those features should be left to the reading software to apply. Relying in a reader's ability for overriding is a bad idea. If I have a centered paragraph in a normal book, overriding would set this paragraph as justified, or left-aligned, or whatever. |
01-22-2013, 01:44 PM | #22 | |
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I've taken all the left and/or justify out of an ePub and left just the center. ADE 1.7.2 defaults to left justify. ADE 2.0 defaults to left justify. There is no way to specify the justification other then what is specified in the CSS. But because ADE 2.0 support hyphenation, I'd want justified. But I can see where some would want left justified in ADE 1.7.2. We cannot please everyone. So it has to be one or the other and overall, full justified can look better. |
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01-22-2013, 02:34 PM | #23 |
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I throw in my vote for justified text. Since Gutenberg, the vast majority--overwhelming majority--of books have been justified, and I suspect the majority of readers expect to see just that. It's possible to format an e-book to minimize the ugly-gap problem, which anyhow is vanishing as e-readers become more sophisticated. I see few professionally formatted books on my Kindle or Fire that suffer from this problem.
And a book is not a web page. Not yet, anyhow. @OP: You can see my style sheet at http://notjohnkdp.blogspot.com/ If the style sheet exists in the same folder as the underlying html file, Sigil will incorporate it into the epub. Good luck! |
01-23-2013, 03:57 AM | #24 | |
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Even if it is as you say, there are things you don't want overriden. For instance, poetry fragments in a book are better left left-aligned (no pun intended). Even if you want your main text justified (which I want), the poetry must not be overriden. |
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01-23-2013, 07:55 AM | #25 |
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My 2 cents --
If there is good hyphenation then fully justified looks ok If there is not good hyphenation, than full justification always seems to create rivers of white in the text that IMHO are distracting Since most ebook tools/standards do not seem to have good hyphenation (based on my VERY little experience) left justification seems to be easier to read Paul |
01-23-2013, 12:47 PM | #26 | |
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01-23-2013, 01:48 PM | #27 |
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While I don't recommend it
Every Paragraph can have it's own style (marhins; Indents; Justification...) D'oh! that is what a stylesheet is for. My basic preference is just a few styles, with special cases added as needed (A Lean- Mean Stylesheet) Body sets the overall style .chapno < the chapter head: with top and bottom margins .firstpara < usually no indent .normalpara < indented |
01-23-2013, 03:35 PM | #28 | |
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I would use <p>text.</p> and have the p style set to what I want including the indent. Then for a nonindent style... Code:
body { widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; text-align: justify } p { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent: 1.2em } .nonindent { text-indent: 0 } .spacebreak { margin-top: 2em; text-indent: 0 } |
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01-24-2013, 10:15 AM | #29 | |
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* I have actually produced a paper book with left justification. It was a book about reading disabilities, which was also intended for people with those very problems. We consulted the guy in charge of accessibility at the University of Oslo, among other things he was adamant that the text should be left justified. |
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01-24-2013, 10:21 AM | #30 |
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>* I have actually produced a paper book with left justification. It was a book about reading disabilities, which was also intended for people with those very problems. We consulted the guy in charge of accessibility at the University of Oslo, among other things he was adamant that the text should be left justified.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Yeah. And his reasons for that preference were just as spurious as the others we have heard in this discussion! The point, in reference to eBook construction, is that although you can code instructions to L-justify, some reading devices will ignore them, some users will be able to over-ride them. So don't fall TOO deeply in love with your preference :-) The same goes for margins, and paragraph spacing. |
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