Comments on: Kindle Page Layout and Typography http://www.teleread.org/2009/05/05/kindle-page-layout-and-typography/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:23:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Robert Nagle http://www.teleread.org/2009/05/05/kindle-page-layout-and-typography/comment-page-1/#comment-1052275 Robert Nagle Wed, 06 May 2009 16:56:25 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/?p=21445#comment-1052275 See the <a href="http://webtypography.net/toc/" rel="nofollow">web version of Elements of Typographic Style </a>. Tries to implement Bringhurst's principles in CSS. Not sure which of these css rules apply to the css subset allowed by epub. For example, <a href="http://webtypography.net/Rhythm_and_Proportion/Etiquette_of_Hyphenation_and_Pagination/2.4.8/" rel="nofollow">pagination and page breaks </a> See the web version of Elements of Typographic Style . Tries to implement Bringhurst’s principles in CSS. Not sure which of these css rules apply to the css subset allowed by epub. For example, pagination and page breaks

]]> By: Hadrien Gardeur http://www.teleread.org/2009/05/05/kindle-page-layout-and-typography/comment-page-1/#comment-1051960 Hadrien Gardeur Wed, 06 May 2009 10:01:39 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/?p=21445#comment-1051960 Christo: Well for a start, programmers could read <i>The Elements of Typographic Style</i> from Robert Bringhurst. Christo: Well for a start, programmers could read The Elements of Typographic Style from Robert Bringhurst.

]]> By: Christo http://www.teleread.org/2009/05/05/kindle-page-layout-and-typography/comment-page-1/#comment-1051892 Christo Wed, 06 May 2009 07:05:00 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/?p=21445#comment-1051892 Laying out a page for a book is not solely a technical issue, but is usually addressed by techies, so few book readers have the smarts to do it on the fly, probably because not much attention has been paid to the finer details. On the surface it seems simple, but there are almost infinite layers of complexity if you dare to delve deeper into kerning, line spacing, proper hyphenation, ligatures etc. It isn't easy to distill several centuries of typographical best practice into rules that a programmer can apply. Hopefully it will get better over time! Laying out a page for a book is not solely a technical issue, but is usually addressed by techies, so few book readers have the smarts to do it on the fly, probably because not much attention has been paid to the finer details. On the surface it seems simple, but there are almost infinite layers of complexity if you dare to delve deeper into kerning, line spacing, proper hyphenation, ligatures etc. It isn’t easy to distill several centuries of typographical best practice into rules that a programmer can apply.

Hopefully it will get better over time!

]]> By: Hadrien Gardeur http://www.teleread.org/2009/05/05/kindle-page-layout-and-typography/comment-page-1/#comment-1051724 Hadrien Gardeur Wed, 06 May 2009 00:10:42 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/?p=21445#comment-1051724 Hyphenation is another very important issue from my point of view. I hate justified text without proper hyphenation. Hyphenation is another very important issue from my point of view. I hate justified text without proper hyphenation.

]]> By: Logan Kennelly http://www.teleread.org/2009/05/05/kindle-page-layout-and-typography/comment-page-1/#comment-1051702 Logan Kennelly Tue, 05 May 2009 23:38:29 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/?p=21445#comment-1051702 Based on the Sony Reader ePub rendering, I'd say Adobe Digital Editions handles Widows and Orphans properly (although I haven't attempted to override the default values with CSS). One item that may be worth noting: when not using a margin around the page, the gap generated at the bottom when avoiding Orphans and Widows looks pretty bad. And, as Dhamu indicates, the "bolding" of text wouldn't be an issue if we could easily install our own fonts to the device and/or override the document font. Arghh, people are going to think I'm an Adobe shill... Based on the Sony Reader ePub rendering, I’d say Adobe Digital Editions handles Widows and Orphans properly (although I haven’t attempted to override the default values with CSS). One item that may be worth noting: when not using a margin around the page, the gap generated at the bottom when avoiding Orphans and Widows looks pretty bad.

And, as Dhamu indicates, the “bolding” of text wouldn’t be an issue if we could easily install our own fonts to the device and/or override the document font.

Arghh, people are going to think I’m an Adobe shill…

]]> By: Dhamu http://www.teleread.org/2009/05/05/kindle-page-layout-and-typography/comment-page-1/#comment-1051665 Dhamu Tue, 05 May 2009 22:45:22 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/?p=21445#comment-1051665 There are semi-bold fonts that are heavier than normal fonts but can still show a difference between bold and not-bold. Widows and orphans shouldn't really be too hard to handle. The eleven-year-old tech in my eBookwise handles them fine with a CSS line. There are semi-bold fonts that are heavier than normal fonts but can still show a difference between bold and not-bold. Widows and orphans shouldn’t really be too hard to handle. The eleven-year-old tech in my eBookwise handles them fine with a CSS line.

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