Category Archives: e-books

E-reading application showdown, part 2: Typography

Cross-posted at Digital Book World. Part 1 is also on both this site and DBW. When I first decided to try reading an e-book on my iPod Touch, I assumed—since I’ve been designing and typesetting book interiors for more than a decade and have strong opinions about what makes text readable and appealing—that poor typography [...]

Also posted in Software, technology, typography | 3 Comments

E-reading application showdown, part 1: Annotations

About two weeks ago, in a fit of pique, I posted some gripes about my current e-reading application of choice, which is Kobo for the iPhone/iPod Touch. I was pressed for time, so I didn’t provide any context, such as why Kobo’s is my favorite e-reading app, which apps I’ve chosen it over, and whether [...]

Also posted in Accessibility, books, Design, Software, technology, Tools, typography | 2 Comments

Because I am mean and like to rain on parades…

All day I’ve been seeing tweets from @kobo and friends about their having the No. 1 e-reading app in the iTunes store—e.g., I’m so happy for them. No, really. For several months now, Kobo’s iOS app has been, mainly because of the stats and the activity tracker, my e-reading application of choice. That said, it’s [...]

Also posted in advice, Rants, Software, technology, Tools | 1 Comment

What happens when an e-book gets corrected?

So, here’s the partial answer to a question I’ve been wondering about: Subject: Kindle Title [title] (ASIN:[ASIN]) has an available update Greetings from Amazon.com. We’re writing about your past Kindle purchase of [title] by [author]. The version you received contained some errors that have been corrected. An updated version of [title] (ASIN:[ASIN]) is now available. [...]

Also posted in books, business, Editing, Software, technology, Tools | 7 Comments

The India, Ink. comedy show

[ Javascript required to view QuickTime movie, please turn it on and refresh this page ] I made myself watch the archived video of the thesis presentation I gave yesterday afternoon, and it’s not as embarrassing as I’d expected, so I’m posting it for your amusement. There’s a full transcript after the jump, including the [...]

Also posted in books, education, technology, Video | 12 Comments

Three More Days

This Thursday at 12:40 p.m., I have to publicly present some sort of something about my vague and fugitive master’s thesis. The talk—about ten minutes’ worth—will be streamed online so you, my friends, can all point and laugh, and the video will be archived somewhere (hopefully somewhere dark and offline) after the event. Oy vey. [...]

Also posted in education, Reading, Software, technology, typography | Leave a comment

The option that wasn’t

One of the things I like—a unique feature, as far as I’ve seen—about Kobo’s e-reader software for iPhone OS is that it gives you a choice between vertical scrolling and traditional pagination. Because, really, what do pages mean on a digital reader where the text can reflow according to user preferences? Great. So, I selected [...]

Also posted in Accessibility, books, Design, Software, Tools | 9 Comments

Hyphenation in Stanza

Okay! I’ve got basically one month left in which to do my thesis project, so I’m thinking I should try to blog about a little something every day, to force myself to process some of this stuff. Perhaps call it BroTheBloPoMo—Brooklyn Thesis Blog Post Month.

Also posted in books, Design, Software, technology, Typesetting, typography | 3 Comments

E-book Abomination Index

I’ve been reading a lot of e-books in the past ten days or so, and I have seen a lot of messy formatting. But the latest one takes the cake: a McGraw-Hill Professional book in which the first letter of every paragraph appears on a line by itself. Thus: T he quick brown fox jumps [...]

Also posted in books, production, Rants, technology, typography | 13 Comments

Room for improvement. No—wait—airplane hangar for improvement.

Below are slides from a presentation Liza Daly gave at the Digital Book World conference last week. There are elaborative notes on the DBW site. Getting Past Good Enough Ebooks: Liza Daly

Also posted in advice, books, production, technology | 2 Comments