Comments on: 4 Questions I Ask Myself About E-Books http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/02/4-questions-i-ask-myself-about-e-books/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=4-questions-i-ask-myself-about-e-books Practical Advice to Help Self-Publishers Build Better Books Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:15:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: 4 Questions About E-Books, Printed Books, and the Future of Book … | ReadersOwn.Com http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/02/4-questions-i-ask-myself-about-e-books/#comment-1086 4 Questions About E-Books, Printed Books, and the Future of Book … | ReadersOwn.Com Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:33:51 +0000 http://www.thebookdesigner.com/?p=4248#comment-1086 [...] The rest is here: 4 Questions About E-Books, Printed Books, and the Future of Book … [...] [...] The rest is here: 4 Questions About E-Books, Printed Books, and the Future of Book … [...]

]]> By: Joel http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/02/4-questions-i-ask-myself-about-e-books/#comment-946 Joel Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:22:10 +0000 http://www.thebookdesigner.com/?p=4248#comment-946 Graham, thanks for your thoughtful comment. There's no doubt that the e-Book is in its infancy, and like other new forms, will attempt to imitate or replicate the experience of book reading, until it truly becomes whatever it will become on its own, without reference to earlier models. I sense your optimism in your hope that the demand from readers will be crucial in the development of better typographic experiences from e-Books; I hope you're right! Graham, thanks for your thoughtful comment. There’s no doubt that the e-Book is in its infancy, and like other new forms, will attempt to imitate or replicate the experience of book reading, until it truly becomes whatever it will become on its own, without reference to earlier models.

I sense your optimism in your hope that the demand from readers will be crucial in the development of better typographic experiences from e-Books; I hope you’re right!

]]> By: Graham Storrs http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/02/4-questions-i-ask-myself-about-e-books/#comment-941 Graham Storrs Fri, 12 Feb 2010 06:58:26 +0000 http://www.thebookdesigner.com/?p=4248#comment-941 Nice post, Joel. I'm a writer and lover of books and I do appreciate typography and other design elements found only in paper books. You say that "the book is the ultimately long-text delivery system, honed to near perfection by 500 years of experiment and refinement," which is almost true. Within the limits of its technology, and the economies of the medium, the paper book has indeed been optimised over the centuries. Mark Coker is right to emphasise how early we are in the evolution of the ebook and, especially, the ebook reader. When a technology is expensive and limited (as it is now) and there are few conventions, let alone standards, in place, we tend to end up with the lowest common denominator - something adequate. There are trade-offs and the market (the reader) eventually zeroes in on what is necessary and what is merely nice to have. In the mid-1980s I used to design hypertext systems. One in particular used SGML rather than HTML and had a very sophisticated semantic link system. The Web with its HTML and primitive linking was inferior in so many ways - not just markup - but the Web was the easy victor in the market for all kinds of good technical and social reasons. One day, I expect the Web to evolve towards the kind of system we built back then, but it may take several decades more. The Web is just a baby as far as technical development goes, too. It is possible that demand from readers - who have been well spoilt by the beautiful books now available - will demand the development of high-quality design, layout and typography, in machine-manipulable, reflowable, customisable formats. My guess is that there will be more focus on screen technologies, rights management, and price/performance, before design floats to the top as a major issue. Nice post, Joel. I’m a writer and lover of books and I do appreciate typography and other design elements found only in paper books. You say that “the book is the ultimately long-text delivery system, honed to near perfection by 500 years of experiment and refinement,” which is almost true. Within the limits of its technology, and the economies of the medium, the paper book has indeed been optimised over the centuries. Mark Coker is right to emphasise how early we are in the evolution of the ebook and, especially, the ebook reader.

When a technology is expensive and limited (as it is now) and there are few conventions, let alone standards, in place, we tend to end up with the lowest common denominator – something adequate. There are trade-offs and the market (the reader) eventually zeroes in on what is necessary and what is merely nice to have.

In the mid-1980s I used to design hypertext systems. One in particular used SGML rather than HTML and had a very sophisticated semantic link system. The Web with its HTML and primitive linking was inferior in so many ways – not just markup – but the Web was the easy victor in the market for all kinds of good technical and social reasons. One day, I expect the Web to evolve towards the kind of system we built back then, but it may take several decades more. The Web is just a baby as far as technical development goes, too.

It is possible that demand from readers – who have been well spoilt by the beautiful books now available – will demand the development of high-quality design, layout and typography, in machine-manipulable, reflowable, customisable formats. My guess is that there will be more focus on screen technologies, rights management, and price/performance, before design floats to the top as a major issue.

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