UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
Agony Aunt
>
Help with page layout
date
newest »
newest »
I would stick with normal font for the present day, and differentiate the future with italic. I can imagine the right justified being difficult to read. Also any potential readers might view it as a formatting error rather that a indication of a different time perspective. Readers are used to seeing thoughts or past future reflection as italic. As for the display when it uploads, sorry, I have no help to offer on that.
Also, different Kindle platforms interpret even quite normal formatting in the same .mobi file in different ways (even when the online and offline previewers all claim it's okay). The safest course is to keep it as simple as possible, as David suggests.
Thanks for those two comments. I'll experiment with italic though I've heard that this doesn't always translate properly into azw/mobi.If anyone out there has any personal reaction to the idea of a centred, half width block, do say. I'll probably have to treat it as if it were a picture. My Kindle is very basic and I can't even change font - just size, so it'll eventually be a trial upload to see the results of my experiments, using KindleGen and Calibre.
I've always liked different fonts and layouts and such in a book. Stephen King uses it a lot. I think it adds to the experience of the book.
I remember that King used a kind of kiddie scrawl in 'Black House' which was effective in print; I don't know if kindle would replace the font though.
Although you could easily do it in a paperback, it's contrary to the expected behaviour of a Kindle. People expect to be able to set the fonts to whatever they want. So even though it's possible to do it, it isn't a good idea.The same thing goes for big blocks of italic. Italic is not designed to be a "body text" font; it's purely intended for emphasis, and consequently big blocks of it are actually quite difficult to read.
And also, many readers will assume it's a formatting error, since unintentional run-ons of italic text have been a common problem in Kindle books.
My personal recommendation would be to make sure there is a section break between your time shifts, and then either make sure that it's very clear from the writing, or use a heading. Remember: keep it simple.
In my experience Kindle ignores any margins you might set up, since these have to be flexible to suit individual viewing preferences. I tried a block of text within narrowed margins (to emulate a newspaper extract)in one of my books and it just threw the whole page askew. So the advice to go about it another way is sound. (I upload a .doc file, not pdf - don't know if this makes any difference.I have found that font changes are restricted to serif/non serif typefaces. Use a fancy font and kindle just picks the nearest match from its restricted range (my nexus offers me around 6 typefaces).
If your indented section is fairly small, one way of making sure it stays indented is to turn that block into a jpg image. (Same goes for fancy chapter headings) However this means the viewer will not have much control over its size, so make sure it will be readable at an 'average' kindle resolution.
Definitely don't convert any text to jpeg images - you'll severely disadvantage visually impaired people or anyone using the text to speech feature.
Tim wrote: "Definitely don't convert any text to jpeg images - you'll severely disadvantage visually impaired people or anyone using the text to speech feature."Good point - I didn't think of that!
Ah. And here I was thinking that a newspaper extract thingy could be inserted as a pic!Yep, would certainly disadvantage anyone with visual impairment.
Don't do that. :)
Patti (baconater) wrote: "Ah. And here I was thinking that a newspaper extract thingy could be inserted as a pic!Yep, would certainly disadvantage anyone with visual impairment.
Don't do that. :)"
Thanks to all. Very useful input especially about treating the future sections as pictures. I'll experiment with several options, bearing in mind the risk of the result being taken as a formatting error and leading to complaints to Amazon. Something to be avoided.
Have just tried to reply to the thread but the para seems to have disappeared. Thanks to all for extremely useful input. Especially about the problems of images being difficult for people with impairments. I'll experiment with a page or two, using different approaches and upload them all via KindleGen to see what works. Will post the final decision in this thread, with a sample if I can see how to do that. So glad I signed up to this group!
An update sooner than expected. Slept on the problem and see the solution. Use italics for the opening phrase of the 'future' sections. A clear signal which won't upset the format. I think. With judicious spacing.
Lydia wrote: "An update sooner than expected. Slept on the problem and see the solution. Use italics for the opening phrase of the 'future' sections. A clear signal which won't upset the format. I think. With ..."Good idea. You could always start and end it with a squiggly thing : ~ (Now Patti's going to tell me what that is!)
Its a tilde I think.
Actually, the informal name for a tilde is a 'squiggly' - I believe!
I’ve experimented with making the second batch centred and with wide margins. A question that someone may know the answer to - if I kept the serif blocks and the sans serif blocks in my upload and a reader chose a favourite font, would that over-write both the fonts I’ve used? Or would there still be some difference? Perhaps a different size for the two blocks would do the trick.
It is important to differentiate between the alternating sections in some way. Any other suggestions? The upload will be in .html, as I don’t use MS Word.