[Sigia-l] Texts in e-book (Microsoft/Adobe Reader) format

[Jonathan Heron]

> This is another dated urban legend.
> 
> I don't know what Steve Krug was quoting/testing but for a huge portion of
> readers, especially over 40, it's *much much easier* to read online (and
> that's from my book, "Don't make me squint" :-)
> 
> Why? Simply because you can 'zoom' text. While there are very few "larger
> print" pubs in the physical world, virtually any digital text can be zoomed
> on a PC (as long as you're on a Mac :-) whether you're using a web browser
> or any other app that can print. Just convert it into a PDF in about 2-3
> clicks and drag/zoom any portion of it, for variable magnification and
> anti-aliased reading pleasure. Heck you can make it 50 pt text and read it
> across the room on a couch!

Ignoring the ability to scale text in a browser ­ Opera does this
particularly well as it scales the whole page including images, preserving
the layout and also increasing the size of text-as-images (albeit with the
unavoidably lower quality compared to true text) - reading on screen *is*
slower and less comfortable than reading from good quality print on good
quality stock.  The reason is twofold:

1/ most screens do not have high refresh rates (eg 100Hz) and thus lead to
eye strain

2/ monitor resolutions are much lower than print and thus cannot render
characters with the clarity of print at small sizes.


The situation is improving though...

Currently, monitor (LCD and CRT) resolutions peek at just over 100dpi,
though IBM and Viewsonic have 200dpi LCD displays for between $5,000 [1] and
$9,000 [2] which they claim offer the clarity of printed text. At that price
though they are hardly mainstream - rather they are targeted at CAD/CAM and
information visualisation markets.

Developments in subpixel antialiasing (MS's ClearType, Adobe's CoolType for
Acrobat and Apple's 'Medium' antialiasing in OSX) have also greatly improved
the readability of text on LCD screens. I was startled by the clarity of
text in WindowsXP when I recently spent three weeks using an IBM laptop.
Regardless, the resolution of screens (even the 200dpi ones) still does not
quite match the resolution achievable in print.


Jonathan


Mentioned Links:
[1] http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,525370,00.asp
[2] 
http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=-8
40&langId=-1&partNumber=9503DG3&storeId=1