Tablets and fonts

[Hoskins]

So, when formatting stories for tablets, one thing to keep in mind is that iPads are missing windows fonts, and when that happens, it substitutes, usually badly. I think Cole used Comic Sans in his 2 x Ten story.

Here it is on an iPad 3:

http://imgur.com/RZ2OcXi.jpg

It's not horrible, but it definitely can strain the eyes a bit. Just something to know.

[Lugnutz]

No kidding that can be hard to read.

[Cole Parker]

I wouldn't even try to read that.

Can you copy it and paste it somewhere that allows you to change the font?

C

[The Pecman]

So, when formatting stories for tablets, one thing to keep in mind is that iPads are missing windows fonts, and when that happens, it substitutes, usually badly. I think Cole used Comic Sans in his 2 x Ten story.

I did the PDF of Pieces of Destiny in Adobe Jenson Pro, which I felt translated very well to print, computer screens, and iPads. I embedded the font within the document, so it displays just fine. For handwritten notes, I used Lucida Handwriting, again embedded in the document. All looks great. I actually had far more control over typography, indents, hyphenation, and all that stuff in this document than I did in the online version, so I think it read a lot better that way.

You can check the results here:

http://www.awesomedude.com/pecman/Pieces%20of%20Destiny%20(V4).pdf

Remind me to update this -- there's a later draft that I think fixed some more typos and fixed some minor story issues.

[Camy]

Can't you select a substitute font on the iPad? It looks good on a Nexus 7 (android) which displays it with in a sans serif.

[DesDownunder]

I do hope the afterlife doesn't have a confusion of fonts; that would be Hell.

[Hoskins]

I can, and do, copy and paste the stories into a text reader that only has a sans serif font, so it's workable. The problem seems to be that Comic Sans doesn't seem to fit a font "family" like sans serif or serif. It's apparently seen as a "decorative" or cursive font, so the iPad substitutes another decorative/cursive font (that wonderful cursive one in the screenshot), rather than a serious one. I'm just glad it doesn't pick some gothic Olde English monstrosity :)

And I haven't found any way to force a substitution on an iPad, you just don't have that kind of granular control over the screen display.

It's certainly not a deal breaker, I'd find a way to read the stories here if they were in eleven different fonts, all with different colors. Just something y'all should be aware of as more and more people read on tablets.

That PDF of 'Pieces of Destiny' looks spectacular on an iPad. If only more e-book authors would take that kind of care with their books...

[The Pecman]

That PDF of 'Pieces of Destiny' looks spectacular on an iPad. If only more e-book authors would take that kind of care with their books...

Much appreciated! My brother is a graphic designer, and he gave me some tips when I jumped into inDesign. Once you have a style created, it takes less time than you think. I believe I spent maybe one full evening throwing the book together, and it came out OK.

I deliberately went with 14-point for the body text, simply because it looked good to me on a standard iPad. I haven't tried it on a Kindle, but I know it looks OK on a regular laptop or computer display.

[Alien Son]

Hoskins, would you mind trying Cole's 2 x Ten now, please?

The fonts specified were "Comic Sans, cursive, sans serif". Your iPad, not having Comic Sans, substituted a cursive font.

I've changed the style sheet so that sans serif is the next choice after Comic Sans, and deleted cursive altogether. That should mean that the iPad will use a sans serif font. If it does, I'll eliminate cursive from our style sheets.

Have you had problems with other fonts? You'll probably have problems with some pages on the site being too wide for your iPad screen, or not displaying well. If you could let me know whenever you find one I'll do what I can to fix it.

Thanks for pointing out the font problem.

John

[Paul]

I've changed the style sheet so that sans serif is the next choice after Comic Sans, and deleted cursive altogether. That should mean that the iPad will use a sans serif font. If it does, I'll eliminate cursive from our style sheets.

That fixed it for me on my iPad.

[Alien Son]

Thanks, Paul.

[Hoskins]

Yep, that fixed it! Much obliged, sir.

[Alien Son]

You're welcome! Now I can make sure it doesn't happen again.

[TalonRider]

Much appreciated! My brother is a graphic designer, and he gave me some tips when I jumped into inDesign. Once you have a style created, it takes less time than you think. I believe I spent maybe one full evening throwing the book together, and it came out OK.

I deliberately went with 14-point for the body text, simply because it looked good to me on a standard iPad. I haven't tried it on a Kindle, but I know it looks OK on a regular laptop or computer display.

I have the story on my Nook HD and the font size is great. I've taken stories that I've read in the past and wanted to read again, and made books out of them for myself. Generally, I use Arial 14. I currently have 35 books in my collection, including T.S.O.I. and Circumnavigation which are in two books each.