Post a picture of your reading settings!

[haertig]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

For those who do like a lot of excess space when reading, what's the reason behind it?

It is only "excess space" in the eye of the beholder.

Some text layouts invite you in, others repel you. There was a book I had once - I've lost the dang thing now! - but I remember the title ... "Looking Good in Print". It went all into font selection, space between lines, justifications, paragraph indents and everything imaginable to make your work look good and invite readers in. And also to make it easy for your readers to follow what you were writing about. Super dense text was a big no-no. As were "rivers of white space" as the book called them. Lots of great advice in that book. I remember one piece of advice - not related to this thread, but interesting anyway - "turn the page upside down". If it is inviting both right side up and upside down, you're on to something. If one orientation is still a turn-off, keep working on it. I wish I could find that book now. It had to have been 20 or 30 years ago when I bought it.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by haertig

It is only "excess space" in the eye of the beholder.

Some text layouts invite you in, others repel you. There was a book I had once - I've lost the dang thing now! - but I remember the title ... "Looking Good in Print". It went all into font selection, space between lines, justifications, paragraph indents and everything imaginable to make your work look good and invite readers in. And also to make it easy for your readers to follow what you were writing about. Super dense text was a big no-no. As were "rivers of white space" as the book called them. Lots of great advice in that book. I remember one piece of advice - not related to this thread, but interesting anyway - "turn the page upside down". If it is inviting both right side up and upside down, you're on to something. If one orientation is still a turn-off, keep working on it. I wish I could find that book now. It had to have been 20 or 30 years ago when I bought it.

But what looks good or inviting is very subjective, as can be seen in this very thread. There is no one size fits all, either in text layout or in most everything else. Some people want roomy margins and line height, others feel it's wasted screen real estate; some even prefer spaces between paragraphs, while for others that's anathema. Beauty and the beholder and all that.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

But what looks good or inviting is very subjective

Yes, that's why I said "in the eye of the beholder".

The book I was referring to was no doubt targeting the preferences of the majority. There are people who prefer dense text as well as people who prefer rivers of white space. They probably do not compromise the majority though.

When you are using an eReader, you can change to look right there on your device. So most everyone can find a way to make it look they way they like. This is a win-win situation. For something in print, you can't change the look at the user end. So print editions are (or should be) targeted at what the majority of readers would like (if the layout people do their homework).

[cellaris]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I too like my margins more or less the same size, but I'm not willing to sacrifice text. I sacrifice headers and footers instead and only use the progress bar to indicate where I am in the book.

That is certainly an option. On the other hand, I like (also for aesthetic reasons, even if it doesn't provide me with any necessary information) to have the header and footer. This is one of the features that gives me something different when reading compared to other devices.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by haertig

For something in print, you can't change the look at the user end. So print editions are (or should be) targeted at what the majority of readers would like (if the layout people do their homework).

They can do what they want in paper books. Don't care, as I don't read them. As long as I can make the text in my ebooks look like I want, I'm content. Still, it's annoying even in ebooks when publishers try to force their opinions on me (embedded base font, specified margins and line height and so on. Leave such things alone, please!). They seem to never learn.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by theducks

I consider ALL the available Margin settings on my K4 Excessive.
(Someone posted the file I can hand edit, to allow me to set it to 10. This lasts until I use the menu for other settings saved in the file. This is another reason I edit all CSS before sending. one standard set of SIZES)

Paper has side margins to keep type away from the edges and allow for small trimming variations and give a place to hold the book without having fingers resting ON the text.

EVERY reader I have owned (5 to date), has a BEZEL. Even my phone (not used for reading) has one. So the need for other than a tiny margin to compensate for 'over scan' or slight misalignment of the display under the bezel is all that is needed for basic body text.

I agree about the margins.

As to the Kindle, use negative margins to decrease. It's what I do. Also if you want a specific font size that you cannot get with the Aa size settings, just set the font size you do want in the body style in the CSS.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by issybird

Am I the only one? I can't work up any interest in my reader settings and they might be (probably are) different on all my readers at that. Don't know what fonts I use without looking (my guess is mostly Georgia) and other than having the smallest possible margins and minimized line spacing, I'm clueless. Font size changes with circumstances. In short, I'd have to post about 15 pictures.

However, I find it endlessly interesting to see what other people are reading!

If you set your line spacing and margins you are doing as much with the settings as most of us do.

[JSWolf]

The header is really useful to decide if I am going to be able to finish the chapter. When I'm reading in bed and getting tired, I can see how much I have to go and see if I can manage to finish the chapter. Or if I can finish the chapter if I have to put down my book to do something else.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

But what looks good or inviting is very subjective, as can be seen in this very thread. There is no one size fits all, either in text layout or in most everything else. Some people want roomy margins and line height, others feel it's wasted screen real estate; some even prefer spaces between paragraphs, while for others that's anathema. Beauty and the beholder and all that.

As for paragraph spaces, that's a no-go. I can easily get taken out of the book with them. The only paragraph spaces I should have are for section breaks. I used to use a 2em space for a section break. Now I use a 2px 20% wide line with 0.9em top/bottom margin. It works well. All done with an <hr/> and some simple CSS.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The header is really useful to decide if I am going to be able to finish the chapter. When I'm reading in bed and getting tired, I can see how much I have to go and see if I can manage to finish the chapter. Or if I can finish the chapter if I have to put down my book to do something else.

I have no such need to finish a chapter. I just put my reader down whenever I feel like it/have to, no matter where in the chapter I am. So the header would be useless for me. In fact, it's distracting. I don't need or want to know how much is left to the end of the chapter.

But I like some indicator of the overall progress, so I leave the progress bar in place.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I have no such need to finish a chapter.

I like to finish a chapter, because then I can easily memorize my place. So if I end up wanting to read somewhere where I wasn't anticipating to (so I didn't bring my eReader), I can pull out my phone and easily get to my current reading position via the memorized chapter. Moon+ on my phone and my Paperwhite do not sync obviously. I do make a point of loading my current book onto both the eReader and the phone.

Additionally, if I have the audiobook (rare, but sometimes I do) I put that on the phone as well for use with SmartAudiobookPlayer. However, I rarely listen to the audiobook in this scenario because it is a real pain to sync it with the eBook. The best I found to do in that situation is to try and match the "percent complete" from the ebook to the audiobook. This gets you somewhat close, but finding the exact position is still a pain in the butt.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by haertig

I like to finish a chapter, because then I can easily memorize my place. So if I end up wanting to read somewhere where I wasn't anticipating to (so I didn't bring my eReader), I can pull out my phone and easily get to my current reading position via the memorized chapter. Moon+ on my phone and my Paperwhite do not sync obviously. I do make a point of loading my current book only both the eReader and the phone.

I switch between my Kobos often too (they have the same books on them). They don't sync, as I sideload all my books. Still, while it's quicker to find my place between chapters, I can do it easily enough even when I quit in the middle of one.

[strangelove42]

This is the perfect thread for me because I've just been tinkering and comparing between different settings. I also happen to have some pictures of my original settings from a year ago.

So the first two images are Georgia font with slim margins. One is on nickel and the other is on KOreader. Apart from all the customization in KOreader, the word spacing here was an additional thing that pushed me to finally adopt it.

[rcentros]

Here's what my books usually look like on my PocketBook Touch HD3.

EDIT: I sometimes drop back to 11 point instead of 12 (last image).

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by kandwo

I'm mostly the same, except I increase the margins and line spacing. I don't see much improvement changing the publisher's default font. Usually I have one font in use for a couple of months, before I somehow get tired of it and change to something else.

I have trouble reading light fonts, so it's almost always Constantia for me.