Feature: Type options and settings

There’s a lot of hot air talked about sans- and serif fonts, and what’s best for reading. The common view is that serif fonts are best – something about the serif marks (the little lines at the end of the letterforms) making it easier for the eye to flow along the line.

In fact, serifs originate most probably from Roman stonecarvers following the flick of the signpainters’ brushes, which flared at stroke ends and corners, with their chisels, and there’s plenty of evidence that there’s few actual benefits in the form of legibility or readability from using sans-serif. Indeed, in the days before good font presentation on computer monitors, clean sans-serif fonts were much easier to read than the crumpled, fuzzy serifed fonts.So, the choice is really an aesthetic one, which is why Enhanced Editions gives readers a simple choice between Helvetica (sans-serif) and Georgia (a serif designed for screen legibility).

Alignment

Similarly, we give readers the choice of justified text (where all lines are the same length) and left aligned (aka “ragged right”). Justified text is usually preferred in books, but on a smaller screen, ragged right is often found easier on the eye. But you know what, you can simply choose whichever setting you want.

Size

Our titles also have full control over the text size. One of the major complaints about reading from a screen, particularly online, is that it’s tiring and difficult, and some of the main reasons given for this include screen glare, clutter, and posture. In fact, a lot of this is down to type size – see this simple comparison of the size of book type and screen type.

The great benefit of dedicated ereaders – including the iPhone – is that it’s “wieldable” – you hold it in your hand, just like a book, and – at least with Enhanced Editions – you have full control over the type size. And that’s without even talking about the incredible benefits of large-printable ebooks for the partially sighted. We have five sizes:

1. Small
2. Medium
3. Large
4. Extra Large
5. Largest

Night Mode

Finally, there’s Enhanced Editions’ “Night Mode”, allowing you to invert the screen to read white text on a black screen, as well as vice versa. Again, there’s much debate about what combination of colours is better for your eyes and better for reading, but we also had in mind those insomniac bibliophiles who don’t want to annoy their bedmate with the bright white glare of their iPhone screen…

Remember your setting

Of course, an Enhanced Edition will remember your favourite type setting, and your place, whenever you leave, allowing you to pick up where you left off, and exactly the way you like it.

Talking of which, this is my favourite setting:

• Locked rotation to portrait mode
• Georgia
• Extra Large
• Left Aligned
• Night Mode (”Dark Interface”)
• Tilt-scrolling on