Why e-books look so ugly (and no, it's not just the unnecessary hyphen)

24 May 2009 | 15:17 - By Stefano Boscutti

As books make the leap from cellulose and ink to electronic pages, some editors worry that too much is being lost in translation.

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Typography, layout, illustrations and carefully thought-out covers are all being reduced to a uniform, black-on-gray template that looks the same whether you're reading "Pride and Prejudice" or the budget papers.  "There's a dearth of typographic expression in e-books today," says Pablo Defendini, digital producer for Tor.com, the online arm of science fiction and fantasy publisher Tor Books. "Right now it's just about taking a digital file and pushing it on to a e-book reader without much consideration for layout and flow of text."  (Note to self, capitalism's resolution of working parts to ever diminishing processes is expressed in everything.  Even language.  And so electronic books become electronic-books become e-books become ebooks. It's not just technology that's getting faster.)

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/e-book-design/

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About this Blog

New New Media looks at how our mediascape is exploding to bits. How the latest technology and the internet are changing the way we live, work and play. How the latest media is shaping us all.

Stefano Boscutti is an executive creative director and strategist. He's like a better looking version of Todd Sampson. He also has an abiding faith that stories and wordplay (and not powerpoint presentations) will change the world.

 
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