We Like Our Books Small and Monochrome
Posted on 10. Jun, 2009 by Chris Matney in Book Publishing, Front Page Posts
There have been a number of articles bouncing around this week about e-readers. Since I am now totally addicted to my Kindle 2 for reading manuscripts, I thought this would be a good time to voice my thoughts and ask others for opinions.
The new Kindle DX was reviewed in an article on wired.com today. One of the best features of my Kindle 2 is the ability to change font sizes – which is particularly useful as the day wears on and my eyes run out of juice. This might be the biggest advantage e-readers have over traditional, printed books – dynamic print size. While the increased font size does mean that you press the Next Page button more frequently, it has become second nature – and thus a moot point – for me.
The biggest difference between the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX, however, is its larger physical size – the DX is meant to allow reading textbooks, newspapers, and magazines. It also means you don’t have to press the Next Page button as often – woo hoo! Textbooks aren’t really available yet and the search feature is going to make it tough to “flip through” the book looking for a particular formula or reference point. Newspapers might be a good fit, although the DX certainly isn’t tabloid or broadsheet sized, and most articles would fit on the smaller Kindle 2 just fine. And finally, the Kindles display text only in black and white – magazines are color – one of their most defining qualities.
Color is an interesting topic. Fiction novels are printed in black and white with glossy color covers. Why? Color = marketing = getting you to buy the book off the shelf. Rarely does the cover really have anything to do with the story, although bad covers can make a good book look, well, trashy. Black and white = less distractions for an immersive story. I am sitting here racking my brain as to why the interior of a novel would be printed in color – nope, nothing. Any thoughts, readers?
Wired.com also covered this topic in a recent article. They focused on the technology which is emerging but right now suffers from a contrast problem – color e-readers are too dim for consumers right now. Technology will solve that problem, but is this a technology in search of a reason to exist? Coffee table books, magazines (certainly), graphic novels, comics? Okay, but I just don’t see a trend towards color on the inside of a novel. Amazon says that color Kindles are still “multiple years away” – by then we might have figured out why we need one.
As to the other features, the Kindle DX has a few that are nice: the ability to read PDF documents is probably the most relevant – everyone expected this, but it is still nice to have it implemented. Of less value is the Pivot feature which switches between landscape and portrait as you tilt the book – might be cool, might drive you crazy. I agree with author about having Next Page buttons on both sides of the device – a must for reading in bed. I think this is a design mistake for the Kindle DX which has buttons only on the right-hand side of the device. So, I guess I’m not sure of the business case for the Kindle DX.
2 Responses to “We Like Our Books Small and Monochrome”
Leave a Reply
Win - Summertime Puzzle Contest
Play - CYBERKILL Game
Books
Subscription Options:
Printing color inside of books is massively expensive. The publishing of photography books, art books, etc. is a completely different endeavor. That said, it would be interesting to see how color could affect a reader’s perception of a story.
The Kindle 2 is great for reading manuscripts and I agree with you on most points. Color seems unnecessary for novels, but isn’t that what we said a few decades ago about computer monitors? I could see some applications for color. An on-line Book of Kells in full color would be cool, for example. You said in an earlier blog that Trapdoor encourages innovative manuscript styles; color might encourage some new ideas in visual storytelling beyond standard book illustrations.
Having owned a Kindle 2 for just under a month, the only improvement I would like to see is a more convenient bookmarking function. Oh, and a feature that discourages my children from picking it up and disappearing for days on end. Perhaps the most striking feature that I like is the speed at which it boots. If the Kindle is going to replacement books in some venues, then I don’t want to wait four minutes for it boot up, like my laptop. So far, they have that right, let’s hope they don’t sacrifice speed for bells and whistles later down the road.