When to Fit the Mold, & When to Break It: The Possibilities & Limitations of Fixed Layout for E-Books, with Liisa McCloy-Kelley

1February 18th, 2014 | Random House LLC | eBook Development & Innovation
When to Fit the Mold, and When to Break It:
The Possibilities and Limitations of Fixed Layout for eBooks
Liisa McCloy-Kelley
VP, Director eBook Development & Innovation

Overview of the eBook Format Landscape
(for this month at least)

15 Years Later, the User Experiences
… For “Basic” eBooks Are Pretty Standard
e
p
• The experience for “Basic” eBooks
(linear, 1-color) is not significantly
different than the print equivalent
• Retailers typically support:
• Basic library organization
• Basic navigation
• Changes in font size
• Changes in font
• Changes in background color
• Bookmarking
• Searching
• Highlighting of passages
• Note taking
• Definitions
• Sharing of passages via social
media

While User Experiences For “More Complex” eBooks
... Are Not Yet Set Nor Ideal and Can Be Very Inconsistent
p
e
p e
p
e
p
e

Defining the “Page” and Who Controls What
Is One of the Biggest Challenges
 We are at that point where the content and the reading experience are
starting to overlap and standards may need to prescribe what the
reading system will do with the content

As We Move Into An “e ≠ p World” Things Change
They may not need:
- the same experience
- the same pagination
- the same navigation
And they may not be for
the same audiences
In print, these are all
experiences on pages
between covers
In e, these are all
experiences on screens

Device Type Support Across Reading Platforms
Amazon
Kindle
BN
Nook
Apple
iBooks
Kobo Sony Google
Play
eInk Device
Smart Phone
Small Color
Tablet
Large Color
Tablet
Web Reader
Desktop Apps
Apps on Other
Devices

9
February 18th, 2014 | Random House LLC | eBook Development & Innovation
And Even When We Customize Files,
Most Retailers Alter the Files Before Delivering
Retailer Amazon
Kindle
BN
Nook
Apple
iBooks
Kobo Sony Google
Play
Format
provided
EPUB,
KF8
or Mobi
EPUB,
EPIB
Page Perfect
PDF
EPUB,
PDF
or iBooks Author
EPUB
or PDF
EPUB EPUB
or PDF
Format sold KF8
or Mobi
EPUB,
EPIB
Page Perfect
PDF
EPUB,
PDF
or iBooks Author
EPUB
or PDF
EPUB EPUB
Altered in some
way before
sale?
Yes Yes No (ish) Yes Yes Yes

Beyond “Fixed”, The Features We Consider to Be
“Enhancements” Is an Ever Expanding List
• “Enhanced” used to mean an eBook had audio or video added to it
• These days, “Enhanced” can refer to a lot more than that and generally
applies to anything that needs specialized code and may not be
supported well across the entire eBook retail environment yet
• “Enhanced” eBooks may have:
• Audio files/player in line
• Video files/player
• Synchronized audio that highlights the text
• An Audio soundtrack
• Slideshows
• Interactive elements
• Animated elements
• Quizzes
• Popups
• Scrolling text
• Embedded HTML widgets that add app-like functionality

February 18th, 2014 | Random House LLC | eBook Development & Innovation
“Fixed Page”- The Varieties In Use Today
• “Please send us your Fixed Page eBooks”
• Sounds easy, right?
• It’s not, because fixed page means a lot of different things for different
content types and there are few standard ways to code any of this at this
point in time
• There are at least 7 different types of “Fixed Page” experiences
• For Children’s Picture books there are 3 experiences
• Plain Kids Fixed with text popups
• Kids Fixed with Synced Audio
• Kids Fixed with Interactivity
• Manga experience
• R2L reading, could have 4 quadrant panelization
• Comics and Graphic Novel experience
• L2R reading, no panelization or “guided panel view”
• “Print Replica” that matches the trim and exact paging of print
• Fixed that is designed to be “Screen Optimized”
• And there are a lot of proprietary ways to format them!
10

Genres Where Fixed Page “Print Replica” Works

• As long as the reading system supports R2L Navigation, Manga as
Fixed Page works pretty well
• For KF8, Panelization into 4 quandrants helps readability
• It is important to capture high resolution images
Manga

• Though panelization isn’t well supported in EPUB3, pinch and zoom
works reasonably well to enlarge areas for improved readability
• For KF8, Panelization helps readability
• It is important to capture high resolution images
Graphic Novels

Comics
• Though Comics can be hard to
read in spreads, they are
reasonable in single page views

• When the “art” IS the page
Some Humor Titles and Other Visually Based Titles

• In EPUB, we’ve all been making
Kids books that have the left and
right side of spreads built as
separate HTML pages
Kids Picture Books

Next Generation Kids Picture Books
• EPUB3
• One HTML page per spread
• Javascript popups to enlarge
text
• SVG for text on curves

Where Fixed Page “Print Replica” Doesn’t Work Well

• Examples of “Fixed” – Text Can be small and white space is artificial
Fixed To Maintain Text Formatting For Poetry Is “Iffy”

• In reflow the text can resize and most formatting remains
Fixed In Reflow Can Be Formatted Reasonably Well

• Where there is a lot of text on a page, it becomes too small to read
Lots of Text on the Page Can Be Problematic

•Navigation on pages like this with too much small info becomes difficult
Over-sized Trims Cause Too Small Text and Too Much Info

• Square or unusual trims leave a lot of unused screen space
Odd-sized Trims Don’t Effectively Use The Screen

• When text is captured as part of the image, it is not always sharp when
pinched and zoomed
Poor Experiences When Text Is Captured As Part Of Images

What Other Options Are There?

• These 4 pages from print re-designed as reflow
You Can Focus On Well Designed Reflow

• These 4 pages from print re-designed as fixed designed for screen
You Can Adapt A Fixed Design Meant For Screen

• 3 pages from print re-designed as reflow
Another Example of Well Designed Reflow

• 3 pages from print re-designed as fixed designed for screen
Another Example of Fixed Design Meant For Screen

a. Think about what is going to make the best experience for the reader
b. Don’t get caught up in matching every print decision
c. Think about how much the “design” is a part of the story
a. Think about how much text there is
a. Make it as easily readable as possible
b. Cheap and easy are not always the best ways to make
eBooks that will sell – find a balance
c. Understand that we are still defining best practices for digital
experiences with many genres
d. Do your best for the book and the story!
What to Focus On When Making Format Choices

Questions?
? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ?

Thank You! (and go read an eBook )
Liisa McCloy-Kelley
VP and Director eBook Development & Innovation
Penguin Random House
lmccloy-kelley@randomhouse.com

When to Fit the Mold, & When to Break It: The Possibilities & Limitations of Fixed Layout for E-Books, with Liisa McCloy-Kelley

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When to Fit the Mold, & When to Break It: The Possibilities & Limitations of Fixed Layout for E-Books, with Liisa McCloy-Kelley