Typophile - Could we finally be entering a post-Gutenberg era? - Comments

Dan, NBC Universal just

Joe Pemberton — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:38:28 -0700

Dan, NBC Universal just launched their web TV property http://hulu.com where you can get your BSG fix. Universal can get more control and more cash from ad revenue than an Apple revenue share is my take.

The digital content/delivery game is just now getting interesting and the “walled garden” and DRM are not helping any of the players. True openness will win.

ok, limited choice, but

dux — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:21:12 -0700

ok, limited choice, but what’s to stop you downloading project gutenberg hosted files straight to your iphone, blackberry, whatever? oh and there’s still rather a large book case to choose from.

Dan, Simon is right: Apple

hrant — Sat, 10 May 2008 08:14:53 -0700

Dan, Simon is right: Apple doesn’t care about reading.

hhp

David, I would think that a

brampitoyo — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 02:49:30 -0800

David,

I would think that a slab like Cæcilia would render better at a lower dpi than a serif (which is what all the previous eBook reader used)—but I don’t think that you can’t go wrong with having a higher dpi value, no? While I haven’t touched a Kindle myself, Helvetica on iPhone is gorgeous.

But I agree that having only one display face isn’t a great idea. After all, isn’t what supposedly made Kindle different was that it is designed to supposedly emulate a physical book? I would think that allusive typography is a big part of a physical book, so why not have it in the device?

Here’s an idea: why not embed a font in whatever-file-format that Kindle will take? You’ll get the variety and you’ll get the text.

Am I too far-fetched? PDF had been able to do it since a long time ago.

” ...is programming

dberlow — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:03:28 -0800

” ...is programming hyphenation THAT hard?”

...this is The Story of this decade so far, really — everybody waiting for post-Gutenberg III. MS the only one willing to build a chase good enough. Falling asleep waiting. Yawn. . . while we watch and play an extended game of pin “that-one-good-font” on the device, (no not that font, that one!). Waiting for the next device, yawn. Maybe next decade, our good buddies over at w3c will recognize the importance of form, all the way to the user’s machine. Maybe?

cheers!

I’m surprised no one has

basicframework — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 14:00:41 -0800

I’m surprised no one has commented on the Kindle’s horrible full-justified type with no hyphenation. I mean, is programming hyphenation THAT hard? As you can see in the Kindle demo video, the no-hyphenation result is some very gappy text.

Since it’s come up,

James Puckett — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:26:24 -0800

Since it’s come up, reversing text to white-on-black does not save energy on an LCD display. All LCD pixels are always on, and shutters filter what gets out in a backlit display, or reflected in an unlit display.

“Did Amazon create an

dberlow — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:46:01 -0800

“Did Amazon create an ebook reader that stands to crush our printed page?
Some of them. I think you’d need to own one for it to crush some of your pages.

“Could we finally be entering a post-Gutenberg era?”
What were the previous ones again?
“I think we entered the post-Gutenberg era around mid-fifteenth century.”
The first one was when his successors tossed around his sorts then?

“On-screen white on black requires less juice on LCDs and CRTs (I think) so the economics are reversed if you want to conserver battery life.”
That is what we are seeing in lots of applications as well as red on black.

“Kindle’s resolution is on par with Sony reader (167 dpi) and slightly higher than iPhone (160 dpi), so I think that reading will be no problem.”
This is the rub: does a pda need to be made for this purpose? Is 160 dpi needed to get that one font “right”?

I’ve not actually touched a Kindler, (and I read left-handed, so I guess I might not), but I’m sure it works quite nicely (for righties) or they wouldn’t have actually gear’d up and made ’em. But while they were at it, you’d think maybe they’d think that user’s’d think one font might be skimpin’.

Cheers!

Expensive. It’ll be awhile

BruceS63 — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:52:47 -0800

Expensive. It’ll be awhile before I replace traditional books with the likes of the Kindle.

dezcom is here. Now the

brampitoyo — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 02:09:37 -0800

dezcom is here. Now the party can begin ;-)

A little bit on readability: Kindle’s resolution is on par with Sony reader (167 dpi) and slightly higher than iPhone (160 dpi), so I think that reading will be no problem. An interesting touch would actually be if it will let you invert the display (white-on-black) and change the typeface. Like Haley said, reading on iPhone is indeed very pleasant, and I’d like to try that with Kindle.

Also no reader/handheld device that I know (or any operating system interface) had used a slab before, so Caecilia is a welcome touch.

I prefer the 1.99 shows on

dan_reynolds — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 01:37:17 -0800

I prefer the 1.99 shows on the iTMS. Much cheaper than the DVDs. I collect the DVDs of other shows that I like to watch again and again, like Doctor Who. Galactica is good, but not that good…

How am I supposed to see the

Ricardo Cordoba — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:23:02 -0800

How am I supposed to see the upcoming tv movie and next BG series now?

Dan, the (extended, uncut version of the) BSG movie Razor is being released on DVD this coming December 4 — in the U.S., at least. So you could purchase it from Amazon.

I am still waiting for the release of the Season 3 DVDs here in the States! But then again, the shows are available through iTunes.

More toilet humor (humour,

Ricardo Cordoba — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:17:59 -0800

More toilet humor (humour, in this case) from Dezcom! :-D

“All the type would be

dezcom — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:18:20 -0800

“All the type would be flush left of course.”

Unless all the Johns in the UK flush on the right side, then you might be justified to do it 2 ways :-)

ChrisL

>>They could call it the

Ehague — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:11:04 -0800

>>They could call it the iBook! Oh. Wait...

Speaking of device names, did anyone else get the impression from “kindle” that it was somehow implying that paper books are now as good as kindling?

Could we finally be entering a post-Gutenberg era?

lazyeye88 — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:41:25 -0800

Did Amazon create an ebook reader that stands to crush our printed page as we know it? Is this the ipod of books?

Bezos seems to think so.

With wireless capabilities, a hard drive, and the ability to have any book written in history at your fingertips in less than a minute, this could get interesting.

Amazon has taken their time with a device called the Kindle that ships for $399.

What do you guys think?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983/page/1