I have posted two segments of a story in PDF format, and had a couple of folks tell me they were a little put off from the format, because they had to scroll up to start the 2nd column.
This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I want the experience of reading the story to be at least as convenient as reading a book. And, I hate having to scroll up, then down, then up myself. I don't have trouble with scrolling on my stories, because my reader zooms out to fit the whole page, and I guess my monitor is big enough for that not to be a problem.
So, here are some things I've tried in the past, or think might work.
1) I can just use a single column. I went with 2 columns, because I could stick a picture in the middle, and the columns would part nicely. One column would be even harder to read with a picture in the middle, because the text would not be contiguous. Of course, I could just make sure all images were on either side of the image. Also, 2 columns makes the puny paragraphs not look so tiny:P
2) I can use a non-standard page size, or lay it out as landscape. This was my first choice, on a different story. It works very nicely on the new aspect ratio monitors, because those are almost the same shape as the landscape page....so you can zoom. Also, I would be able to have "Centerfold" style pictures, which have no text, just a big picture that fills up the page. This is nice for certain important scenes, and can be fun. But, it just seemed dorky, so I stopped, lol (with this layout).
3) I can increase the font size so that folks with the oldest monitors can zoom out to fit the page. This works OK, except, it means more pages...and more pages means....I'm tempted to make more renders:P Also, for those of us with larger monitors, it might be annoying to have such large text. I am using a pretty big font as it is (14 pt) so that it fits well in "Fit page to screen" mode. But, I could go 1 or 2 points higher, if that helped people enjoy the story more.
Other ideas are welcome, and anyone who has an opinion on the matter, please chime in:)
Comments
What can I say?
I've got 19, 20 and 21 inch monitors; only on my laptops do I have any sort of problem. On the two widescreen monitors (19 and 20) I can see two pages at once and they look nice.
So I'm no help at all. :) Except I love the stuff. HEE!
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
columns
I think that if you're going to have two columns of text that are interrupted with a picture, I'd prefer it if the order you read it was:
1 2
3
4 5
instead of
1 4
2
3 5
It's All Right!
I have a 24" widescreen and I'm not having problems with your story format, one page or two at a time. I think it looks quite professional, in fact. If any problem where to be noted, for me, I hope at the end of the story, you will combine all the chapter files into one story-long file for easy archiving and future re-reads. I normally do this myself with text files, but PDFs require the same software level you're using to create the story, I believe. Using HTML formating would easily allow me to extract the story text, though here I would lose images. No, I can accept the PDFs, especially if you will reduce the filespace required for archiving and reading offline.
Great artwork!
I am a grain of sand on a near beach; a nova in the sky, distant and long.
In my footprints wash the sea; from my hands flow our universe.
Fact and fiction sing a legendary song.
Trickster/Creator are its divine verse.
--Old Man CoyotePuma
IMHO
I just took a look at chapter 2, and I have to say it is confusing to me, and interfered with my enjoyment of the story.
I'm not computer whiz-bang, but I have seen illustrated stories where the text flowed around images. The image might take up half or two/thirds of the page, usually but not always the image would be right-justified with the text running down the remaining left-hand portion of the page.
Ultimately, I'm just a reader, and can't tell you what to do or how to set it up. Presumably there are more knowledgable people out there who can.
Karen J.
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb