I’ve been giving some thought as to the best way to display magazine style content given our current state of technology.
So what I am trying to do is get a bit of census data so that I can go about designing an Ezine that is easy to read and enjoy on a variety of platforms.
I myself tend to use the Issuu plugin and view the two page spread in fullscreen mode. I find this works best on a widescreen monitor, and have often found that without a large screen resolution, the Ezine can be hard to read.
So how do you read the Ezine?
Maybe you read it on an iPad, or other tablet? Maybe on your laptop? If so, what’s your reading experience like? Is the text too big/small? Would you prefer it to be a different way?
I am really interested to hear how people read the mag.
Acrobat works best for me. I love Issuu, but I find it a bit clunky to use sometimes, and don’t quite trust its conversion of fonts and gradients. So if I want to really read something, I use a PDF reader.
Acrobat works best for me. I love Issuu, but I find it a bit clunky to use sometimes, and don't quite trust its conversion of fonts and gradients. So if I want to really read something, I use a PDF reader.
Thommy H
What kind of monitor do you view it on? Widescreen? Resolution? Double page spread?
I view it on my computer monitor. It’s about so big holds apart hands.
On Acrobat, I generally view in two-up continuous. I’ve noticed that WoH doesn’t always display with the same defaults for each issue - some seemed to be done so that one page on the PDF is actually two pages on (I assume) the original document. In the future, I’d rather the decision to view as a double page spread was mine!
I view it on my computer monitor. It's about so big *holds apart hands*.
On Acrobat, I generally view in two-up continuous. I've noticed that WoH doesn't always display with the same defaults for each issue - some seemed to be done so that one page on the PDF is actually two pages on (I assume) the original document. In the future, I'd rather the decision to view as a double page spread was mine!
Thommy H
This is something that Willmark and I discussed a long while back. I felt as you did, he felt the opposite way.
I am presently mocking up my own little template using InDesign, getting a handle on all the little tricks that are involved in laying out text, experimenting with larger fonts, etc. That's why I am looking for feedback on its readability.
If I understand Thommy correctly that’s basically my opinion. Though I prefer to look at it 1 page at a time. I can’t even begin to describe how much I loathe the double-spread view. Which is why I think it should be the choice of the reader. I cannot see why it needs to be double-spreaded.
If there’s something that looks cooler doubled-up, eg Evy Hat or maybe someone made a nifty artwork, then just make sure the number of pages align it up nicely. He says knowing there’s a certain amount of finagling going into that.
I use a varity of things, acrobat, iDevice and so on.
Personally I really like Issuu, but it has issues (stated before)
Acrobat PDF viewer always works fine in my case, as long as the text is readable, I’m ok.
On my iDevice I’ve read it once, wasnt a real succes due to the vast amount of scrolling on the same page and all. There are possibilities there, but mainly for iPads/android tablets and not so much for ipods/iphones amd smartphones IMO.
Please download it and take a look. I’ve used a much larger font with the aim of making the text more viewable at a glance without squinting. I’d love to see how readable this would be on an iPad or similar devise.
Looking great (laptop with adobe acrobat), I was thinging I’d volunteer to help out with layout and graphics, but you guys seem to have it well under control!
I usually look at WoH full screen, 2up spreads on my widescreen monitor, which seems OK. However, I do have a large monitor.
One thing you may want to consider is what kind of content would constitute a typical page. For example, in the 18pt text you’re using now, it looks like you’d be getting about 25 lines per page, and eight or nine words per line. If you threw in a picture and some artwork, then suddenly the amount of information per page gets cut waaaaaaay down…
If you’re considering setting it up to optimize viewing on a monitor, why not think about setting it up the way the digital ‘Dungeon’ magazine is done? Here’s a link to a sample issue: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/dungeon/155/155_Dungeon.pdf
This, when ‘Fullscreened’ in acrobat (ctrl-L) fills a non-widescreen monitor… although it seems to me that most people have a widescreen monitor. Might be something to consider?
Just a few thoughts. Nice to see this coming along!
