Aldous Huxley wrote in 1928, “Machines exist; let us then exploit them to create beauty—a modern beauty… For we live in the twentieth century… As an ordinary reader, who cannot afford to buy hand-made books, I object to the archaizing printer.” How do we who live with twenty-first-century machines approach book design?
Developers of a tool like InDesign avoided placing restrictions on designs; instead, developers gave full control to end users, with the expectation that if the designer produced something ugly, they were responsible to recognize and fix it. When designers work on a print project, they carefully choose and review each component to create a more pleasing final product. However, in digital publishing, developers must take some of that responsibility. How should they develop and code safety nets to allow for different book designs while preventing ugliness as much as possible?
Unlike printed books, an electronic book may be viewed on different screens, at different point sizes, and without the benefit of a graphic designer previewing the results. This talk will discuss some typography and layout problems the Amazon Kindle Rendering Team has solved or is working on to improve digital book layouts.