Did you know that the world does not know whom to credit as the inventor of E-books? There are contenders for the title from as far back as 1946. [Ref]
For you and me, our first time experiencing e-books were as PDF documents. These were typically technical journals and pirated scanned versions of popular books.
It took some time for traditional publishers to accept this new format and begin selling them but since then e-books have exploded. Project Gutenberg now has over 60000 books one can read for free. For many of us, E-books are now the preferred format. This could be for several reasons:
But even the most ardent fans of the format will admit that there are disadvantages.
The second is the focus of this blog.
With the limited screen real estate in small devices, text such as speech bubbles in graphic novels and comics are often not seen clearly. Google and Amazon, the big two players in the e-book market both address this in similar ways - by zooming in certain portions of the page.
Google's Bubble Zoom (left) enhances speech bubbles. Amazon's Guided View (above) navigates a comic panel-by-panel
These approaches address one problem but end up creating another. Arbitrarily zooming in on certain portions and truncating others may make the text legible but harm the overall experience.
The focus on the textual content mean that user loses out on experiencing the art.
Graphic Novels, comics and Childrens' books are as much about the illustrations and the art as the story.
Pic credit: Watchmen
The art in such books are a labour of love and painstakingly detailed. Mobile Form factors do not render these as originally intended by the artist.
Artists and authors recognize the issue and are beginning to address this problem in new ways. Webtoons a site with mostly Korean artists formats all content in vertical panels with very large text bubbles - this is art designed for mobile devices.
Pic credit: Gosu
Before we dismiss this problem as trivial and relevant only to entertainment, consider that graphics are an integral portion of most technical manuals. To quote a cliche "a picture is worth a thousand words".
Today, graphical novels are being used for more than just comics. Google has used them to explain the inner workings of a browser. Universities use them to explain copyright laws. So this isn't a challenge to be taken lightly.