Differences in reading from a screen versus reading from paper
Here's the link to the article I brought up in class for helping us think some about the differences we experience (and that somehow affect us) as we read from screens instead from paper:
http://www.wired.com/2014/05/reading-on-screen-versus-paper/
Here's something about e-books versus traditional, ink-on-paper tomes:
What is a book? Like many things in our modern world, “books” are something we instinctively recognize without a clear-cut definition. But if a book is a collection of words that have been printed on pages, then what about photo books? Does a stack of printed pages stored in a shoebox qualify as a book? While the typical consumer would likely concur with the primary definition of a book as offered by Merriam-Webster (“a set of printed sheets of paper that are held together inside a cover”), a more detailed explanation would denote that these pages are part of a common system of discourse; in other words, a book provides a collection of content intended to serve a single purpose. Fiction novels, non-fiction biographies, science textbooks and graphic novels all function to fulfill a specific aim; even in the case of books that offer more variety of content (anthologies, encyclopedias), the content in its entirety can be seen as a single unit, serving a defined purpose. Books also provide a navigation method for their content; publishing conventions such as title pages, forewords, chapters and appendices are all aids to navigation. Even when books lack such niceties, the fact that an English language book starts at the top left corner of the left-most page and proceeds downward until the page is turned is an aspect of navigation that may differ in other languages. Finally, these words (and possibly images) are held together by a common binding method, which serves to not only maintain the integrity of the collection but also to facilitate navigation of the book’s contents – after all, what use is a physical Table of Contents if the referenced pages are out of order, due to the lack of a method to mandate their sequence? E-books (an abbreviation of “electronic books,” also spelled eBooks) may lack the physicality of a printed text, but they still adhere to the same fundamental principles. In order for a digital text to be considered an “e-book,” it must provide both presentation and navigation capabilities for its content. In other words, the formatting (appearance) of the words in the book as well as the links that transport us from the Table of Contents to the individual chapters are maintained as distinctly separate from the content itself. Font size and typeface selections can be changed on the fly without altering the book’s content, while navigational guides that direct us to the start of each chapter (such as hyperlinks in the Table of Contents) maintain their integrity even when text is added or removed within individual chapters. Because of this separation of presentation and navigation from the book’s text and graphics, e-books are able to provide reflowable content – in other words, we can alter the size or orientation of the e-reader’s “page” (for example, by widening the window of Apple’s iBooks e-reader software application on a laptop computer) without compromising the integrity of the book or rendering the navigation ineffective. Many e-book formats can also support audio and video content – although whether the playback unit (the e-reader) will also reproduce these elements varies between devices.
Here's something about e-books versus traditional, ink-on-paper tomes:
ReplyDeleteWhat is a book?
Like many things in our modern world, “books” are something we instinctively recognize without a clear-cut definition. But if a book is a collection of words that have been printed on pages, then what about photo books? Does a stack of printed pages stored in a shoebox qualify as a book?
While the typical consumer would likely concur with the primary definition of a book as offered by Merriam-Webster (“a set of printed sheets of paper that are held together inside a cover”), a more detailed explanation would denote that these pages are part of a common system of discourse; in other words, a book provides a collection of content intended to serve a single purpose. Fiction novels, non-fiction biographies, science textbooks and graphic novels all function to fulfill a specific aim; even in the case of books that offer more variety of content (anthologies, encyclopedias), the content in its entirety can be seen as a single unit, serving a defined purpose.
Books also provide a navigation method for their content; publishing conventions such as title pages, forewords, chapters and appendices are all aids to navigation. Even when books lack such niceties, the fact that an English language book starts at the top left corner of the left-most page and proceeds downward until the page is turned is an aspect of navigation that may differ in other languages.
Finally, these words (and possibly images) are held together by a common binding method, which serves to not only maintain the integrity of the collection but also to facilitate navigation of the book’s contents – after all, what use is a physical Table of Contents if the referenced pages are out of order, due to the lack of a method to mandate their sequence?
E-books (an abbreviation of “electronic books,” also spelled eBooks) may lack the physicality of a printed text, but they still adhere to the same fundamental principles. In order for a digital text to be considered an “e-book,” it must provide both presentation and navigation capabilities for its content. In other words, the formatting (appearance) of the words in the book as well as the links that transport us from the Table of Contents to the individual chapters are maintained as distinctly separate from the content itself. Font size and typeface selections can be changed on the fly without altering the book’s content, while navigational guides that direct us to the start of each chapter (such as hyperlinks in the Table of Contents) maintain their integrity even when text is added or removed within individual chapters.
Because of this separation of presentation and navigation from the book’s text and graphics, e-books are able to provide reflowable content – in other words, we can alter the size or orientation of the e-reader’s “page” (for example, by widening the window of Apple’s iBooks e-reader software application on a laptop computer) without compromising the integrity of the book or rendering the navigation ineffective. Many e-book formats can also support audio and video content – although whether the playback unit (the e-reader) will also reproduce these elements varies between devices.