4 Answers2025-08-08
When selecting a font size for a book as a book designer, I can provide many examples from experience. Horror books are written in slightly more condensed fonts to create uneasiness, while comedy books are written in very playful font sizes. Technical books have fonts minimized so that large diagrams can fit on the page. Holy books such as the Bible and dictionaries have fonts reduced to miniscule size in order to fit as much content as possible. Long fantasy novels are even published with reduced font sizes in order to physically fit all of the content between the covers. Genre conventions play more of a role than one would initially assume when it comes to choosing a font size.
8 Answers2026-07-27
This could be a simple case of them adhering to a house style. So many imprints use a standard interior template for 90% or so of their titles. If that template was initially set up for an 80,000 word literary novel, but they acquire a 150,000 word fantasy saga, rather than starting from scratch with the interior of the new book, they just reduce the font size within the existing template. Efficient in terms of a workflow and cost saving, but otherwise ghastly. Efficiency over ergonomics.
3 Answers2025-08-10
I’m a tactile reader. I like apps to mimic the physical ergonomics of books. Google Play Books is surprisingly good at pinch-to-zoom, no blur at maximum zoom, and does cloud-synching of your libraries for you, which is great for me.
Comic Screen is very good for reading manga and illustrated books. This application allows to isolate the panels and to zoom in very dynamically, it is frequently name-dropped by the producers of graphic novels in perk descriptions of their Kickstarter projects. Recently I also discovered ReadEra application, it has a split-screen mode to reference footnotes while keeping the main text enlarged. Bonus points for having no ads.
The apps listed are not tools to read, they enhance your reading experience greatly. It’s cool that some indie comic artists list ‘Comic Screen’ in their Kickstarter perks for graphic novels.
10 Answers2025-08-12
I've read all 49 of your comments and I'm just exhausted. You people certainly have feelings about letters. I'll pick the top-rated one (Bookerly, probably), resize it for reading comfort and go read a book. My analysis has turned into paralysis and the book I wanted to read an hour ago is calling my name. I appreciate the many details that you all have shared about type and I have much respect for the passion that each of you has for this topic. Now, however, I have a novel to read. Thank you for your time.
11 Answers2025-07-03
I just downloaded an entire collection of classic ghost stories (50+ tales) and the file is 1.2MB. That’s less space than a single meme image. In the digital age, we can expect average novel sizes to be around 3-5MB but there is still plenty of scope for minimalism. The horror stories here are terrifying and highly charged but are packed into a very small space.
10 Answers2025-08-06
Consider for a moment the fantastical meta-fantasy ‘The Neverending Story’ by Michael Ende. While essentially a story about a boy slowly but surely being consumed by the book he reads, the amazing landscapes of the Story within the Story, Fantastica, are so vivid and perfectly realized for a mature young reader that they include a very compelling Journey, noble Companions, urgent and desperate Quest, and a deeply and profoundly melancholic and philosophical subtext that reveals itself layer by layer on subsequent reads. The transformation of the shy Boy Bastian to confident Boy is that of every reader. Iconic creations such as the Childlike Empress and lucky white scaled dragon Falkor, and the Nothing, all reside within this deep and complex, yet accessibly written tale of loss, ego, and the nature of stories. A growing up book that continues to reveal new layers on subsequent reads by the mature young reader.
3 Answers2025-07-15
The ability to change text size within a book on Kindle is fantastic. Typically I read fiction and non-fiction. I have the text size changed for fiction to a smaller size (3 or 4) to be fully immersive, and for non-fiction to a larger size (5 or 6) for clearer reading.
Pairing these adjustments up with other settings such as increasing the font size and utilizing a medium bold font like ‘Amazon Ember’ creates a wonderful reading experience. I prefer to read with medium margins and increased line space between words (1.8) to ensure I don’t find myself jumping from line to line to read. The combination of using Kindle in dark mode with increased text size makes for a late-night reading experience that is easy on the eyes and cozy.
9 Answers2025-07-17
I should say that the assessment of a manuscript is a combination of art and science. First, the text is run through readability software such as Flesch-Kincaid, which yields a numerical score. But that score is the bare beginning of the assessment. The most crucial part of the process is determining where a given manuscript fits into the current cultural landscape. Thus a dense, challenging book on a current topic is offered up as more accessible than its language really is to a readership eager to devour such work. Conversely, a straightforwardly written book with heavy themes is marketed as ‘deceptively complex’ to a likely audience. In the end, the decision is made as to whether a given manuscript will become a bestseller, and the author’s language is weighed against the potential reading public’s willingness to engage with his/her work.
11 Answers2025-07-09
I am coming here to look at fonts that people recommend. The defaults are giving me eye fatigue.
10 Answers2026-07-27
I just make the text larger in the original document before creating a PDF or printing it. If it's a Word document or a web page, I view it at 150% on my computer before printing or saving it to PDF. The resulting file has larger text on the physical page, which then becomes smaller when viewed on the Kindle screen, but is still readable. This method is simple, requires access to the original document, but does not introduce any conversion artifacts or change any of the original formatting. The text is simply larger from the start.