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The Book I've Been Working on in iBooks Author
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Salty
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May 12, 2012, 04:25 AM
 
Chapter 1 | Facebook

Hey guys, I've actually decided to post it to Facebook because the iBookstore approval process seems to have slowed to a halt. (They apparently didn't like the fact that I made my character a Mac user, I thought of slapping on a Samsung logo out of spite but couldn't bring myself to do it ... at least not without them giving me a hell of a lot of cash.) So I threw on a Pineapple ... (Sosumi) and got rid of a couple screen shots I'd used that actually gave it a really cool visual look.

Anyway, I've got six chapters done so far and I want to start releasing chunks of the book every now and again. I'm hoping to develop some sort of following, so if anyone here actually likes it, feel free to share it on Facebook or something.
     
Doc HM
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May 12, 2012, 04:48 AM
 
Change the typeface. It's not legible enough.
This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
     
andi*pandi
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May 12, 2012, 09:48 AM
 
Agreed. There's enough text that it needs to be larger, more leading, legible.

Cover: kerning. INWIVINI what?
page 5: A a

A lot of the text seems to get cut off on the right.
     
finboy
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May 12, 2012, 12:02 PM
 
Originally Posted by andi*pandi View Post
Agreed. There's enough text that it needs to be larger, more leading, legible.

Cover: kerning. INWIVINI what?
page 5: A a

A lot of the text seems to get cut off on the right.
Yep, I agree. Text is too small.

Other question: if you can just publish it to Facebook, why do you need to publish it for iBooks?
     
subego
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May 12, 2012, 01:02 PM
 
I clicked on the link on my iPhone for giggles, and it took me to the login for Facebook Indonesia.

I'm not on the Facebook. Isn't that odd behavior?

     
Salty  (op)
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May 12, 2012, 05:22 PM
 
How big of screens are you guys reading it on? On my 20 inch monitors at work I can read it from far away. And the font is felt marker, same one used in notes on the iPhone. My other option for one that resembles a comic book was Comic Sans and I got chewed out for that. I'm not sure how much bigger I could make the font without having it take up the whole page.
     
Doc HM
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May 12, 2012, 05:55 PM
 
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
How big of screens are you guys reading it on? On my 20 inch monitors at work I can read it from far away. And the font is felt marker, same one used in notes on the iPhone. My other option for one that resembles a comic book was Comic Sans and I got chewed out for that. I'm not sure how much bigger I could make the font without having it take up the whole page.
There are loads of much better comic lettering fonts around than either Comic Sans (shudder) or Marker felt (also shudder).
Find a less weighty one that has more open letters and use a bit more leading. With a cleaner font you could drop a point size without reducing readability to compensate for the leading and wider font.
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andi*pandi
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May 12, 2012, 07:43 PM
 
Just because it's a comic doesn't mean you have to use a handwriting font. But here's the one that Basic Instructions uses:

http://themissy.com/fonts

If you can't fit all the text on one page, either edit or break into more pages. A comic is not a book. Editing is better.
     
mattyb
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May 13, 2012, 05:49 PM
 
Ignore
( Last edited by mattyb; May 13, 2012 at 05:50 PM. Reason: Lack of IQ)
     
Salty  (op)
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May 13, 2012, 06:18 PM
 
I'll have to check if that font works with the iPad.
     
finboy
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May 14, 2012, 01:59 AM
 
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
I'll have to check if that font works with the iPad.
I was actually looking at the panels on an iPad 1G. You should probably use THAT to proof your work rather than your 20" screen if that's the intended audience. Nowadays you'd have to use 1G, 2G and 3G to make sure it's compatible I guess.
     
Salty  (op)
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May 14, 2012, 06:05 PM
 
I proofed it on an iPad and I thought the font was pretty readable.

By the way apparently I got feedback from Apple saying that this can't be posted because it's incomplete. Go figure Chapter 1 doesn't complete the book. I swear the people at Apple in charge of approving stuff seem to be completely clueless. Have they never heard of a periodical?
     
Demonhood
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May 14, 2012, 07:22 PM
 
A book is not a periodical. Periodicals have issues, not chapters. I don't think they're clueless.
     
Salty  (op)
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May 14, 2012, 08:30 PM
 
I was planning on updating it, the same way that Life on Earth book that Eddie Cue was going on about is going to be.

Don't get why Apple is actively avoiding letting people put more content on iBooks.
     
Salty  (op)
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May 15, 2012, 07:44 PM
 
Actually I think I figured it out. I accidentally left in the "The next chapter is available' graphic instead of the the next one will be available later one.

Also if anyone wants to suggest one of the default fonts included with iBooks Author (it only uses specific ones I'd be glad to do it.) I actually read one of Marvel's graphic novels today and their fonts are way smaller than mine.
     
Doc HM
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May 16, 2012, 01:12 PM
 
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
Also if anyone wants to suggest one of the default fonts included with iBooks Author (it only uses specific ones I'd be glad to do it.) I actually read one of Marvel's graphic novels today and their fonts are way smaller than mine.
It's not the point size , it's the legibility. Marvels fonts are easier to read, yours is hard to read.
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Salty  (op)
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May 16, 2012, 09:46 PM
 
I'm not saying that it's not. What I am saying is that it's the only font available in that size that I can use. Otherwise users won't be able to highlight any text or copy and paste it, or it won't have that same sort of feel. So of the options I have.

-Non interactive font, IE pixels
-Markerfelt
-Comic Sans
-Arial

Which would you pick?
     
Phileas
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May 17, 2012, 09:49 AM
 
There are a ton of free fonts available online - dafont.com is a great resource for what you're looking for. iBooks Author recognizes all installed fonts, so just browse, install, use.
     
CRASH HARDDRIVE
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May 17, 2012, 12:19 PM
 
Use a blambot dialogue font. Plenty of free ones to choose from that look pretty damned good, but some are missing characters and symbols like " & * ( ) etc. If you need every possible character, pony up for one of the pay fonts.
     
subego
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May 17, 2012, 12:29 PM
 
It took me a day to realize "IE pixels" was supposed to be "i.e. pixels".

I was like, "why the **** would Apple offer a rasterized Internet Explorer font?"
     
CRASH HARDDRIVE
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May 17, 2012, 12:49 PM
 
Speaking of crap MS fonts, why would they offer *puke* Comic Sans??

The worst font of all time? The Microsoft BoB font?! The one font in all the galaxy that just screams "HACK CRAP GAHHH!!!"

And *snicker* Marker felt isn't much more reputable.

If those are really the default font choices, it's like they are f***ing with people!
     
andi*pandi
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May 17, 2012, 01:03 PM
 
I don't think you need to have the text be accessible for this purpose. This is neither a scholarly journal nor classic literature that someone might need to cite.
     
Salty  (op)
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May 17, 2012, 02:39 PM
 
iTunes - Books - How to Break an Invincible Man by David Malcolm Puranen

Try it out on your iPad and tell me if you still think the font is bad. And Andi do you seriously think I'd be better to copy and paste in from Illustrator or something? Another problem if I do that, iBooks author always pastes things in rather small and you have to then resize them, (even vectors) but there aren't really any absolute measurements that you can be assured of. So the text would probably look inconstantly sized.
     
andi*pandi
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May 17, 2012, 03:31 PM
 
Create the text in the same app you do the drawings.

On the ipad, the font is ok for one sentence lines or the speech bubbles, but as soon as the text becomes more heavy, I stop reading. The screenshots from dating sites have smaller font size but are more readable, even without my glasses. In fact it's confusing knowing what to read first when they are interspersed like that.

Things that your book needs:

Text Leading, kerning, typography
Padding on the text boxes so the text does not get cut off or come too close to the edge
Punctuation
An editor.
     
Salty  (op)
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May 17, 2012, 04:29 PM
 
Andi I changed the leading to 1.5 and it does look better (though the text takes up a lot more space mostly it works though.) I actually noticed, I can also use the font Noteworthy. Do you think that one would be better? It seems to be more readable at a smaller size. Heck I could even use Noteworthy for the normal font and marker felt for emphasis. (What do you think of that idea?)

Do you think that Noteworthy would need the same amount of leading? It seems to look a bit funny at 1.5.
     
Salty  (op)
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May 18, 2012, 01:41 AM
 
OK, so a big thanks to Andi.

I am almost done putting up an updated version, I'm just proofing it right now. I've switched the narrative blocks to have a yellow backing, and I've changed the font to Noteworthy, and it's a lot easier to read.

Thanks for the criticism guys!
     
Salty  (op)
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May 18, 2012, 03:52 AM
 
Click here! for the updated version. I think Noteworthy with a yellow background actually is much more readable ... I'd originally gone with blue because I was thinking I might at one point use multiple narrators and then the colour of text bubbles could define them ... but then I realized that was probably a lousy idea since I hadn't even finished this one yet
     
Salty  (op)
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May 18, 2012, 03:53 AM
 
Also I've updated the iBooks file so it should post to the store soon
     
Phileas
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May 18, 2012, 09:34 AM
 
I look at something like this:



and I stop reading before I've even started. Way.Too.Much.Text.

Badly formatted. Andi is right, you need to edit, edit, edit.
     
Salty  (op)
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May 19, 2012, 01:19 AM
 
Originally Posted by Phileas View Post
I look at something like this:



and I stop reading before I've even started. Way.Too.Much.Text.

Badly formatted. Andi is right, you need to edit, edit, edit.
Your qualifications? Andi clearly gave me useful info. You gave me ... bandwagoning. You clearly like to give feedback without concern as to whether or not it would actually be helpful. Do you care about helping or are you simply wanting to be a dick?
     
andi*pandi
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May 19, 2012, 10:26 AM
 
The the new font and contrast on yellow is much better, but still text heavy for a comic type book. Why not take the above page and break it in two? I can see some very humorous drawings you could do to go with the funny story.

Phileas is a creative director and knows what he's on about.

I can tell this is a very personal project for you, so I don't want to come down too hard. You've put a lot into this.
     
Salty  (op)
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May 19, 2012, 10:59 AM
 
Originally Posted by andi*pandi View Post
The the new font and contrast on yellow is much better, but still text heavy for a comic type book. Why not take the above page and break it in two? I can see some very humorous drawings you could do to go with the funny story.

Phileas is a creative director and knows what he's on about.

I can tell this is a very personal project for you, so I don't want to come down too hard. You've put a lot into this.
Thanks Andi.

Yeah, the first chapter is kinda heavy at the outset, the later ones really aren't so much.

I'll think about it.
     
   
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