I apologize for the recent silence. Since the holidays, I’ve been focusing on the ebook/magazine. I’ve been writing bits and pieces, and trying to work these pieces into the format.
Pieces like Listeria. Bits like footnotes. I have a Kindle Paperwhite, but I’m also testing the formats in several other readers available on iOS. So far, here’s what’s seems good, and what seems, well, not so good.
First, my physical Kindle keeps getting better and better. A recent update apparently added a footnote feature that displays the footnote in a little window. Previously, it moved you to a footnote page, usually at the end of the book. If you accidentally exited the book while on the footnote page, which I’ve done more than once, the synced location marker would get saved with no easy way to reset it.
I’ve only added footnotes to my test tonight, but I’ve found that the Kobo Reader for iOS does the same thing as the Kindle, although the Kindle apps for iOS do not (disappointing, but hopefully this will change on a future update).
Another recent bit I’ve been playing with is drop caps. The Paperwhite and the Kindle iOS apps make the drop caps bigger, as you can see in the image above, but the Kobo app renders them in the way I expect them to appear (see image below).
Other iOS-based readers I’ve tried and been less impressed with include: Nook (maybe the physical Nook reader is better than the app, but the app kind of sucks); Bookperk (which is more of a book discovery app, but has an epub reader built-in; drop caps are good, but footnotes still go to a footnote page; occasionally bad formatting, but works well enough for an afterthought feature); iBooks (Nice rendering; drop caps are great; footnotes flip to footnotes pages at end); and Blio (Drop caps render nicely, but footnotes are as weak as the others).
I’m also working on putting together other content for this issue. And it isn’t too late to submit your work for the Cowering In Fear#, so hurry and get your submissions in to submissions@nationalpasquinade.com.
