5 ms·
For some reason, Butterick is averse to both making a PDF available and to responsive design. Perhaps — as a typographer and book designer — he prefers to contr
by Veen 10y ago
For some reason, Butterick is averse to both making a PDF available and to responsive design. Perhaps — as a typographer and book designer — he prefers to control how the layout looks even if it means it looks bad on smaller screens.
From the FAQ:
* Will you ever release this book as a PDF or e-book? No.
* Do you plan to optimize this book for mobile? No.
- e12e 10y agoI could care less for a PDF - but epub is a pretty useful format for actually reading a book. And a Kindle book is also rather nice (mostly due to kindle syncing location in the books across devices etc - I would prefer to buy ebooks without the DRM, as there's the worry one will lose access for various technical or business reasons). And I'd like an offline copy - I do sometimes read in places without Internet access. Without any of these - I'd be hard-pressed to buy - even if the content is excellent.
- criddell 10y agoButterick cares deeply about typography and Amazon doesn't so I can see why he doesn't make a Kindle version. I too buy mostly Kindle books because it's easy to remove the DRM. It's been a while since I looked, but that was more difficult on Apple and Google ebooks.
- simonh 10y agoSo he cares deeply about making the book oook beautiful for a specific arbitrary subset of people and doesn't give a crap about that for the set of people that happens to include me. Nice to know.
- Veen 10y agoI don't think the "arbitrary" is justified. It's a group of people who use a platform over which a reasonable amount control over typography and layout can be maintained. That's not arbitrary if your goal is to create books that conform to a particular standard. (it's also possible there are technical reasons. The book is written in Pollen, Butterick's publishing system for web-based books. I don't believe it supports output to other formats.)