4 ms·
> When I read a book, I don't want parts of speech highlighted in different colours Books don't have syntax highlighting, but having never read a book that doe
by thedz 13y ago
> When I read a book, I don't want parts of speech highlighted in different colours
Books don't have syntax highlighting, but having never read a book that does, I can't say one way or the other that it is a terrible idea.
And actually, as I think about it more, books would be a nicer reading experience if conversations were highlighted, and if key person/place names where in a different color.
(Just like text in RPGs sometimes).
- gliese1337 13y agoThere is one book I know of which uses text color significantly: Michael Ende's _The Neverending Story_. It's very coarse-grained- the color just tells you whether currently-described events are in Fantastica or The Human World- and I don't know if it actually assists in reading comprehension or anything like that, but it is a joy to read. As a personal note, the first time I read it, I didn't realize that the colors were significant for a couple of chapters because, for some reason, I occasionally perceive black text on paper as being red, and thus it took me a while to realize that this text actually was printed in red.
- ketralnis 13y agoAnd I'd argue that if books did have syntax highlighting, parts of speech wouldn't be the best way to inflect it anyway. Maybe give a colour to each each character, or each location, or even just the subject of a sentence. Which "her" does this refer to? Which speaker is this? These are all potentially valuable things. And some books do do these things. Often thoughts are italic whereas spoken words are quoted. Pratchett puts Death's words in all caps.