July 19, 2010

Formatting Text & Story

EVENIFYOUCANREADGREEKYOUWOULDNTWANTTOREADTHEBIBLEIFITWASWRITTENLIKETHEORIGINALWRITERSWROTEWITHALLCAPSNOSPACINGANDNOPUNCTUATIONWOULDYOUIDONTTHINKSONO

So, if it's okay to add space between words, verse numbers between sentences and chapter numbers between sections in order to understand the text - then it should also be okay to add

large amounts of white space

between lines of dialogue

and to help illustrate

the passing of time

or movement, over distance.

Obviously, paper costs are still the main strike against doing this. Then again, paper costs were probably a key reason why PEOPLEUSEDTOWRITELIKETHIS. The whole world was so poor that they couldn't even afford to leave 'white space' between words! But today, by ancient standards, we're all luxuriously wealthy. So let's take advantage of that wealth, plant more trees, and print thicker Bibles.

Bible printers have started experimenting with these facets a bit more in recent years, but I'd love to see more. Effective use of white space makes text much more readable... especially when that text tells a story.

2 comments:

J.T. said...

Agreed!
Where do you stand on 1 column of text rather than 2?
You know - like OTHER books.

Bill Heroman said...

I always said two columns feels too much like an encyclopedia or a textbook, and one column was a better format for story.

Now I simply think it depends on the size of the page. :-)

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