Image Ratio, Ebooks...

[-K2-]

So, a number of my images (maps primarily) I have little choice but to present longer horizontally. IOW, in a 6x9 paperback you would turn the book to the side to see the image which fills a page. Otherwise, the image would become too small, as I have no choice when it comes to width (9) vs. height (6). It's my understanding that is not an issue with an Ereader. The image might be rotated, but can be zoomed in on.

Would that be the proper way to do it? Or should the image be inserted sideways like in the paper version granting the reader the best resolution without zooming?

Thanks for your advice,

K2

 

[.matthew.]

I'd insert it sideways, zooming and spinning is a MASSIVE pain on ereaders.

On the plus side you could make it quite big and it'd be auto scaled and people could zoom in if they really wanted to

 

[-K2-]

I'd insert it sideways, zooming and spinning is a MASSIVE pain on ereaders.

On the plus side you could make it quite big and it'd be auto scaled and people could zoom in if they really wanted to

I take it you mean, insert it like this:

Not like this:

K2

 

[.matthew.]

No no, like the bottom one, like you would see in a paper book.

I had meant spinning is hard on the software (just turning the device is actually easier than a paperback lol).

If you do it like the first image it'd be super tiny on the page and zooming (while possible) is pretty awkward on most of the readers I've seen.

And make sure you've got page breaks formatted before and after it so it gets it's own.

 

[Ogma]

Personally, I'd rather zoom in than twist around the device. To turn a device, a reader would have to also lock the orientation of the screen and the first one would look better in kdp previews. I've only included maps once. On the advice of my cartographer, I had a simpler, low resolution map for the ebook (800x600) with a link to the higher resolution map on my website (the one in the print version) for those who wanted more detail. Some people have old/limited devices that would struggle with higher resolution.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Agreed with Ogma - I read archaeology books where there are often plans, charts, and diagrams, and it's much better when they are in the same orientation as they are supposed to be viewed - on the Amazon Fire you simply click the image and zoom as required.

If it's a different orientation then the gyro will turn the image when you turn your Fire, causing the image to remain small and at the wrong orientation unless you go chasing screen lock and unlock options, which is more hassle than it's worth.

 

[.matthew.]

The Fire isn't an ereader though. Most ereaders have auto rotate off by default and to rotate the image or zoom and then PAN causes a lot of flickering and isn't really user friendly.

If you're talking tablet devices neither option makes a difference, but with e-ink it's much easy to just tilt the reader to 90 degrees much like you'd do a paper book.

 

[Brian G Turner]

That's a good point to raise, actually, because a dedicated eReader will also probably be black and white and have a low resolution, meaning a crowded image like K2 suggests might end up being difficult to view any useful detail. That's probably why a lot of Kindle books omit the images that the physical versions include.

@K2 - you might have to invest in a Kindle and a Fire to test this out.

 

[.matthew.]

Not to shoot my own case in the foot but I think most new ereaders have good resolution - all but the base model kindle are at 300ppi, which while fairly low compared to modern smartphones and tablets is still pretty much pixel free to the human eye.

That said, the average reader is still only 6" so that is pretty narrow even compared to an average paperback, so going landscape with the picture does add a lot more potential to see the map in full while maintaining clarity. Plus most maps including the images K2 has provided are in the correct aspect ratio to fill the screen that way.

If I get a chance later I'll load the images into an epub and test them out on my reader (a 7" one) and maybe snap a few pictures for you to have a look at.

 

[-K2-]

If I get a chance later I'll load the images into an epub and test them out on my reader (a 7" one) and maybe snap a few pictures for you to have a look at.

If you'd like a higher resolution image of those (those are both reduced significantly), just let me know.

Thanks everyone for your input. I pretty much do everything on a PC--be it write, create art, or read--with a roughly 40" monitor no less just a couple feet away. So, I'm ignorant as to Ereader's capabilities. I looked over the KDP suggestions, which granted don't apply to everyone's readers, but I'm somewhat locked in on many images orientations due to how the real world is, and what I'm wanting to show for each.

As an example using the above image, this is what it would take to keep North - north, and considering the 2:3 ratio:

Besides the fact a lot of inapplicable aspects are shown, it naturally reduces the quality even further, and naturally, defeats the intent.

As to adding items to a website...that's a fine idea, suggested often by folks here for many things. But, many folks seem to use their phones for anything web-based now-a-days (which would drive me insane). Oddly, they want what I've written on -paper- hehe. And I'm sure you all realize how often folks use a print URL, comparatively.

So, I guess it boils down to 'how do you serve many masters.'

Thanks again,

K2

 

[.matthew.]

Yea, go ahead and send me a high res image to try and I'll see what I can do (of the original ones)

 

[.matthew.]

Okay, I've had a play with those images. First curse you for making the sideways one smaller I had to redo the process once I noticed that little fact. So the following images are the biggest image you sent me, with the landscape mode just flipped on its side in the actual epub (so not dependent on any ereader options).

This is on a 7" reader, so you'll have to imagine the text a little more cramped on a normal device (I broke my 6" through tinkering stupidity).

Above: portrait default--- Below: with zoom to original size

---

Above: landscape default --- Below: landscape zoomed to original size

As you can see you get a bigger default scale with it on it's side, and even zoomed in to the full resolution you get quite a lot of extra map on the screen.

Edit: Bear in mind I didn't accurately place the camera in the same place for them so although the top images look bigger text, the actual size of the text on the zoomed images is exactly the same as each other.

 

[-K2-]

Okay, I've had a play with those images. First curse you for making the sideways one smaller I had to redo the process once I noticed that little fact. So the following images are the biggest image you sent me, with the landscape mode just flipped on its side in the actual epub (so not dependent on any ereader options).

This is on a 7" reader, so you'll have to imagine the text a little more cramped on a normal device (I broke my 6" through tinkering stupidity).

Above: portrait default--- Below: with zoom to original size

Above: landscape default --- Below: landscape zoomed to original size

As you can see you get a bigger default scale with it on it's side, and even zoomed in to the full resolution you get quite a lot of extra map on the screen.

Hmm... No idea why it would be smaller unless that google nonsense altered it after upload (physical size on both is exactly the same 4800x3086, but the vertical version it looks like was 5.17MB vs. 5.16). In any case, thanks for your help on that. I'll take a hard look at all of the images (another issue I planned for was shifting to B&W even though KDP stated color...I know their color spectrum is limited).

I guess I also need to consider how easy/well do web links work. The suggestion of a 'website,' might not be as practical as links to just an image using the site as a host for it. Thanks again, I'll consider all I'm seeing in your images.

EDIT: As a side note @.matthew. ...the vertical image which is better initially and shows more when zoomed, doesn't seem to zoom as much as the horizontal image. Or, is that just an illusion? ANd, I just checked those downloads...they both came back unaltered to me, so I'm not sure what's up.

K2

 

[.matthew.]

Yea, the first image was about 1000x1500, and the second 670x1040ish so it looks like google rescaled them, so they would be even clearer if full resolution.

EDIT: I'm a freaking dumbass... it was my fault - I just saved the image instead of using the download link to get the full size one... my bad although full resolution would multiple the filesize by like a 100... so probably best to keep it lower.

I did notice the greyscale confuses things a little too, in colour they look really nice and quite easy to read but b&w a lot got blurred together. I might suggest making a greyscale version and perhaps lightening the dark grey in the background (flooding?) and maybe doing the same to the street lines so they don't blur so much with the grid lines (which I'm assuming is the more important feature).

Web links would work, and I'm not sure about most people but I use my reader in offline mode because WiFi obliterates the battery life. You might get people to turn it on to follow a link, but even then, ereader browsers are pretty terrible. It'd still be worth having the link in for tablet readers, maybe with the full colour version online, but I'd suggest using a really simple web address and having the whole thing visible (this would be at the start of the book?) so that ereader users could (if they wanted) just type the url in on a computer for a really high res image (which I'd personally love to see done more for a lot of fantasy maps).