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Q&A Why do ebooks often mimic the layout of the printed page?

I was recently editing a novel destined to be published primarily in e-book form, and made a list of pre-press instructions, to be followed when the final text is agreed upon. Some of these instruc...

4 answers  ·  posted 13y ago by Neil‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T01:46:15Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/3331
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T01:46:15Z (about 5 years ago)
I was recently editing a novel destined to be published primarily in e-book form, and made a list of pre-press instructions, to be followed when the final text is agreed upon. Some of these instructions were only needed _because_ the text mimics the printed page, sometimes to the extent of having columns and fully-justified text.

All the e-books I've read use pages. The text is laid out more or less like it would be on a printed page. Why is that? Why not use scrolling text?

There are some advantages to laying out text like this: White space at the end of a chapter is a powerful indicator to the effect that _we're done with this bit_. Text looks professional and classy when it's laid out on a page.

Why is this done? Is it just because users expect it? Or is there a deeper reason?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2011-07-12T05:36:17Z (over 13 years ago)
Original score: 11