Michael -

> It was an assult on his eyes. And it made
> the ebook incredibly lo-o-o-o-ng. Way to
> long to print. In fact, it was uncomfortable
> to read at that font size.

> So he opened up the other book he bought. It
> was called, Windows For FudgeMudgins (which
> is the word for Dummies in the future time
> he lives). But dang... the font was
> impossible to read... It looked like this
> even after using the Zoom feature that comes
> with the Acrobat Reader.

> He opened the third book. It was called
> Debbie Learns C++++++++++. The font was this
> size - normal size. Ideal for printing out
> on paper. Easy to read on the screen. Can be
> zoomed in on to increase the size as seen on
> the screen... and doesn't make the book
> longer in page numbers to give a false
> impression. Why, the book even had normal
> margins instead of three inch wide margins.
> Which, authors claim is for notes, but which
> also conveniently increases the length of
> the book five fold.

> He read the book, tried out the example code
> and was pleased. He leant back against the
> chair's back rest, closed his eyes and
> dreamt of a time when eBook authors would
> follow a standard, middle of the road
> approach to fonts, like those who print hard
> copy books do. Size 12 font is okay...

And your post, of course points out the tradeoffs.

Do I make the font size larger to handle the situation that started this thread? Or do I make it size 12 as you suggested and trust that people will use the zoom in feature if it's a PDF? Ours is a PDF and it has reasonably sized margins based on comments from our reviewers.

And what about those e-books that are *not* PDF? Maybe you wouldn't buy them (I don't buy many that aren't PDF) but it looks like there are plenty of people that do judging from all the e-book compilers available.

So... we're no closer to an answer than when we started!

Rick Smith, "The Net Guerrilla"