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Old 09-01-2007, 07:21 PM   #1
annc
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A caution on the large-print editions: I accidently got one, and it was a royal pain to read. They used 16-point Times on 17-point leading with narrow margins all around. I ha to hold the book far away, but there was no space for my hands!
I see (and read) a lot of large print books, because my favourite authors tend to be on the shelf, whereas the adult fiction copies are always out on loan. I also see them when they come through our room at work. They all have small margins – and pulpy paper – because the publishers try desperately to keep the weight down for elderly people with arthritic hands. My main complaint is that they generally don't set the H&Js correctly, so you have huge word spaces and vast rivers of white. I've never seen 16/17 point Times, though – ours usually have fairly decent leading.

With the ageing of the baby boomers, things are looking up in some areas for large print. The editions are starting to come out at the same time as the hard cover adult fiction, and the cover artwork is improving all the time. Sometimes now I see that the mainstream publishers are licensing their covers to the large print publishers. Such an improvement on the old 'plain wrapper' covers.

Oh, and things are improving in the audio books too. Our supplier received our boxed set of the latest Harry Potter less than a month after the release of the print version. It's being repackaged, so I haven't seen it yet.

We'll put the large print editions of Magdalen Nabb's titles on our reissues standing order list because they're more likely to be reissued in large print. I rarely do desk shifts, so don't often have the opportunity to recommend them to people who are borrowing authors like Donna Leon.

   
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Old 09-02-2007, 08:39 AM   #2
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They all have small margins – and pulpy paper – because the publishers try desperately to keep the weight down for elderly people with arthritic hands.
You are kind. My more cynical assumption was they were trying to save paper, printing, and expense.

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My main complaint is that they generally don't set the H&Js correctly, so you have huge word spaces and vast rivers of white. I've never seen 16/17 point Times, though – ours usually have fairly decent leading.
I was just guessing before: it is actually set 20.5 on 16 points X 26 picas. And yes, lousy spacing — I believe that the rule was to have no — zero, zilch — hyphenation. You can imagine what this does to type of this size at such a measure! (I also see no hint that the spacing was customized to begin with, even though they are using type designed for 11 to 13 point at a much larger size.)

This is Magdalen Nabb’s Property of Blood, incidentally — a good book but for its production (in my case). The binding is also one of those that will not allow you to open the spreads fully, so you feel like you’re wrestling with this intractable thing while you try to read.

I have great sympathy for people with poor sight. Before my cataract surgery, I needed large type to read (the web was easier than print at that point, so long as I could blow up the text — if all else failed, I could copy it into an app that allowed me to if the browser did not). But this book is just plain hard to read regardless. All it offers is large letters, but an important aspect of legible type is space, and there it fails completely. Yet I suppose those with problem eyes are grateful anyway, and the books get sold and read. They could be so much better, though, and it might not raise the price outrageously.

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With the ageing of the baby boomers, things are looking up in some areas for large print. The editions are starting to come out at the same time as the hard cover adult fiction, and the cover artwork is improving all the time. Sometimes now I see that the mainstream publishers are licensing their covers to the large print publishers. Such an improvement on the old 'plain wrapper' covers.
This has a nice cover. It is from Chivers Large Print & Thorndike Press, an English company, so you may well get it in Australia.

   
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Old 09-02-2007, 11:29 AM   #3
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You are kind. My more cynical assumption was they were trying to save paper, printing, and expense.
The man who first explained this to me is an old-style, gentleman book supplier. Comes to visit us once a year with his wife, and always brings us a cake. We sit around a table sipping coffee and eating cake, and the first half hour of the visit is always taken up with pleasantries and discussion of what we've all been doing since we last met. I always think it is a shame we don't have a book-lined study to conduct this meeting in. He's been in the business of large type (and now audio books) for a long, long time. One of his two sons is in the business, while the other chose another route fairly recently. These are people who genuinely love books.

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Originally Posted by ktinkel View Post
This is Magdalen Nabb’s Property of Blood, incidentally — a good book but for its production (in my case). The binding is also one of those that will not allow you to open the spreads fully, so you feel like you’re wrestling with this intractable thing while you try to read.

...

This has a nice cover. It is from Chivers Large Print & Thorndike Press, an English company, so you may well get it in Australia.
We get the Chivers large print, from the husband and wife mentioned above. We've probably got Property of Blood in large print, so I'll hunt around for it today.

   
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