[WalterBright]

One of the charms of a printed book is the imperfection of the fonts and the impressions of the fonts. Each 'a' impression is slightly different - maybe a little higher, a little lower, a little blotchier, etc. But if I read an ebook, the letters are always identical.

I've often thought that if I wrote an ebook reader, I'd use a font that mimics the imperfections in printed works. I'd have maybe 20-30 different 'a' images, and select one randomly and then 'jitter' its positioning a bit.

I'd also use a background that looks like paper, rather than the perfect white or sepia ones current readers do. Heck, it would be easy enough to scan a few dozen blank sheets of paperback paper, and then pick one randomly for each page.

[mattparcher]

I realize that you’re referring to traditionally-typed text, but Monotype was recently commissioned to design a typeface for the illustrator of Roald Dahl’s books, and they did indeed include alternates for each letter (along with variations in kerning):

>…He selected four subtly different alternates for each character that, combined, would make the text look random enough to look authentic while keeping the glyph set manageable

Article: http://www.monotype.com/expertise/case-studies/a-bespoke-han...

Visual comparison of the alternates: http://www.monotype.com/media/1837/quentin-alternates2.png

[WalterBright]

That is a step in the right direction.

My parents' handwriting was borderline illegible, so they took to typing letters on a manual typewriter. Typewriters suffering from all the problems of complex finicky mechanisms, and being a write-only medium, resulted in a pleasing quirkiness that is completely absent from email. Read enough typed text, and you begin to recognize a person's particular "hand" at the typewriter, as well as the machine's individual quirks. Electric typewriters put an end to most of that, and email finished it off.

[gotodengo]

I distinctly remember a scene from some random show years ago, in which a kid was selling fake school excuses.

The other kids were amazed that the "top quality" excuse even had the same off center 'e' as the typewriter the school nurse used.

[WalterBright]

I should add that I buy paperbacks regularly, often paying more for them than the ebook. I then run 'em through the scanner and read the scanned book on my tablet. I just like the imperfect look of a scanned paperback page than the perfect ebooks. I also like the paperback formatting better than the auto-flow ebook layouts.

I figure I get the best of ebook and hardcopy this way!

[state]

This is delightfully insane.

[WalterBright]

I like disco music, too.

[justinpombrio]

Plus then you own the scan and don't have to worry about DRM.

> I then run 'em through the scanner

Does that take a long time? Do you have a setup to make it faster than scanning page by page?

[WalterBright]

It takes about 5-10 minutes for a typical paperback. A fat one might take 20 minutes tops. I am a fidgety person and cannot sit still, so I keep my hands busy and scan a book while I watch the news on TV. I use a stack slicer and a Fujitsu duplex scanner.

[MatthewWilkes]

Is that legal in many jurisdictions? Format switching for music seems to go back and forth, I imagine this would be covered by the same rules.

[rzzzt]

I like the idea! Also, when the reader navigates to a bookmarked page, an old store receipt should fall out.

[gkya]

Or a dried rose, depending on the genre.

[OJFord]

  > I've often thought that if I wrote an ebook reader, I'd ...

Please write an eBook reader.

[WalterBright]

I've thought about it now and then, but the D compiler consumes all my efforts. I have emailed suggestions to Amazon, and so far they have implemented 0 of them, nor have they responded to any.

Once all the diverse books are converted to ebooks, them all being rendered in the same perfect font on the ereader kinda lends them an off-putting sterility.

[sago]

> them all being rendered in the same perfect font

That annoys me. Book typography is a sophisticated art. Selecting a typeface for a book is a skill, positioning it, sizing it and kerning it for that book makes a big difference.

Books all presented in the same way lose a lot of their character. Dickens shouldn't look like G R R Martin.

Sadly, its a bit of a first world problem, most people don't notice it, not consciously. They just get this sense that ebooks lack gravitas or character somehow.

[WalterBright]

Fortunately, storage space has gotten so cheap it is no problem storing page images rather than text. Even without the images, there are a number of things ereaders could do to render the text in a more booklike manner.

One thing that mystifies me is why there are no ereaders with a screen the exact size of a standard paperback. If I was god-emperor of ereaders, that'd be the first thing I'd demand my minions create.

[toxican]

"My dearest eBook reader..."

[disordinary]

Why not just modify the glyphs programmatically on draw so every character is unique?

I thought of writing a word processor where each glyph created a bump map so as you type the characters are slightly indented as if stroked by a type writer.

[bazzargh]

Back in the 90s, this was done using Type 3 fonts (which have full access to the postscript language). This 1995 paper, for example, describes a technique for generative, random handwriting from samples. http://luc.devroye.org/mcdougallpaper.pdf

[jongalloway2]

Here's a very recent technique that renders an input string based on analysis of handwriting samples: http://visual.cs.ucl.ac.uk/pubs/handwriting/

[chrismorgan]

It’s a similar deal with music engraving: the classics had variation, but most software is painfully mechanical. And that makes it subtly harder to read. One of Lilypond’s key goals was to imitate the variability of the old masters, the organic feel.

I’ve had similar thoughts on text layout as well. And I’d really love it if someone were to sponsor me to make such a thing, because as it is I doubt I’ll ever get to it… so many things to do, so little time.

As a practising Christian I find similar with printed Bibles comparing it with Bible software: the software we have is painfully inferior in many regards (no fixed pagination, for example, though fixed pagination is great for memory). And that’s an area that I do intend to do something about… one of these years.

There are many marvellous things about our technology now; but there were many marvellous things about what came before as well, and we''re often losing those features (as well as not taking advantage of the full possibilities of our new technology, settling for third best because it’s easy to implement).

[WalterBright]

The old illuminated texts were things of beauty, that's for sure. Though nobody could afford to buy a hand-lettered book, then or now.

[chrismorgan]

Eh, illuminated texts were beauty at the cost of function. They looked impressive, but they were not especially practical. Although beauty is nice, I tend to be more interested in things that were strictly functional where we’ve regressed. Musicians certainly report the scores of old masters with their variability easier to read than modern, rigidly consistent ones; easier to keep your place in, and all that. Subtle stuff. And that’s the sort of thing that Lilypond aims for (and certainly succeeds in at the very least partially, I’d say mostly).

[eternalban]

> .. slightly different ...

https://handwriting.io/

[dharma1]

Reminds me of the guy in Her. I guess this could be automated with a neural network - http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~graves/handwriting.html

[eternalban]

Segmentation is a very hard problem specially if based on paper samples.

[dharma1]

Ah, I mean automating the creation of handwritten notes, like handwriting.io does manually

[jv22222]

That's pretty awesome. Interesting to see the entry level price is $199/month

[gavinpc]

Such differences also served as a forensic tool for Sherlock Holmes, as in "A Case of Identity":

> “It is a curious thing,” remarked Holmes, “that a typewriter has really quite as much individuality as a man’s handwriting. Unless they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that in every case there is some little slurring over of the ‘e,’ and a slight defect in the tail of the ‘r.’ There are fourteen other characteristics, but those are the more obvious.”[0]

[0] http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/32/the-adventures-of-sherlock-holm...

[sshanky]

I wonder if there would be value in simulating left and right hand pages on a single page view screen. I'm imagining something where you'd see the left page, and the crease between the pages rendered on the right edge of the screen, with a slice of the left edge of the text from the facing page visible. Turning the page would be rendered as a slide over to the right. The next page turn would show the page flipping to the left, combined with a slide back to the left page.

I think this is another tactile part of reading a novel: laying in bed balancing the book in your hand, holding the side you're not reading, then repositioning your hand when you start reading the right hand page.

[WalterBright]

One reason I prefer an ereader over a book is I can read it with one hand. (It's possible with a book, but a bit awkward.)

[ctdonath]

Tangent: I've been looking for an update of the old Unix screensaver of "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" using a similar technique with a typewriter font. Anyone know?

[dharma1]

http://luc.devroye.org/randomizedfonts.html