Font Size
Fri, 12/19/2008 - 19:43 — kweber
Others have posted this previously, but changing the font size is by far the most frustrating aspect of this wonderful program. The slider, at least on my iPhone, has a mind of its own. Most of the time it simply doesn't work at all; other times, it jumps from very large to very small. And then just today the font size changed suddenly, as I was reading! We desperately need a way to type in the desired font size. I was hoping the update I downloaded today might have helped, but it didn't.
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A special font needed
To be able to read books in Czech language a special font such as Verdana CZ is needed. How can it be added?
It is available for instance here:
http://palmknihy.cz/
This site has many czech eBooks available for a free download
Verdana CZ font
I am pleased to report that the existing Verdana font (non-CZ) works very well for czech language books. Thanks ;-)
Font size control is a blot on this otherwise superb software
The font slider is horrible. There's some kind of weird latency, and often I can't get the slider to work at all- it's just stuck.
Secondly, it's 10x too touchy. The problem is that the size range is way too large- choices go from too small to be legible (literally just streaks of pixels; at least in the case of Arial Rounded MT Bold) to bizarrely huge, teleprompter size with only 8-10 words on the whole screen. This inappropriately huge range means that the slider range that's actually useful is about 2 millimeters of motion (literally), which is way too tweaky, and the size just jumps around. (Again, this is for Arial Rounded MT Bold, my preferred font).
I can't get pinch & zoom to work properly, and I think it's a mistake to begin with. Due to re-pagination, I can't see the effect in real-time- it's hit & miss. There's little need to adjust font size once you've found your optimum (ok, maybe for in a car), and very often I've found that font size changes unexpectedly because my iPhone slipped and I brushed the screen. So the font size gets messed up- this means I have to go into settings and do battle with the awful slider again. Arghh!!!!
We need the ability to TURN OFF pinch & zoom so that every moment of clumsiness doesn't potentially mess up our reading experience.
We need a slider with a sensible range of sizes, so that changing font sizes doesn't require zen concentration to manage. How about a size pop-up, so our setting is repeatable without all the slider drama?
Anyway, font size control is Stanza's one fly in the ointment for me- and it's an ugly one. Now that Amazon is making noise about releasing Kindle-based reader software for mobile phones, this is the time for Lexcycle to sand off Stanza's rough edges, and maintain its well-earned leadership.
So, how about it?
We are definitely working on
We are definitely working on improving this for a future version of the software. Thanks for your input!
font size
Surely the answer here is obvious: allow us to choose font size by a numerical value rather than that dreadful slider? This would also eliminate the very frustrating problem of trying to remember exactly what was the optimum setting you had found, after changing it, usually when demonstrating the app to someone else - this one of the very few features of this app that everyone will want to set differently, and it's frankly embarrassing to be fiddling endlessly with that awkward slider while trying to persuade someone a sceptic how convenient this app is. Aaargh!
Note that Stanza 1.8 has
Note that Stanza 1.8 has "Font+" and "Font-" actions on the book's action toolbar (under the "More" item). So you can choose from pinch/zoom, the slider in the preferences, or toolbar buttons to alter the font size.
two apps that use a great way to change the font size
Hi again. Maybe you wan't to have a look at Instapaper and Wikipanion.
Especially the first one uses a great way to change the font size.
Wikipanion on the other hand uses a slider too, but it is a much wider slider and you see more text.
http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/5329/instapaperwi6.png
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/8205/wikipaniongc7.png
Instapaper Pro also has a great feature called tilt scrolling which would suit Stanza well:
http://www.instapaper.com/iphone#tiltscroll
Agreed, Instapaper is really
Agreed, Instapaper is really ince.
oops
oops
We are actually thinking of
We are actually thinking of adding an option to change the font size by a means other than a slider in a future release. Thanks for sharing your experience.
By the way, you can change the font size without going into the settings menu by pinching and zooming, which probably explains why it happened in the middle of your reading. You may have done something on the screen that the iPhone thought was pinching or zooming.
Niether Font Size adjustment works for me
Just got an iPhone 3G for Christmas. I LOVE it. This seems like a great app. Problem is that, for such a purpose as reading, Font size is the most important setting to me, by far, and neither method mentioned here works acceptably. Basically not controllable at all.
Slider bar simply doesn't work. I have had no problems using this control with other apps (dozens). Here it simply doesn't respond or acts like I have dragged vertically, sometimes even opening a sub-menu of another setting.
The pinch and zoom function responds just as poorly. I have no problems with it in Saffari. I'm already pretty good at one handed browsing, pinching and zooming. However in Stanza these familiar actions sometimes just change the page, other times it zooms opposite to my action and then stops working. When trying to use this method, no matter how carefully, I usually end up with completely unreadable micro text that won't expand. Then I have to go to the slider and fight with that.
Any suggestions?
The slider we use is the same
The slider we use is the same slider that's used elsewhere on the iPhone. The same goes for pinching and zooming. What might be happening is that your files have built-in settings that are overriding your customized settings.
Try toggling the Display Styles option, which is right under the Margin Width slider. Then tap Save. Try pinching and zooming. Go back to the Settings and try adjusting the font size slider.
"pinching and zooming"
Aha! Yes, that helps. Thanks. But it still would be good to have the option to precisely set the font size.
The release-after-next will
The release-after-next will include improvements to the slider controls. They will be much easier to hit (we don't know why Apple's built-in control is so difficult to hit) and will be much larger to allow for more precise control.