Opting Out of FXL

ebookcraft March 10, 2015

What is FXL?

Print-replica format

Absolutely positioned text overlays on image backgrounds (usually)

Text size cannot be changed: FXL is not reflowable

Layout holds its shape, with very little device fragmentation

Based on the spec as developed by the IDPF and described here:

http://www.idpf.org/epub/fxl/

Pros

Perfect for image-based content like children’s picture books, manga, comics and graphic novels

Full-bleed, tightly-controlled layouts

Lends itself nicely to enhancements like narration, interaction, animation, video, sound

Very little device fragmentation

Cons

Labour intensive and expensive – return on investment?

Unexpected user experience

Restricted sales channels

Hinders accessibility

Three completely different flavours of code (EPUB, KF8, ePIB)

[FXL] is a sledgehammer solution not particularly suited to the nuances of a delicate problem.

– Sanders Kleinfeld

The Debate

Alberto Pettarin (@acutebit) : http://www.albertopettarin.it/blog/2015/02/21/current-fixed-layout-ebooks-considered-harmful.html

The Digital Reader (@thDigitalReader): http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/02/22/the-problem-with-fixed-layout-ebooks/

The FXL mutation will always be harmful because its existence is driven by people firmly locked in the print worldview.

To steal a phrase from Jonathan Ive, my regard for the ePub FXL format could not be lower.

– Baldur Bjarnason

Fixed layout ebooks are like heroin. Way too appealing to the addicts. To an unhealthy, and perhaps fatal, extent. The easy road to oblivion.

– Micah Bowers

I am a Very Firm Believer in using FXL only for content with small amounts of text. The idea of zooming and panning and de-zooming (?) then rezooming, or popping up and then popping some more, is really annoying to me. 

It makes for a very uneven, unpleasant reading experience. You lose reading rhythm and context of the content within the page.

– Kevin Callahan

You’re not going to create a fantastic digital product by imposing the restrictions of print onto a digital file . . . Your audience is going to be better served with a genuinely digital product that makes the most of its format.

–Nick Barreto

Fixed-layout is not damaging anything.

It’s a transitional stage in a shape-shifting medium that is as merciless to formats as the sea is to wooden boats.

–Ron Martínez

Brochureware

Refers to Web sites or pages that are produced by taking an organization’s printed brochure and translating it directly to the Web without regard for the possibilities of the new medium.

Preaching to the Converted

https://www.flickr.com/photos/11810054@N07/

Confusing UX

“I was very frustrated that I could not use the full features of iBooks. I could not change the font. I could not make the font bigger. And the most frustrating of all is that I [could] not highlight my favorite and important text and make notes. . . I would recommend that you buy a paperback.”

“I was very excited to open this ‘textbook’ but now I’m a bit puzzled as to why I can only look at it in landscape mode and why I’m unable to zoom it in at all to adjust for this mind-numbing lack of a ‘portrait’ mode. This is very disappointing—I would comment on the book, BUT I CAN’T READ IT SINCE THE TEXT IS SO SMALL. “So... pretty much one star until I can, you know, actually read the book.”

Accessibility

Loss of logical reading order

Static font size

Inline styling and positioning interfere with legiblity and searchability

Lack of semantic structure

See: http://matt.garrish.ca/2014/06/accessible-indesign-fixed-layouts/

Thanks to Martin Kraetke for the meme.

Authoring New authoring tools like InDesign’s FXL export make creating easy and cheap. Maybe too easy and too cheap.

Inline CSS

Where are all the KF8-FXL ebooks?

Anti-responsive

A fixed-layout approach, where designers expressly earmark a specific chunk of content for a specific page, is entirely antithetical to the endeavor of responsive design.

– Sanders Kleinfeld

Print Hangovers

Let It Go

Publishers are attached to print-style controls.

The print design serves the content and being able to visualize the content differently doesn’t seem to be an option.

Dumb content on smart devices

Most of these e-textbooks are nothing more than a print-under-glass experience.

– Joe Wikert http://jwikert.typepad.com/the_average_joe/2015/03/why-johnny-doesnt-like-e-textbooks.html

It is incumbent upon ebook developers to make using, navigating, storing, and re-accessing ebooks as easy and as accessible as possible.

Let me clarify that I do not consider FXL harmful per se. FXL is harmful as it is done now.

– Alberto Pettarin

From: http://www.albertopettarin.it/blog/2015/02/21/current-fixed-layout-ebooks-considered-harmful.html

Scalability and the Phablet

2 billion people use smartphones now, projected to be 4 billion in five years time

(http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21645131-smartphone-defining-technology-age-truly-personal-computer)

With the rise of mobile devices and now tablets, we have to give up this shared hallucination that we have all been operating under, that we have any control over the presentation. That we have any control over the size of somebody’s screen or the layout that they have or the input mechanism that they’re going to be using. That’s gone. And it’s not coming back.

–Karen McGrane

Thanks to Martin Kraetke for the meme.

Linear

Of necessity, complex page layouts need to be straightened out – made into a text flow.

From Everyday Lace by Heather Zoppetti. Courtesy of Franco Alvarado.

From Hamish McKenzie’s Pitch (Parcel Design/Canadian Writers Group)

From Glenn McArthur’s Colour and Two-Dimensional Design (OCAD)

http://lifenebooks.tumblr.com/post/108548805086/telling-a-publisher-not-to-convert-a-book-as-fixed

Advising a publisher not to convert a book as fixed layout because it will be obnoxious to read, and it’s a normal book.

From Cracked’s The De-Textbook. Thanks, Naomi Kennedy.

With thanks to Joshua Tallent for this sample.

So How Do I Opt Out?

Use ID to your advantage

Landmarks

Navigation

Page-List

toc.xhtml

CSS

With thanks to Joshua Tallent for these samples.

From The Metadata Handbook. Thanks to Jean Kaplansky for this sample.

From Superfoods at Every Meal, courtesy of Jon Simpson

From A Passion for Trees. Thanks to Ben Dugas for pointing me to it.

Because as a publishing company, we need to sell our content. I will support all efforts to improve format options, but in the meantime, we have jobs to do.

– Jon Simpson

Resources

Storify of a Twitter conversation on FXL ebooks https://storify.com/LauraB7/fixed-layout-ebooks

Content in a Zombie Apocalypse http://karenmcgrane.com/2014/10/15/content-in-a-zombie-apocalypse/

On Digital Formats, by Nick Barreto https://medium.com/@canelo/on-digital-formats-b33e5a083154

On the epub:type attribute http://www.idpf.org/accessibility/guidelines/content/semantics/epub-type.php

Thanks! http://bit.ly/1A5eQ6V Twitter: @LauraB7 laura@bradytypesetting.com