Some iPad Screensnap Studies

Went to fondle an iPad again today.

Did some screensnaps to answer some questions.

See them — many! — after the break.

This is FreakAngels, an ongoing webcomic (also available in print collections) by Warren Ellis.

It’s readable like this, the default view …


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Though it needs to be pushed up a bit to show the entire page …


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And it’s entirely readable when pinched-out/centered (a tap won’t enlarge it, like with Safari on iPhone, because the image area isn’t seen as a textarea) …


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Earlier in the week, Ellis wrote about newspaper comics. I happened to hit John K.’s blog and there was a post with some oldies I decided to try:


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Both of those are difficult to read like that. At least for me. Pinch out to zoom, then swipe, could be done, but that’s a chore.

The solution is landscape …


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That Daleks PDF from the BBC could work as wallpaper in portrait …


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… but in landscape …


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… it’s obvious why I said it would by DIY. It needs to be filled out with some PhotoShopping. iPad wallpapers must be a 1200×1200 1024×1024 square to accommodate both orientations.

Someone in my Twitterstream is nuts over the work of Stephen King. He also wants an iPad, so I decided to get the following snaps for him, since King’s latest book was on the iPad …


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I wonder how those illustrations compare in size to the hardcover? On the iPad, I thought they were improperly scaled: too small. This is something publishers will now have to consider for eBooks.

I bumped down to the smallest typesize …


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Now he can see how the screen length of chapter one compares to the paper length in the printed book. And maybe he will Comment and tell me if the printed chapter two has Small Caps instead of the ALL CAPS in that first paragraph.

5 responses to “Some iPad Screensnap Studies

  1. Ooh, thanks for the Stephen King snaps. Looks pretty good. The map in the hardcover (obviously) spreads over two pages in B&W, but there is a colour one online – it would have been great to have a full landscape colour version in the eBook. As you say, I expect publishers will start to pick up on things like this.

    Love the Dalek wallpaper, but the iPad resolution is 1024 x 1024 due to the rotation. Which means framing a good image is going to be pretty tricky!

  2. I noticed the illustration scaling in another book I browsed at the Apple Store-Here, There be Dragons…the pictures seemed oddly small on the page. Haven’t seen the actual paper copy to compare.

  3. Argh! 1024? Must fix post. What about the CAPS?

  4. Okay, in the print version of Under the Dome, the titles THE AIRPLANE AND THE WOODCHUCK and BARBIE are actually sections, not chapters. They appear in caps on their own blank pages.

    The formatting of the text at the top of chapter two is correct – caps, then bold italic caps. However, as stated, BARBIE doesn’t belong there, it should be on a blank page before.

  5. Hmmmm…. I did skip some pages, but I don’t think there were section breaks like that.