Glossary
What is reflowable text?
Updated Also called Reflowable layout
Reflowable text re-wraps itself to fit whatever screen and font size the reader is using. It is how nearly every ebook works, and it is why an ebook has no fixed page count.
What follows from it
- No page numbers. “See page 112” is meaningless. Cross-reference by chapter, or use a link.
- No control over where a page breaks. Anything that depends on a specific arrangement of the page — a two-page spread, a carefully placed illustration — will not survive.
- The reader decides the typography. Font, size, line spacing, margins, and often colour. Your design is a suggestion.
When fixed layout is right
Children’s picture books, comics, cookbooks with plated photography, and anything where the picture and the words are one composition. Fixed layout keeps the design exactly and reads badly on a phone — which is the trade you are making.
For everything else, reflowable is correct. A PDF is effectively fixed layout, which is why a print PDF makes a poor ebook however good it looks on your desk.
Related terms
- EPUBEPUB is the open standard file format for ebooks. Inside, it is a zip archive of HTML and CSS — which is why the text reflows to fit any screen and any font size the reader chooses.
- Front matterFront matter is everything printed before chapter one — half title, title page, copyright page, dedication, contents, and sometimes a foreword or preface. It is what makes a book look like a book rather than a document.
- Trim sizeTrim size is the finished width and height of a printed book after the pages have been cut. It is chosen before the interior is laid out, because changing it later re-flows every page and changes the page count.
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