{"id":3668,"date":"2018-05-16T01:09:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T23:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybeautifulebooks.com\/?p=3668"},"modified":"2021-03-05T15:32:31","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T14:32:31","slug":"the-bloody-enormous-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybeautifulebooks.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/16\/the-bloody-enormous-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The bloody enormous project"},"content":{"rendered":"
Recently I worked on an extraordinary project, the ebook adaptation of Le Putain d’\u00e9norme livre du bonheur qui va tout d\u00e9chirer<\/em><\/strong>,<\/em> by Anneliese Mackintosh<\/strong> (“The Bloody Enormous Book of Happiness”, the French title of So happy it hurts<\/em><\/strong>). An epistolary novel for the 21st century, the original paper edition is extremely complex, and gives pride of place to all kinds of documents such as emails or snapchats but also receipts, handwritten notes, official documents… with lots of elements that don’t work at all well in ebooks, like tables.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A project like this represents a double challenge. On the one hand, the spirit of the paper model must be preserved as much as possible, because the layout helps tell the story, as well as contributing to the pleasure of the experience. I tried to stay as faithful to it as possible. But you also have to take into account the characteristics and constraints of the digital format, and adapt as necessary.<\/p>\n In particular, for reasons of accessibility, you must be able to enlarge the text, or hear it read using a text-to-speech app, and it has to be able to dynamically adapt to the very small screen of a smartphone just as well as an ereader or a computer screen. These are characteristics of a “reflowable” format. And it must be beautiful, pleasant to read, regardless of the size of the font chosen by the reader or the size of the screen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the left, the original picture, on the right, my fully-accessible reproduction in text.<\/em><\/p>\nDouble challenge<\/h2>\n