Kindle's variable font size feature is probably a threat to large print industry and the vision going stronger with its new slated release of Kindle 2. Well! if you passed off books with extra large fonts as kindergarten stuff, you just got it all wrong. We are conditioned to think of great books and serious reads to be in a certain format and font. The very image of a best seller in your mind will look like a conventional 200 or 300+ paged book with fonts between 10 to 12 pt in size. Oh I know it is a juicy feeling to even look at the thickness of a novel and the small fonts weaving in stories beautifully. Thicker book and smaller fonts meant more pages of content, more drama, more information, more knowledge and more value for money. But at the back of your mind maybe you did care, you did hope, if you could read all that data with less strain in the eye. But can you ever imagine carrying a 10,000 page best seller with 1 inch high letters printed on them? Funny! Isn't it?
But believe it or not, Amazon reader has just done that. As per the Amazon's wireless reading device review, it is a proven fact a surprisingly large number of kindle owners, love being able to change the font size on their Kindle. Yes now you can actually compete with your kid's kindergarten books with the font sizes, without feeling funny at all. After all you will have hi-tech technology doing it for you. And you still have more options than ever. Though Kindles are a boon for people with the low vision, this font zoom feature is highly beneficial for anyone and everyone.
Kindle vision for a better future.
Visual aids like lenses, spectacles, laser treatments and similar products form a huge industry in itself which is already helping majority of people affected by low vision. In a November 2004 article called "magnitude and causes of visual impairment", the WHO estimated that in 2002 there were 161 million (about 2.6% of the world population) visually impaired people in the world, of whom 124 million (about 2%) had low vision and 37 million (about 0.6%) were blind. And the figures are escalating furthermore with the rising population.
Not hard to imagine why there has been such an increase in large print book publications in last 39 years, which were first created as literally double-sized and double font sized books in 1969. Interestingly, one company successfully continuing the tradition is called "Read How you Want" which prints large print books in custom fonts till date. Amazon's has a large book section which is already well organized with helpful categories, bargains and bestseller options for sale.
Kindle's dynamic font size feature has now given a fresh new paradigm to the existing large font print product niches, which so far meant only for the low vision or the partially sighted. Now all reads in kindle format allows users with low vision to read bigger fonts than printed books available. This along with other factors like lower prices for books, 24/7 connectivity, availability, portability, light weight feature, instant downloads, self publishing option, content emailing, what you get is a win-win situation.
Partially sighted or not, it doesn't matter because what counts in the end is, that it eases away eye strain making reading as comfortable as possible. And it goes without saying how important it is for us to take care of our eye sight, especially when there isn't a day when we can avoid reading something or getting to the computer screen for anything we do. Kindle just bridged another gap in distribution of information. Even the conventional way of driving down to a store for your favorite book is over. Buying a kindle, Amazon's gift to mankind is like giving our visions some reprise.
They say old flings die hard. And if you have romanced with original kindle 1.0 then version 2.0 will surely re-kindle your love interest for technological reading in a far more seductive way.
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