5 ways Apple could improve iBooks It's no secret that I love traditional paper books, and I think e-books have a long way to go before they can even begin to compete with physical books. As digital books stand now, they're as much fun to read on the iPad as is watching an IMAX movie projected against a brick wall. That being said, I've come up with a list of five improvements I would like Apple to make to the iBooks app, which I believe could make the e-book reading experience more enjoyable. I wrote this list with the iPad in mind, but I'm sure some of these feature improvements would also benefit the iPhone version of iBooks.
1. Lifelike paper stock backgrounds. Right now, iBooks lets you read a book's text against a glaring white backdrop or an unnatural sepia backdrop. You will find neither of these backdrops in a printed book. Since printed books are made of paper, their pages not only have a distinct feel, but they also have subtle visual variations of the paper stock that the words are printed on. The visual appeal of the fibers in a paper page became apparent when I imported a book I had scanned into my iBooks library. The book was an old 1920s French cookbook whose binding had broken. A year ago, I scanned all 60 pages of it into my computer and saved it as a PDF in fear of the original copy becoming lost or even more damaged. This French cookbook was the first scanned book I had ever read in iBooks, and I noticed immediately how much more enjoyable it was because the pages looked real.Continue reading 5 ways Apple could improve iBooks5 ways Apple could improve iBooks originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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