Reflowable Pages for Reading on Hearken

Sarina Siljander | Hearken Update --

Do you sometimes find it difficult to read something on your smartphone because the screen is so small? To read the words you might need to zoom in, only to find that you might now have to track back and forth to read an entire article?

This is usually how it goes with PDF documents. They are nice, small files that print well and read well on bigger screens. They provide one consistent presentation or formatting no matter where they are displayed. However, these types of documents can be challenging to read with smaller devices.

When you zoom in on a PDF or similar document, you are enlarging the page size, not only the content on the page.

This is one example where reflowable documents work much better. Depending on what type of program reflowable documents are opened with, you might have the option to enlarge text and even change the font. Instead of changing the page size, the content is adjusted to fit the screen. With this you do not need to scroll left and right, back and forth to read.

This week we continue our search for a suitable software program to create these types of reflowable pages for easier reading on Hearken. For these files, we will use the .epub format.

Once the software is determined, then begins the work of converting all of LLC's print publications into reflowable digital publications. Future publications will be released as epub/reflowable documents. We also plan to make archived content available as reflowable/epub files.

Can you imagine the amount of work this will be? Nearly fifty years of publications and more! If you would like to volunteer to help with this activity, or any other digital publications work, let us know!

**note: this first release of Hearken for Apple users does not include the ability to enlarge text. We have noted the request for font size adjustments in future Hearken updates.