no word from the mad scientist, so let's proceed anyway...
***
to remind you where we were, i had freed the text from
the p.g. linebreaks, set the typesize at a nice 12-point,
and run it out with a 4.5-inch measure, obtained from
a pagesize of 5.5*8.5-inches, with 1-inch side-margins.
the text-editor version weighed in at about 567 pages,
and i provided both ragged-right and justified versions.
***
the next thing was to run the text using my converter.
i used most linebreaks obtained from the above specs...
(i made a few changes, in a process i can discuss later.)
these lines had an average length of about 66 characters.
for my taste, that's still too long, but it's what bringhurst
recommends, and that _is_ the length our specs created.
another font woulda created lines with fewer characters,
because times new roman is known for being quite tight
-- it was designed with that aim -- but let's not quibble,
other than to note that lines in the p-book were shorter.
***
once linebreaks are set, you can output them to various
_pagesizes_ simply by jacking up your text-size and/or
making the margins bigger; as an example of that, i ran
it out at 8.5*11, with 17-point type and 1-inch margins.
> http://z-m-l.com/misc/14465-8.5*11.pdf
or here's the 5.5*8.5, at 12-point type, half-inch margins:
> http://z-m-l.com/misc/14465-5.5*8.5.pdf
note that i could also do a version for the iphone screen,
with perhaps 8-point type and very small margins, and
_all_ of these versions would have the same linebreaks...
there's this myth/misunderstanding about _reflow_ that
you _must_ reflow to accommodate different screensizes.
that's not entirely true; it's _never_ been entirely true.
for instance, consider the popular "pocket dictionary"
which brags that it has the exact same pagination as a
regular-sized dictionary. then, in addition, take a look
at an oversized dictionary, and you are likely to find that
it too has the exact same pagination. how is this done?
well, it's quite simple, actually. the font-size is reduced.
and, actually, it's quite _natural_ to reduce the font-size
with smaller pagesize. (and to increase it with bigger.)
because we hold a pocket dictionary closer to our face,
and the oversize dictionary farther than a regular one...
so our eyes automatically adjust to the varying fontsize.
nor does this harm readability. most studies show that
it's character-count that matters in terms of readability,
not the actual length of a line per se. which means that
our notions about "reflow" are quite confused, because
those notions create _shorter_ lines when the fontsize is
increased, since we're holding the window-size constant.
***
at any rate, you have a couple more .pdfs to peruse...
i'll do some more fiddling with this book, just for my own
edification, but at this point i could consider it "finished".
so if anyone has any feedback, please feel free to spill it...
-bowerbird