Content & Data

For too long, the act of printing some thing in and of itself has been placed on too high a pedestal. The true value of an object lies in what it says, not its mere existence. And in the case of a book, that value is intrinsically connected with content. Dividing content into two broad groups: 

Content without well-defined form (Formless Content)

Content with well-defined form (Definite Content) 

Formless Content can be reflowed into different formats and not lose any intrinsic meaning. It’s content divorced from layout. Most novels and works of non-fiction are 

Formless. 

In the context of the book as an object, the key difference between Formless and Definite Content is the interaction between the content and the page. Formless Content doesn’t see the page or its boundaries. Whereas Definite Content is not only aware of the page, but embraces it. It edits, shifts and resizes itself to fit the page. In a sense, Definite Content approaches the page as a canvas — something with dimensions and limitations — and leverages these attributes to both elevate the object and the content to a more complete whole. 

Put very simply, Formless Content is unaware of the container. Definite Content embraces the container as a canvas. Formless content is usually only text. Definite content usually has some visual elements along with text. 

The Kindle and iPhone only do text. The iPad changes the experience formula. It brings the excellent text readability of the iPhone/Kindle to a larger canvas. It combines the intimacy and comfort of reading on those devices with a canvas both large enough and versatile enough to allow for well considered layouts. 

Of the books we do print — the books we make — they need rigor. They need to be books where the object is embraced as a canvas by designer, publisher and writer. This is the only way these books as physical objects will carry any meaning moving forward.

Designers working on the future form of the book need to be aware of these emerging datasets. It’s only through an awareness that we can surface them without harming the reading experience. And data harms the reading experience whenever it pulls the reader away from the text, or forces them to concentrate harder than they would with a physical book.

The lack of data integrity, the abandonment of quality and the cheap content are issues that need to be solved, now that digital era has arrived.

REFERENCES

Books in the age of iPad by Craig Mod (http://craigmod.com/journal/ipad_and_books/)

The shape of our future book by Craig Mod (http://craigmod.com/satellite/our_future_book/)