Pagination widows, or, why I'm embarrassed about my eBook (2023)

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

CSS and layout hacks for headings, widows, and orphans

  • Commenters explore how to prevent orphaned headings in reflowable layouts.
  • Suggestions include using large positive spacing on headings with a matching negative margin or padding on the following paragraph so the visual gap disappears but pagination respects a larger “block”.
  • Others point out edge cases (e.g., enough room for the “fake” multi-line heading at the bottom of a page) and note these hacks may cause big gaps or incorrect breaks.
  • Some mention the orphans CSS property, but support is limited; ebook CSS support is compared to HTML email: fragmented, buggy, and inconsistent.

Ebook renderers: outdated and inconsistent

  • Many criticize Kindle and Adobe Digital Editions–based engines as the “IE5/IE6” of ebook rendering: dominant, old, and blocking progress.
  • iBooks and some WebKit-based readers are seen as top tier, but even they have quirks (e.g., unjustified design choices or incomplete CSS).
  • Poor CSS implementation forces ugly workarounds (tables for layout, grouping headings with first paragraphs in a block, etc.).
  • People ask for something like “caniuse” for ebook engines; current reality is trial-and-error across many broken implementations.

PDF vs EPUB and reflow vs fixed layout

  • Strong split in preferences:
    • EPUB is favored for fiction and anything read on phones or small devices; reflow and user control of fonts are appreciated.
    • PDF is preferred for technical, mathematical, and richly laid-out content (figures, tables, code, cookbooks).
  • Complaints that many publishers only ship badly auto-converted EPUBs and withhold PDFs, despite already having high-quality print layouts.
  • Debate over page sizes (A4/Letter vs A5/A6) and how poorly fixed-page PDFs work on small screens; some argue for multiple size-specific PDFs, others see this as unscalable.
  • Some wish PDF itself were “responsive”; others note HTML already had reflow but has been misused into pseudo-fixed layouts.

Math and complex typography

  • Math in ebooks is widely seen as terrible, especially on mainstream readers.
  • Using images for formulas is criticized: baseline misalignment, non-matching fonts, low resolution, poor scaling, and accessibility issues.
  • Vector formats (SVG, PDF fragments) and proper markup (with alt text) are suggested as better but often unsupported or unused.
  • Broader point: high-quality pagination, figure placement, and typographic control is a hard, craft-like problem; current ebook tools and renderers underdeliver.

General state of ebooks and paged media

  • Many feel ebooks have stagnated: DRM, monopolies, and lack of investment trump features and typographic quality.
  • Web/CSS paged media support for printing is also called a “never ending mess,” pushing people to HTML→PDF pipelines or desktop tools for anything serious.
  • Some readers prioritize faithful print-like aesthetics; others want minimal publisher styling and robust semantics so devices can render cleanly to user preference.