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Subject:Re: English for Asian readers From:Karen Kay <karenk -at- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 21 Dec 1993 11:54:49 -0800
eLen Olszewski said:
> They do *not* like big books. This is a practical consideration, since
> the amount of office space they generally have is limited, and the
> 8-1/2x11 books we produce just don't fit on their shelves.
Also, don't forget that they use international paper sizes in Japan,
so 8-1/2x11 isn't a size. I never thought about this, but it's true--
the Japanese manuals I have seen were all smaller--about the size of
a trade paperback, maybe a little shorter.
> They do not like books with a lot of white-space. In fact, the denser,
> the better. Text-density is desirable feature. Keeps the books small.
> Doesn't look like you're wasting space.
This largely has to do w/ the way that Japanese is written. Japanese
books are not written w/ lots of white space. And it's all fixed font
size, too. Visually, Japanese books look all mushed up together, but
they don't feel that way when you read them.
