Sunday, September 26, 2010

IA Writer

Well, if we don't yet have hardware directed squarely at just writing, at least we have a couple apps which do it. Like the new IA Writer. It is getting loads of great reviews. I've barely touched it yet, but I'm a bit puzzled, because even for a guy who is always asking for simpler tools, this one seems curiously under-featured. I mean, it basically don't have any features. Or rather, no settings. You can't even change the font. Or the text size!
That I regard as a mistake. One guy's maximum readability is another guy's headache. A twenty-year-old with 25/20 eyesight will not prefer the same text size as a sixty-year old with cataracts.
And for the font they have gone with mono-spaced? Why? The only reason mono-spaced fonts exist at all is that old typewriters couldn't do anything else. It does not help readability at all, unless you've done years of reading manuscripts in this form, so you're used to it. 
In any case, at least it's interesting. I'll turn it around some more. Although I might stick with My Writing Nook for the while.

5 comments:

TC [Girl] said...

Eolake said...
"I mean, it basically don't have any features. Or rather, no settings. You can't even change the font. Or the text size!"

Weird! How I wish I knew how to write apps, right now! :-/

ganesha games said...

THis had caught my attention but seeing it has no word count, it stayed in the "unbought but I'll check back later" pile. The font is lovely IMHO because it gives you that old typewriter feeling (I have written for ages on an Olivetti typewriter and still have it in the house). I agree that the possibility to scale text size is a must, especially now that I tend to prop up the ipad on the table while I keep the bluetooth keyboard on my knees for confort

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Ah yes, "time it takes to read it" instead of word count. It's pretty cocky to just set it like that without an option to change it.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I might stick with My Writing Nook for the while.

http://www.mywritingnook.com/

ganesha games said...

I use my writing nook too. Beats Pages out of the water. It's better not to have features instead of having features that don't work, like Pages does