From Book to Screen: A Window on Renaissance Electronic Texts
Best, Michael
Early Modern Literary Studies 1.2 (August 1995)
Abstract
A good place to start is the obvious: a computer screen is nothing like a book. The book is a wonderfully rich source of stimulus; as we read we are guided by visual signals provided by the type and perhaps by images, and as we progress we receive the regular reward of turning pages, pages which have a satisfyingly three-dimensional existence, and which even smell good. The computer provides a two-dimensional screen that displays text and graphics in a very similar manner, but there is far less sensual feedback for the reader. Much of the energy that goes into the development and design of electronic texts is spent on recreating the kinds of expectations and rewards that readers of books are used to; the danger is that the new medium will become limited by its predecessor, and that the screen will simply be seen as a poor imitation of the original book.
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