There's a famous adage:

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

When we're creating eBooks there are some design elements we can't control — the most important of which is text size. One of the hallmarks of eBooks is that readers can resize the text to suit their needs. For readers like me, this is great; I prefer to my eBook text is just a bit bigger than usual.

When a reader increases or decreases the font size, the text reflows and the pagination changes. I have some tips for creating a fluid design that I'll share in just a minute, but for now let me preempt a common question: "What about widows and orphans?" For those used to designing fixed printed pages, the reflowable nature of eBooks can be disconcerting. Usually, changing the pagination might lead to widows and orphans — those dangling lines at the tops and bottoms of pages — but the good news is that Vook's stylesheets automatically prevent them.

A screenshot of Manoush Zomorodi's Camera Ready. The text flows gorgeously and there's not a widow or orphan in sight.

Two kernels of wisdom regarding text size:

1. The Style editor is your friend. Rather than formatting the text size chapter-by-chapter in the Content editor, set it once in the Style editor and you can style your entire eBook in minutes.
2. Think in terms of ems. This requires a bit of explanation, so bear with me for a minute.

Think in terms of ems and your design will be maintained in the environment of fluid, reflowable eBooks.

This part of a larger D.I.Y. Guide to eBook text styling. Read the first post about Font Selection.