Technology and the Written Word Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Technology and the Written Word - Essay Example These have the advantage of showing moving screens full of color and capabilities that are very advanced. Books no matter how well are printed are sold more in the electronic forms than in the printed forms in today’s technological age (Richards, 2010). The digital reading platform will provide traditional publishers with many new opportunities such as the ability to package reading material (books) in new forms to attract more customers (Roush, 2010). It is envisioned by many that the publishing industry will provide basic text-centric digital content of books so cheap by 2020 that more people will become regular readers like paperback books did in 1940s (Roush, 2010). The publishers can therefore, begin to make up the profits which they have sacrificed by lower prices by increased volumes. E-books are designed in such a way that the readability of it will never degrade over time. The pages will not crumble, binding will never break and there will be no variations in the printing ink. The technology in the e-book has broken free of all the limitations of the printed books. E-books can have brought with itself the concept super portability combined with some useful technological features. For example, since e-books are in a digital text file format, any difficult word or phrase can be search instantaneously. The feature of duplication can give the readers the option to trade or share books with friends without actually giving up one of their possessions. But given this gain, a loss is also there. Copy right protections raise the question of trading and sharing these books. This is both good and bad for publishers. Duplication of e-books by the users can reduce the production costs causing the books prices to decline. But on the downside, the publishers cannot keep a lid on the trade and share of books causing books to be duplicated without copyrights. This raises the question