The High Contrast option is for people with impaired vision.
This new edition of Unto This Last offers many benefits to modern readers: QuikScan summaries are placed throughout the text, we point out “must read” and “skippable” passages, and there are two lively introductory essays and complete notes (in a companion file).
Although Unto This Last is great writing, it is hard reading. One feature of this edition is QuikScan summaries placed throughout the text. The summaries give you the gist of each section before you tackle Ruskin’s Victorian prose. Plus, if a section does not seem interesting, you can just read the summary and proceed to the next section. Another feature of QuikScan is a system of corresponding numbers that lets you easily jump back and forth between any of the ideas in a summary and the place in Ruskin’s text where that idea is fully discussed. Yellow highlighting is used to indicate passages in Ruskin’s text that we regard as especially important for mainstream readers. Sepia font color is used for less important passsages that you may want to skip.
You will see superscript footnote numbers in the text for the footnotes Ruskin wrote. The Notes page for each chapter contains both Ruskin’s footnotes and the editor’s footnotes. The division of the chapters into sections is QuikScan, not Ruskin. Ruskin's own idiosyncratic numbering is retained. There is a special high-contrast viewing option designed for low-vision readers. QuikScan has been extensively tested, with positive results, on both blind and low-vision readers. This text of this edition is the the digitized version of the George Allen edition of 1904.