A system and method for selective control of zoom adjustments in an electronic publication is disclosed. The method may include generating content for display on an electronic reading device; generating at least one style for the content, and storing the content and the at least one style on a computer readable medium. The generation of at least one style may include identifying at least a portion of the content for which at least one zoom level will be specified; specifying a base text size for the portion of the content; and specifying a first value to increment the base text size to a first zoom state text size. A method for rendering an electronic document on an electronic device may include storing content representing an electronic publication in a computer memory of the electronic device, the content including at least one style for a portion of the content, the at least one style including a base text size for the portion of the content and at least a first value to increment the base text size to a first zoom state text size; rendering the contents according to the at least one style; and incrementing the base text size for the portion of the content by the first value in response to a user input to zoom.