What triggered me to start this thread was this answer from Kobo on some questions asked by ShellShock:
"We are not sure why you are sideloading your Kobo books."
(Original post found
here)
[QUOTE=ShellShock;2505061]This the reply I had from Kobo support when I raised the problem with them in March.
Quote:
We have not been able to test it in the Nickel font through the file you sent us as it does not come up in the list of font options with the documents you send us. However when we tested the file you sent us in the font call "Avenir," we were able to recreate the problem.
Unfortunately, we do not support texts outside of what the Kobo Glo comes with. To ensure sideloaded content is viewed without problems, you need to view it with the "Document Default" test.
When you either create your own documents or sideload documents from other sources and the Document default is not selected, we cannot guarantee that the font will behave properly or that you would see the text as it should appear.
We understand that with previous version this might have worked, however, the software has been re-written for optimal usage.
We are not sure why you are sideloading your Kobo books. However, if you can provide us with a concrete example from a Kobo-purchased book that we can test, we will able to let our development team know of the discrepancy with the italic font.
The eBook would have to be sent to us with a specific example on a page where the problem is appearing so that we can test accordingly.
We apologize for the inconvenience. We are aware that this is not the response you would want to receive. We will try our best to provide you with a solution.
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There are many issues with kepubs that - for me - outweigh the enhancements of the industry standard.
This answer also shows that Kobo personnel actually do not use Kobo devices as many issues with these devices are not solved (timely).
Some issues:
unnecessary margins between sentences. Adding a padding feature (padding left-right and padding top-bottom) to the font settings may fix this. Default padding should be zero.
the necessary margins (scene breaks) are not there (or not recognizable as such)
centered text is not respected
font issues
double page margins (epub page margins + margins of the kobo wrapper)
(yes, there are more)
See attachments for a side-by-side comparison.
Unnecessary margins between sentences may be solved by adding a padding feature (padding left-right and padding top-bottom) to the font settings. Default padding should be zero.
Proprietary format
If Kobo wants to use it's own proprietary format (kepub) for Digital rights management or other reasons instead of an industry standard (epub) it should
1. be an enhancement or improvement of the industry standard (epub). If not, it's not executed well and there is no need for a proprietary format.
2. respect other used standards/conventions. E.g. fonts issues as italic = bold (unexpected behaviour). Kobo should follow these font standards instead of inventing their own.
3. If any part, feature or element is sub par the industry standard (of behaves differently than expected) it should be fixed. If it can not then there is no need for this proprietary format.
IMHO, a kepub should
1. render the original layout as intended by the publisher. A book is not just some text, a well thought layout makes part of it and improves readability and user experience. And this is not different for a digital or a physical (paper) edition.
2. add the flexability to enable the unique Kobo features (font and page margin settings) and leaving everything else unaltered