Kobo Reader Settings Tweaks

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Anybody know whether you can set orphan and widow values in the Kobo eReader.conf ?

I've added some code to my conf file and so far have had no error messages or obvious lock-ups. I don't yet know if the code is having any effect as it may apply to kepubs and most of my stuff is side-loaded epubs. I'll have to sort out a book without widows and orphans set in the css to do some proper checking on.

BobC

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by BobC

I've added some code to my conf file and so far have had no error messages or obvious lock-ups. I don't yet know if the code is having any effect as it may apply to kepubs and most of my stuff is side-loaded epubs. I'll have to sort out a book without widows and orphans set in the css to do some proper checking on.

What did you add?

[BobC]

Originally Posted by davidfor

What did you add?

I looked at the syntax used for the Fonts and Margins and it followed that for CSS so this is now what my [Reading] section looks like :

[Reading]
readingAdobeShowPageNumbers=false
readingAlignment=justify
readingFontFamily=Malabar
readingFontWeight\Malabar=@Variant(\0\0\0\x87>aG\xae)
readingLeftMargin=2
readingLineHeight=1.35
readingOrphans=0
readingRightMargin=2
readingWidows=0

The other options, though, mirror adjustments available via the UI so I am not too hopeful that it will have any effect.

It would be nice if you could use something like an epub.css file as used by Coolreader to set defaults for the renderer - effectively a stylesheet that gets used for all documents of a particular type.

BobC

[Mrs_Often]

Nice! Thanks BobC, please keep us informed when you find out more (ie. if it works). And I'll try it myself next time my battery runs out and I have to plug in (battery testing so not plugging in before battery empties).

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by BobC

I've added some code to my conf file and so far have had no error messages or obvious lock-ups. I don't yet know if the code is having any effect as it may apply to kepubs and most of my stuff is side-loaded epubs. I'll have to sort out a book without widows and orphans set in the css to do some proper checking on.

BobC

Originally Posted by BobC

I looked at the syntax used for the Fonts and Margins and it followed that for CSS so this is now what my [Reading] section looks like :

[Reading]
readingAdobeShowPageNumbers=false
readingAlignment=justify
readingFontFamily=Malabar
readingFontWeight\Malabar=@Variant(\0\0\0\x87>aG\xae)
readingLeftMargin=2
readingLineHeight=1.35
readingOrphans=0
readingRightMargin=2
readingWidows=0

I put this in as well, and then read a Calibre-made news epub and a public domain book, both without any widow/orphan settings. I'm sad to report that the readingOrphans and readingWidows does nothing (I think)

[Mrs_Often]

Hah, lookeelook what lissandro.sosa posted over here:

[General]
AIRPLANE_MODE=true
hasSyncedExistingRelatedItems=true
lastLibrarySorterbooks=sortByTitle()
lastLibrarySorterhome=sortByNewest()
libraryBuilderBlueprint=sortByTitle()\nfilterByMin e()\nviewBy5List()
selectionStyle=underline

That looks like it means we can sort our home page by something other than NEW.

[treadlightly]

Is there a setting to configure the number of seconds before sleep upon waking the Reader and not touching the page? I curse at least once a day because of this.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

Is there a setting to configure the number of seconds before sleep upon waking the Reader and not touching the page? I curse at least once a day because of this.

No, its a bug.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

I put this in as well, and then read a Calibre-made news epub and a public domain book, both without any widow/orphan settings. I'm sad to report that the readingOrphans and readingWidows does nothing (I think)

Was that a book transferred as a simple epub or a .kepub.epub ?

I've not noticed any pages that cut off short recently, but all my books have been kepubified and AFAICS have no widows/orphans settings in the book.

BobC

[tshering]

I doubt that readingOrphans=0 and readingWidows=0 in the configuration file have any effect. At least, I am unable to find any hint to routines for getting or setting these values in the binary file.

[2bits]

BETTER VALUES would be ...

2 settings - extreme minimum think "phonebook"

12, 16

8 settings - SINGLE STEP PRECISION - normal reading range from small think "Gideon Bible" upward

18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

8 settings - SINGLE STEP PRECISION - magnified as age = gradual decline

26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33

6 settings - visually impaired reading

34, 38, 42, 46, 52, 58


I'd love someone to tell me where this table is in the guts of koboland so I could change the original poor values

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by BobC

Was that a book transferred as a simple epub or a .kepub.epub ?

I've not noticed any pages that cut off short recently, but all my books have been kepubified and AFAICS have no widows/orphans settings in the book.

BobC

Good point. I used simple regular epubs.

So you think readingOrphans/Widows=0 is working for kepub.epubs?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by 2bits

I'd love someone to tell me where this table is in the guts of koboland so I could change the original poor values

I have no idea where in the code they are listed, but if you read through this thread, you can set easily the current default to use. And you can change the stored size to use for any book on the device.

[2bits]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I have no idea where in the code they are listed, but if you read through this thread, you can set easily the current default to use. And you can change the stored size to use for any book on the device.

Quite right.

But after you hack the default value in the configuration file
if you then change the font size setting with the kobo reader
you lose your hacked setting (that required a pc to change)
and
with kobo's internal 24 pre-sets waiting to be inserted
immediately showing the result for comparison
it would be -ideal- if those presets were practical useful values
with -no holes- in the -most used- part of the range.

Change in lighting, font type, fatigue etc
may make changing size desirable
and different books might require different settings
(now all stored/saved for each title) ...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by 2bits

Quite right.

But after you hack the default value in the configuration file
if you then change the font size setting with the kobo reader
you lose your hacked setting (that required a pc to change)

Correct.

and
with kobo's internal 24 pre-sets waiting to be inserted
immediately showing the result for comparison
it would be -ideal- if those presets were practical useful values
with -no holes- in the -most used- part of the range.

Change in lighting, font type, fatigue etc
may make changing size desirable
and different books might require different settings
(now all stored/saved for each title) ...

Did you read all of my post? The bit were it says "And you can change the stored size to use for any book on the device."? The values for each book are stored in the database. Specifically in the "content_settings" table. I know I have discussed this before and I thought it was in this thread.