chinese epub open in PRS505 as "????"

[jimmyzou]

I have used PRScustomizer with Chinese fonts to successfully flash my PRS505, and enjoyed reading chinese LRF for quite a while.
Recently the Reflow-ability of epub format excited me, and I managed to found some website to download some chinese books in epub format. Now I have problem, I opened those books, all the content turn to "????", obviously the font did not work out.

Please help....

[wallcraft]

I don't know if you can get ePubs to use the Chinese fonts you have already installed, but ePub custom Fonts on 700 and 505 should give you clues about how to make progress. Note that an .epub is just a .zip file, so it is easy to explode the contents to see what is going on.

[wallcraft]

You should also try reading the ePubs with Desktop Adobe Digital Editions and Calibre.

[jimmyzou]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

I don't know if you can get ePubs to use the Chinese fonts you have already installed, but ePub custom Fonts on 700 and 505 should give you clues about how to make progress. Note that an .epub is just a .zip file, so it is easy to explode the contents to see what is going on.

Thanks, spent minutes to read that thread, honestly I can not really get it....
Any simple way to make the epub readable?

Originally Posted by wallcraft

You should also try reading the ePubs with Desktop Adobe Digital Editions and Calibre.

I tried, the book is readable in Calibre's ebook viewer. Any clue? I attach the epub book FYI.

[pepak]

Originally Posted by jimmyzou

Thanks, spent minutes to read that thread, honestly I can not really get it....
Any simple way to make the epub readable?

Other than the one described in "custom fonts"? No.

I tried, the book is readable in Calibre's ebook viewer. Any clue? I attach the epub book FYI.

Calibre's viewer uses system fonts, which presumably support Chinese on your system. Sony Reader uses its built-in fonts which don't support Chinese.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jimmyzou

Thanks, spent minutes to read that thread, honestly I can not really get it....
Any simple way to make the epub readable?





I tried, the book is readable in Calibre's ebook viewer. Any clue? I attach the epub book FYI.

Can you post a link to the font you want to use with this ePub?

[jimmyzou]

The font looks like this:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/...aspx?FMID=1600
Not sure if that's what you were asking? I have the font tt0003m_ and tt0011m_, both are 10M size, downloaded from a forum requiring logging in.


or maybe I just change somewhere is these files, then the chinese fonts flashed in my PRS505 can properly called out?

container.xml or add some other xml file?
.OPF
.NCX

Or do I have to embed fonts in epub? if this way that will be not effcient, since chinese fonts are pretty big file.

[JSWolf]

The fonts you put in your Reader are for LRF display. The ADE fonts are different and I'm not sure you can change them.

The best idea is to go to the following thread and have a read on how to embed fonts for the 505/700.

Before you do anything, read the entire thread. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36361

[jimmyzou]

THanks JSWolf, I read the whole thread, it's quite educational and helpful, but I still have not got any luck.

1. First, I tried built epub by Calibre, I followed exactly the steps, no luck, still "?????" shows ether reading by SONY or Calibre's ebook viewer. The Chinese book name and Author name show correctly though.
While doing it, I have a question, how does Calibre know where is the font I'm using while I'm building the book? yes, there is code to indicate the address of the font, but the font is in my PRS505's flash disk, not on my laptop's Harddisk. So should I always connect my reader to my PC while I'm building books? even by this I doubt if Calibre can get the font on reader to use while creating book.

2. After Failure on Calibre, I tried edit the "100 wars.epub". I rename it to 100 wars.zip, and up-zip it, then I look for CSS file, OK, found one in \OPS\css directory, there is a file called main.css, then I open it, I see the first lines are:
@font-face {
font-family: "myfont";
src:url(res:///opt/sony/ebook/FONT/tt0003m_.ttf);
}

It's useing the font of my fonts I flashed in for LRFs, so I changed to this as below, indicated where I put the TTF I copy from MS WIndows.
@font-face {
font-family: "MingLiU";
src:url(res:///Data/fonts/MINGLIU.ttf);
}

I know on the 2nd trying editing epub file, I might not do correctly, since I did not really understand how to edit it.
Any idea??

[jimmyzou]

Did another try, I suceed!
What I did:
I copy the MINGLIU.ttf into the folder where I put tt0003m_.ttf, then I just changed the main.css' beginning like this:

@font-face {
font-family: "myfont";
src:url(res:///opt/sony/ebook/FONT/MINGLIU.ttf);
}

It works!

Although it's not perfect though, some letter still remain "?", I guess it's because the font file is designed for MS windows...
I copied directly to SD card, it was openned much much faster than LRF file...


UPDATE:
Tried simhei.ttf, it works perfect!

[JSWolf]

Well done!