Aura Page numbering issue when increasing font size.

[little82]

Hello, I have recently purchased by first eReader and I decided on a Kobo Aura because I liked the easy two-finger approach to changing font size and and screen light brightness. However, what I have noticed is that the page numbers always remain the same irrespective of the size of the font I am using. For example, when I open a new book it will say "Page 1 of 274" at the bottom of the page. As I start to read the book it increments the pages but not on every page. If I am on "Page 10 of 274" and I increase the font, I am still on "Page 10 of 274" and remain so for the next 3 to 7 page swipes. Is this normal because when I used Sony's eReader on my PC, the total number of pages would change up or down depending on the size of font.

I have reset the device and it makes no difference. All my books are ePub and I thought that the Kobo Aura could support this format. Am I missing something?

I have searched the forum and not seen any mention of this issue.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

[PeterT]

This is totally standard when reading books in ePub format with Kobo's software (based on Adobe's RMSDK engine
.

If you convert the books using calibre and the Kobo Touch Extended driver they will be in kEpub format, and reading those will use the alternative Kobo reading engine based on NetFront's ACCESS engine.

[dordale]

Yup--totally normal as PeterT says. The ePub format has "page breaks" that don't necessarily correspond with the number of "screen turns" on e-ink devices. This is the way the Sony ereaders (newer models that use ePub format), Nooks, and Kobos number pages. For the Kobos you do have the option of converting your books to KePub format. If you do that and set your Kobo to "display progress for current chapter" it will show the actual number of "screen turns" in the chapter. But, if you set the Kobo to "display progress for entire book", it will use the ePub pages not the number of page turns for the entire book.

[filmo]

Epub page number madness is so page numbers for book can be the same as possable regardless of font size, font type, screen size or manufacture. I can read on page 235 in a book on 5 inch screen Kobo, then continue reading on 7 inch screen Kobo, or 8 inch screen tablet on page 235 without syncing page position other than page number. On my Kobo Mini it is 6 page turns before page number changes on larger screen it is fewer page turns.

[little82]

I have installed Calibre but I don't see kEpub as a conversion option. Is it called something else?

[little82]

OK, so now I have installed the plugin for Calibre and I have an accurate page representation. I just have to get used to reading by chapters, rather than by the whole book.

Thanks for all your help.

[robko]

Originally Posted by little82

I just have to get used to reading by chapters, rather than by the whole book.

As long as you are on a recent firmware, go into the "settings" menu, the "reading settings" and on the 2nd page you can change it to display page numbers by total book rather than chapters.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by robko

As long as you are on a recent firmware, go into the "settings" menu, the "reading settings" and on the 2nd page you can change it to display page numbers by total book rather than chapters.

The problem with that is (at least in my experience) is for whole book page #s, the Kobo uses the ePub page numbering system, not the actual "screen turns" that little82 wants to see.

[robko]

Originally Posted by dordale

The problem with that is (at least in my experience) is for whole book page #s, the Kobo uses the ePub page numbering system, not the actual "screen turns" that little82 wants to see.

You're right. I hadn't realized that.

[arspr]

Yes for the whole book, Kobo cannot use a relative page numbering because they would need to render the whole book in order to count all the page turns it involves... And this can be a quite intensive task in long books. So they go to an absolute page numbering system like the epub one.

(Of course this happens because Kobo wants... Kobo uses a database in order to store a lot of settings of the books. So they could have perfectly coded a background process in order to render the whole book once, and then annotate that number of page turns in the database... But they hadn't... They've gone the easy way...)

Nevertheless, take in mind that some people actually prefer an absolute page numbering system and others a relative one...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by arspr

(Of course this happens because Kobo wants... Kobo uses a database in order to store a lot of settings of the books. So they could have perfectly coded a background process in order to render the whole book once, and then annotate that number of page turns in the database... But they hadn't... They've gone the easy way...)

Except of course they would have to do this for each font, each font size, each margin setting and each line spacing setting. Of course, it can be handled by doing it each time a setting is change, but do you delete the existing one? Yes, it can be done, but is it practical?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by arspr

(Of course this happens because Kobo wants... Kobo uses a database in order to store a lot of settings of the books. So they could have perfectly coded a background process in order to render the whole book once, and then annotate that number of page turns in the database... But they hadn't... They've gone the easy way...)

Nevertheless, take in mind that some people actually prefer an absolute page numbering system and others a relative one...

Actually, they would have to re-render the entire book if you made any changes in line spacing, font size or margins. Hmmm, with 24 font sizes, 15 line spacings and 9 margin settings, your background process would have to render the book 3240 times. For added joy, we will watch the database size grow exponentially. "That way lies madness; let me shun that". WS

Personally, I prefer the Adobe synthetic page numbers since I can read to page 134 on my H20, continue from there on my iPad or Nexus 7, switch back to the H2O at page 214 and the page numbers match up. Using a page per screen line numbering system, I would have to do a search in the book for a phrase near the page I was last reading and I find remembering a number as just being easier for me.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by DNSB

...
Personally, I prefer the Adobe synthetic page numbers since I can read to page 134 on my H20, continue from there on my iPad or Nexus 7, switch back to the H2O at page 214 and the page numbers match up. Using a page per screen line numbering system, I would have to do a search in the book for a phrase near the page I was last reading and I find remembering a number as just being easier for me.

Even though I don't switch readers hardly ever, I'm with DNSB on this one. I prefer the static number of pages to give me a real idea of the length of the book. Changing the page numbers to a false inflated value just because I increase the font size is never something I want to happen while I read.

[arspr]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Except of course they would have to do this for each font, each font size, each margin setting and each line spacing setting. Of course, it can be handled by doing it each time a setting is change, but do you delete the existing one? Yes, it can be done, but is it practical?

Yes it is IMO. Kobo could have chosen to store every possible combination (bigger database but faster "calculation" when switching back to a known combination) or probably much better just one setting. As I underlined the trick is using a background process. Of course you have to render the whole book and that can take some time, but what is the problem of saying "counting pages" in the footer for a while instead of an instantaneous "page xx of yy"? More over when in fact I suppose people are not continuously changing layout settings. You usually just change them at the beginning till they suit your preferences...

And about if it is worth the effort, just look at this thread. Some people are more or less complaining about full book page numbering being absolute... So I suppose they would prefer relative ones. And this "issue" arises again and again periodically... Somehow the mix of relative/chapter vs absolute/book is weird for the final user, no matter how many coding or technical reasons cause it. It just looks as a "bug"...


And as a matter of fact I also DO prefer absolute page numbers, so I'm playing the Devil's Advocate role here...

[JSWolf]

IMHO, Adobe (ADE) is the only one who got eBook page numbers.