Which Kobo Embedded Font Do You Use Most Often?

[taming]

[QUOTE=Ripplinger;2542055
Edit: I also noticed odd behavior with at least the Kobo Nickel font, where the last line of one page with any descenders gets cut off and will be seen at the top of the following page.[/QUOTE]

I like how Nickel looks as an ereading font, but the descender thing drives me nuts so I don't use it. I find it very odd that Kobo actually commisioned this font for their use, brags on it in some of its promo mateirals, but can't seem to get it right. Not just the descenders, either, but some lack of glyphs, and, if I remember correctly, that whole italics showing as bold, thing.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I just tried the Kobo supplied fonts on those pages with the Greek letters, and the same exact thing happens. Kobo will substitute another font so the letters do appear, but they are super tiny as before with CharisSIL. The only difference is the entire words are super tiny instead of just some of the characters. So it seems the results will always be not that pleasant.

The only two Kobo supplied fonts that I would try with the Greek alphabet would be Gothic and Ryumin. Neither of which I find to be a great font for reading in my not so humble opinion. If you try one of those two, try using the font size slider to change the overall font size to where you are comfortable reading the text.

Regards,
David

[Anak]

Most users will start with the Georgia font because Kobo forces its use. No matter what font is defined in the epub. If the fallback font is "serif" (e.g. font-family:Amasis, serif then it will use the Georgia font and even ignore the present Amasis font on the device.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Anak

Most users will start with the Georgia font because Kobo forces its use. No matter what font is defined in the epub. If the fallback font is "serif" (e.g. font-family:Amasis, serif then it will use the Georgia font and even ignore the present Amasis font on the device.

Does this happen is the font is an embedded font?

So if the publisher uses font-family: "Charis", serif will Georgia be used instead of "Charis"?

[Ripplinger]

When I was reading the book with all the Greek characters, that's when I discovered (and liked) the Georgia font. Georgia displayed all the Greek characters correctly and everything else I've run into so far.

[samhy]

Since DejaVu serif was mentioned here, I tried it. I have to say it's quite a nice font

[geormes]

99% of the time I use Lora.

[Quexos]

Not sure what you mean by "embedded" but I like the looks and feel of Cecilia.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Does this happen is the font is an embedded font?

So if the publisher uses font-family: "Charis", serif will Georgia be used instead of "Charis"?

Charis should work fine as long as you've included the necessary @font-faces. However, I admit to not having double-checked since the update to 2.6.1. It certainly used to work fine on previous firmwares. Georgia is used if the epub css specifies the generic font-family:serif.

Although as I've also said before, I've no idea why you'd want to put any effort into embedding Charis when it's easier to select it from the Kobo menu.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Although as I've also said before, I've no idea why you'd want to put any effort into embedding Charis when it's easier to select it from the Kobo menu.

If Charis is already embedded, I just overwrite with my version and subset it with Calibre.

One reason to embed Charis SIL is if there enough smallcaps. Then I can also embed the smallcaps version and have true smallcaps instead of simulated.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If Charis is already embedded, I just overwrite with my version and subset it with Calibre.

One reason to embed Charis SIL is if there enough smallcaps. Then I can also embed the smallcaps version and have true smallcaps instead of simulated.

We've been round this loop before. I understand why you might want to embed the smallcaps fonts (although referencing the sideloaded smallcaps font is more convenient for me) just not the standard body font. If it's already there, fair enough, but as you're a Sony user I still don't know why you'd ever need to embed. Surely your Sonys have better options, don't they?

[Anak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Does this happen is the font is an embedded font?

So if the publisher uses font-family: "Charis", serif will Georgia be used instead of "Charis"?

It also depend how the fonts are embedded in the epub.
But in many cases the Regular substyle is repleced by the Georgia font, other substyles (italic, bold and bolditalic) are usually correctly displayed with the embedded font. See also here.

I've added some quickly coded (k)epubs to test font handling and do not have a cover image.
Using the predefined generic default font family for serif fonts (= Georgia). Using an other font (Amasis) that is present on the user agent (Kobo device) and should be used instead of the Georgia font.
And some embedded fonts. Coded in different ways.
Every page in the books use a different stylesheet.

[jackie_w]

@Anak,

I tried your example standard epub from your linked thread. The reason your Amasis page is not displaying correctly is because you haven't included any @font-faces. If you add these 4 lines to your Style_Amasis.css file, it should work fine.

@font-face {font-family: Amasis; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; src: url(res:///fonts/normal/Amasis)}
@font-face {font-family: Amasis; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; src: url(res:///fonts/bold/Amasis)}
@font-face {font-family: Amasis; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; src: url(res:///fonts/italic/Amasis)}
@font-face {font-family: Amasis; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; src: url(res:///fonts/bolditalic/Amasis)}

If I get some more time later on I'll look at the embedded Linux Libertine problems you're having. I don't want to derail this thread with anymore technical details, so if I find anything I'll PM you.

Edit: PM sent.

[Rob Ireton]

Of the built-ins, I prefer Malabar, but lately I've been reading everything in Minion Pro (side-loaded OpenType) to get nice automatic ligature substitution. I wish the built-in fonts (and the software) had better support for OpenType features.

[justywusty]

Based on how this poll ended up, I've been using Caecilia religiously and am really loving it!!! Won't go back to any other fonts now!

Thank you!