06-20-2008, 08:39 PM | #1 |
Junior Member
Posts: 2
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jan 2008
Device: Sony PRS-505
|
Font Type vs Sony E-book Loading Speed
I'm currently creating an e-book for my PRS-505 and find that using different font types can have quite significant impact on loading speed.
For example. loading a 50-page book with Arial Narrow takes about 2min! Is there an optimum font type (for Sony Reader) I should use when designing a book? Thanks a lot! |
06-21-2008, 03:11 AM | #2 |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
The best answer - unless you absolutely MUST - is not to embed fonts. Use the built-in fonts of the device. A book that looks "pretty" but takes 10x longer to turn a page than one using the device fonts is just not worth the hassle, IMHO.
|
Advert | |
|
06-21-2008, 05:23 AM | #3 | |
Connoisseur
Posts: 66
Karma: 614
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: New York
Device: Sony PRS-505, iLiad Book Edition
|
Quote:
|
|
06-21-2008, 09:44 AM | #4 | |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
Quote:
May I ask what your own experience of the matter has been? What impact have you found that embedding fonts has made in the e-books that you've created? |
|
06-21-2008, 11:11 AM | #5 | |
Connoisseur
Posts: 66
Karma: 614
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: New York
Device: Sony PRS-505, iLiad Book Edition
|
Quote:
I've also made 2 or 3 LRF files with embedded fonts. One, I recall, seemed to be undistinguishable in page-turn time from the average PDF with embedded fonts, one perhaps a mite slower, but this is hardly enough experience to base a sweeping judgment on, except that I've no reason to doubt that anyone who wanted to pursue this would be able to achieve satisfactory results. I did, some time ago, download your LRF of Odyssey Book 1. I thought it was distinctly but not horribly or even quite dramatically slow. Is that the whole basis of your dire (and I think rather more than slightly exaggerated) warnings against font embedding? Not a sufficient one, I'd say. |
|
Advert | |
|
06-21-2008, 11:35 AM | #6 |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
Unless, however, one requires something such as a character set that's not present on the Reader (such as my example of Greek), I really see no point in embedding fonts, unless one has some very specific object in mind in doing so. For "normal" fiction, the in-built fonts seem to be perfect "acceptable".
If one only requires a few words of some font or character set - perhaps an isolated Greek quote in an English text - I've found it a lot more satisfactory to use a graphic for the purpose. |
06-21-2008, 02:32 PM | #7 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 19,832
Karma: 11844413
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Tampa, FL USA
Device: Kindle Touch
|
Quote:
BOb |
|
06-21-2008, 06:52 PM | #8 | |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 74,027
Karma: 129333114
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
Quote:
|
|
06-21-2008, 08:26 PM | #9 |
Technogeezer
Posts: 7,233
Karma: 1601464
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Virginia, USA
Device: Sony PRS-500
|
I have made many PDF ebooks (none posted here) for the Sony Reader. In general, there is a very slight delay when using embedded fonts rather than using the built in fonts. (Yes, PDFs on the Sony default to using Dutch and Swiss as the base fonts.) I do not know how BookDesigner or calibre embed fonts; but, Adobe Acrobat embeds only the glyphs of characters used in the PDF so it is very economical (from both size and speed perspective) to use other fonts for accent purposes. Additionally, the rendering seems to bring in only the glyphs required for the current page and appears to be able to reuse any glyphs that appeared on the prior page.
I hope this helps. |
06-22-2008, 02:34 AM | #10 |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
Yes, that works OK. I was referring to changing the font used for the "body text" of the document. Unless you have a very, very good reason to do that, it's best avoided. For me personally, the slow-down in page turning which results is unacceptable. Other people may, of course, feel differently about it.
|
06-22-2008, 05:03 AM | #11 |
Wizzard
Posts: 1,402
Karma: 2000000
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: UK
Device: iPad 2, iPhone 6s, Kindle Voyage & Kindle PaperWhite
|
Quite different... My experience, with BookDesigner and LRF, was that adding fonts changed the page turn time from sub-second with device fonts to a couple of secs with the body text being an embedded font. Of course, you then still have the reflowable behaviour of LRFs, but I guess that once you've got a personal PDF format sorted (i.e. font & page size) then it's not a issue.
|
06-22-2008, 11:53 AM | #12 | |
Lector minore
Posts: 649
Karma: 1738720
Join Date: Jan 2008
Device: Aura One, Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e, Google Pixel Slate
|
Quote:
I have no idea how slow that would make the page turns though. I find the page turn speed to be just barely on the edge of acceptable (menu speed is horrific) |
|
06-22-2008, 11:56 AM | #13 |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
You get used to the built-in fonts, believe me. When I first got my Sony I wasn't too impressed by them. A week later, I no longer noticed them.
Using an embedded font for the "body text" of an LRF book will slow down page turns from about half a second to something like 2.5-3sec. I just find that too slow, personally. |
06-22-2008, 11:58 AM | #14 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,624
Karma: 1008294
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Iowa, USA
Device: Nook Simple Touch
|
I've never used anything but the built in fonts...so I don't know any different
|
07-14-2008, 08:49 PM | #15 |
Fanatic
Posts: 589
Karma: 1451235
Join Date: Jun 2008
Device: Sony PRS-505, Sony PRS-950
|
Using the Unicode Patch (see Sony PRS-505 Developer's subforum here), you can set your default font to be whatever you have on your computer in .ttf form. I personally hate how Times New Roman looks when the font size is tiny, so I find the patch invaluable in making my books easier on the eyes. No need to embed fonts, and page turns are just as quick, I think, as with the original fonts. Of course, the patch comes with its own set of problems, such as having to reapply every time you turn off the device completely (soft resets, etc.), and causing some problems with Calibre such that I usually do a soft reset before loading new books on to my Sony. However, I only load new books once a month or so, and perhaps even less now that I've finally played around with font sizes and fonts enough.
ETA: Just adding that "reapply every time" only entails popping in the SD card with the fontmapper files on it and applying it, a process that takes less than a few mins. |
Tags |
book designer, font, sony reader |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
PRS-300 Loading a B&N book on to my Sony | mish | Sony Reader | 12 | 09-10-2010 12:39 AM |
DR800 Convert PDF to JPG for faster loading speed? | bokjeid | iRex | 1 | 07-24-2010 09:32 AM |
Font of pdf-type pages too small! | hopefulist | Amazon Kindle | 1 | 12-25-2009 04:58 PM |
Font type / size question .. | askyn | Fictionwise eBookwise | 6 | 06-02-2009 10:34 AM |
What Font Type(s) do you prefer? | Tefeari | Sony Reader | 52 | 09-12-2008 04:00 AM |