FBReader and Displaying Italics

JxK · 04-13-2012, 09:08 PM

My would-be favorite Android reading app is FBReader. I like the interface, the file support, and the fact that it's the smoothest and most responsive reader I've tried.

Regrettably though, there is one unfortunate problem with FBReader that prevents me from using it: namely, FBReader doesn't support CSS. Which means that any book I read which includes text formatting (such as italics, bold, etc) does not display properly. Or rather, doesn't display at all.

For some books it's not a huge problem. Others though become unreadable. Is there some software workaround to this issue? Can I perhaps perform some sort of Calibre conversion (all my epub files are DRM free) so that the books display properly? Any advice would be much appreciated.

JxK · 05-03-2012, 11:47 AM

Ok, I finally managed to find a solution - though implementing it is going to be a royal pain. I was content enough with cool reader, when suddenly a new idea came to mind. You see, FBReader doesn't recognize any formatting done via the epub format. I knew that. But suddenly the thought that it may read the fb2 format differently came to mind.

So I converted one of my epubs to fb2 and voila! Success! Italics and bolds now show up where they should.

Except that after conversion the table of contents has become messed up, and chapter headings have been replaced with the more ambiguous "...".

eMole · 05-04-2012, 04:01 AM

FBReader only supports a small subset of CSS, embedded styles not at all. Its fb2 format support is supposed to be complete, not counting tables.

04-13-2012, 09:08 PM	#1
JxK Enthusiast Posts: 49 Karma: 866238 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: Kindle PW, NC CM 7.2	FBReader and Displaying Italics My would-be favorite Android reading app is FBReader. I like the interface, the file support, and the fact that it's the smoothest and most responsive reader I've tried. Regrettably though, there is one unfortunate problem with FBReader that prevents me from using it: namely, FBReader doesn't support CSS. Which means that any book I read which includes text formatting (such as italics, bold, etc) does not display properly. Or rather, doesn't display at all. For some books it's not a huge problem. Others though become unreadable. Is there some software workaround to this issue? Can I perhaps perform some sort of Calibre conversion (all my epub files are DRM free) so that the books display properly? Any advice would be much appreciated.

05-03-2012, 11:47 AM	#2
JxK Enthusiast Posts: 49 Karma: 866238 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: Kindle PW, NC CM 7.2	Ok, I finally managed to find a solution - though implementing it is going to be a royal pain. I was content enough with cool reader, when suddenly a new idea came to mind. You see, FBReader doesn't recognize any formatting done via the epub format. I knew that. But suddenly the thought that it may read the fb2 format differently came to mind. So I converted one of my epubs to fb2 and voila! Success! Italics and bolds now show up where they should. Except that after conversion the table of contents has become messed up, and chapter headings have been replaced with the more ambiguous "...". Last edited by JxK; 05-03-2012 at 11:49 AM.

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05-04-2012, 04:01 AM	#3
eMole Zealot Posts: 130 Karma: 546310 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: PocketBook Touch HD, PocketBook Era	FBReader only supports a small subset of CSS, embedded styles not at all. Its fb2 format support is supposed to be complete, not counting tables.