Touch Nook STR: Issues, Bugs, Annoyances, and Petty Quibbles

[FJames]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I guess I don't understand the nature of the tradeoff between less eInk flash and clarity. On my Nook STR it doesn't seem to matter (or I don't notice) whether it is page #1 or page #6 - they look equally clear/unclear. And forcing refresh with n/n doesn't make it clearer (though that tends to fix ghosting).

It's all about ghosting. The flash-to-black refresh resets the pixels to all-black and then all-white. Each incremental pixel change between refreshes on the e-ink screen is slightly imperfect, which means that black text removed by a page turn leaves behind a faint ghost of not-quite-white that tends to build up with multiple page turns. You can most easily see the ghosting in an area that's empty on the current page, but had text on the previous page. Also an image removed by a page turn tends to leave behind a slightly fainter region of not-quite-black text on the next page. I don't find it too noticeable at the 6-page refresh interval, and the less obtrusive page turn is nicer, so I think they made a good trade-off.

[ST-One]

Originally Posted by JayB

The hyphenation on the Nook STR was crazy. On one page in those screenshots posted by Scion I counted 8 hyphens. I would rather have a slightly ragged edge than a million hyphens.

Eight?
Wow.
Give my hyphens over over an unjustified looking justified text any time of the day.

Originally Posted by baronrus

It may also be worth mentioning here that if you are unhappy with any of the 7 installed fonts on the Kobo you can add any TTF or OTF that you want. That means that you can have any font you want as light or as bold as you want. You are not locked in to the ones that come with the device

I don't have a Nook STR, but I do have a Kobo Touch and a Sony 350. Here are some sample images of both using the Sony 350's standard font and Segoi UI Bold on both. For the Kobo Touch you only need to sideload a font then select it. There is no modification necessary to the ePub or the Kobo other than adding the font in the fonts folder. For the Sony however, you have to load a font then either modify the ePub to use your custom font or use PRS+ and go through a one time modification. Either is time consuming and beyond the capability of the average eBook reader who is far below our level of techie-ness!

To sum up, it is ridiculously easy to change fonts on the Kobo Touch (and I assume the Nook STR too) but a major pain with the Sony Readers, although both or capable of allowing custom (sideloaded fonts). With the Kobo Touch sideloaded fonts are a FEATURE whereas they are only achieved on the Sony by performing a hack or two.

Hopefully these photos can help you judge the font capabilities of the Kobo Touch.

Here are the photos:

• Sony and Kobo compared with standard Sony font
• Sony and Kobo compared with both using Segoi UI Bold
• Kobo Touch with Segoi UI Bold
• Sony 350 with standard Sony font
• Sony 350 with Segoi UI Bold

....

[SCION]

You can't add any fonts to the NOOK.

Originally Posted by jswinden

...

To sum up, it is ridiculously easy to change fonts on the Kobo Touch (and I assume the Nook STR too) ...
....

Originally Posted by SCION

You can't add any fonts to the NOOK.

Ouch. That means the Nook probably will never see that function as B&N doesn't seem to listen much to customer requests for fixes and features. Hopefully there is a hack that will work for them.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by JayB

If I buy a backup reader for my 950 it will probably be the Kobo.

The hyphenation on the Nook STR was crazy. On one page in those screenshots posted by Scion I counted 8 hyphens. I would rather have a slightly ragged edge than a million hyphens.

My 950 has very few hyphens per page.

Doesn't font size, line spacing and margin's have more to do with hyphens than anything else?

For example on my nook color an ePub "Under The Dome" I'm using the second to the smallest font size. , the smallest line space and the smallest margin settings and I get little to no hypens. but if I increase the margins setting I will see more hyphens being used.
so It seems your setting plays a large factor. And I would assume you would see similiar results no matter what ereader you use.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by JayB

If I buy a backup reader for my 950 it will probably be the Kobo.

The hyphenation on the Nook STR was crazy. On one page in those screenshots posted by Scion I counted 8 hyphens. I would rather have a slightly ragged edge than a million hyphens.

My 950 has very few hyphens per page.

Your 950 does not add any hyphens and any hyphenation you get is due to the hyphen happening to land at the end of the line.

I actually prefer the hyphenation as it gives us less large spaces between words. Sometimes you can get a lot of hyphens in printed books.

[rahulm]

Got my Nook Touch a day ago, and so far I'm loving it.

The default fonts are very dark and clear, and I'm more than satisfied.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by rahulm

Got my Nook Touch a day ago, and so far I'm loving it.

The default fonts are very dark and clear, and I'm more than satisfied.

Enjoy it. It's a great device for the price. The longer you've been exposed to these gadgets the more critiquing you tend to do. Glad you were able to filter through all the negative sentiments in this thread and make a satisfying purchase.

[rahulm]

Originally Posted by SCION

Enjoy it. It's a great device for the price. The longer you've been exposed to these gadgets the more critiquing you tend to do. Glad you were able to filter through all the negative sentiments in this thread and make a satisfying purchase.

It's been a long-time coming too.

Every year, when the new generation devices are released, I contemplate upgrading from my PRS505. And every year, I find a reason to "wait for the next ones".

So, this time, I said screw it and I just pulled the trigger. I absolutely love the form factor of the Nook Touch, and others may disagree, but the physical page turn buttons are of paramount importance to me.

[JayB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Your 950 does not add any hyphens and any hyphenation you get is due to the hyphen happening to land at the end of the line.

I actually prefer the hyphenation as it gives us less large spaces between words. Sometimes you can get a lot of hyphens in printed books.

I experimented with this on my 950 and changing font size and using margin cut did not appear to add any additional hyphens.

You are right about printed books I just looked in a paperback and there were quite a few of them. It's been awhile since I've read a paper book. It's strange how there are so few of them on my 950.

Even in those screenshots Scion was nice enough to post look how the Kobo has hardly any hyphens then look at the Nook there are a lot.

I watched a YouTube review comparing the two and he also mentioned the hyphenation difference between the two readers.

In reality it is probably something you would just get used to like I did with paperbacks.

[JSWolf]

It's because B&N is using a newer version of ADE then Sony & Kobo. And hyphenation is one new feature. I'm hoping Sony uses a newer ADE in October.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by boswd

Doesn't font size, line spacing and margin's have more to do with hyphens than anything else?

For example on my nook color an ePub "Under The Dome" I'm using the second to the smallest font size. , the smallest line space and the smallest margin settings and I get little to no hypens. but if I increase the margins setting I will see more hyphens being used.
so It seems your setting plays a large factor. And I would assume you would see similiar results no matter what ereader you use.

The larger the text is in relation to line length, the more hyphenation is needed to achieve 'full' justification. At the sizes I use (2-4) the hyphenation is not so frequent as to be distracting. B&N should consider letting people turn it off for larger text sizes, however. And landscape reading mode would help improve justification also with or without hyphenation. A left justification option (without hyphenation) would be good also.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Ouch. That means the Nook probably will never see that function as B&N doesn't seem to listen much to customer requests for fixes and features. Hopefully there is a hack that will work for them.

Nook is easily rooted and I think it's possible to swap in your own fonts at that point. Personally all I need are couple of good typefaces, ideally optimized for the screen properties (like Kindle's).

[forchristmas]

I still like the button savior app for the occasional "how in the heck do I do back in this app" momment ;-)