PRS Fonts, PDF gray && Calibre

Hranostak · 07-02-2008, 04:54 PM

Hi Folks,
I'm new Sony Reader PRS 505 user. First, I was very amused by it but now I'm starting to loose my illusions. So maybe someone can help me.
1) each PDF I upload to reader is rescaled, so even when i choose proper format 3,.. x 6,.. inchess and pick right size of font, when pdf is displayed, the text quality (due to aliasing) is very poor when comparing to text from lrf file. why(1x)? and there's more. Each pdf has slight gray background. I've found note it can be done nothing against it. Why(2x) ? That is some silly joke made by Sony Programmers. Now I understand why(4x) reader loads pdfs and switch pages so slowly - thats because 90% of pdf loading time is spent in generating artificial gray background.

2) That leads me to converting books from other formats to lrf. Hmm, seems to be very bad idea. Why ? (3x) Because I'm Czech and my native character set is Central European. Ok. I started with same book in each of DOC,RTF,TXT,TXT-8UTF,PDF and HTML format and used Book Designer 4.0 with update to make lrf. All ok to this point, then I loaded book, tried export to lrf, all fine (except strange czech characters of course), but when I chose additional font to embed in lrf file, Sony reader hungs when formatting file (formatting forever and strange artifacts are shown on screen). When I try to view this file in Calibre View - everything is fine. Hmmm - why (5x) ? I tried fixLrf utility, no error found.

3) finaly this leads to Calibre. Now I put aside the fact, that Calibre 0.4.73 and 0.4.76 removes in TXT,TXTUTF8,RTF,HTML all paragraph formatting (autor: i can upload test files to see yourself), but major thing is when I specify serif,mono... fonts for example as "Arial", convert is done fine, viewer shows file ok (text is in arial), file is bigger - thats ok, but Sony Reader shows text in internal fonts. Why (6x) ? I used GUI version, command line utils, nothing helped. I have to be doing something wrong. Emh, 10 options, none of them works ? Why (7x) ?

Please, help me in one of 3 points
- proper format of PDF which is not changed in any way, and just displayed on screen
- run BookDesigner export properly - maybe sample
- run Calibre properly - maybe command line

This leaves me only choice: change fonts in Sony Reader, but my SD is unavailable now, so it must wait for now.

Thanks in advance
Hranostak

P.S. sorry for my english
P.S.S. if post is in wrong section, sorry
P.S.S.S i can post source books if needed

Hranostak · 07-02-2008, 05:00 PM

hmm, greate, by pressing back (in opera) i doubled the post. please ignore this one or someone mighty - delete it. sorry. Hranostak

dhbailey · 07-03-2008, 06:08 AM

No need to apologize for your English -- it communicated what you wished very well.

This is a fine section for this post.

PDF files on the Reader are indeed "some silly joke." I realize that it is possible to get PDF files which work on the Reader, but it's not easy. I haven't noticed the gray background, but then I was so frustrated by the way PDF files are displayed so I haven't spent much time with them. You can convert them to LRF files using Calibre if the PDF files are mainly text. In Calibre you can define different fonts for your lrf file. I don't know how this works for character sets not native to the fonts on the Reader, so I can't advise about that. Possible raising the question at the Calibre web-site will get you the most knowledgeable answers.

I do hope someone with more knowledge about this chimes in. You might consider copying this post to the Content subforum.

Jelis · 07-05-2008, 06:33 AM

Welcome to MobileRead

May be this thread might help

http://https://www.mobileread.com/for...ad.php?t=13135

Hope it does.
You might also want to look at the Wiki of this site, look at the very top of this page and you will see Wiki next to Home/Forums. Lots of material there about conversion.

Jelis

Hranostak · 07-12-2008, 05:48 PM

Thank you both.

BlackVoid · 11-24-2008, 11:50 AM

I am from Hungary and I had some success converting books that came out OK. I gave up on Calibre a long time ago (the same formatting mess, that you also mention), so this is for BookDesigner.

First you should install Unicode font support for the Reader from here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27177
You must also replace the fonts with the new ones on your PC where the Sony Connect software is installed.
tt0003m_.ttf, etc.

Then use BookDesigner to convert. BD actually supports Czech as an input language (lucky for you).

With this method some of my Hungarian ebooks convert just fine. Still some come out as crap (due to different encoding is my guess).
An alternative is to replace all special characters with normal ASCII characters (should be still readable if you are not too picky).

07-02-2008, 04:54 PM	#1
Hranostak Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: Sony Reader PRS 505	PRS Fonts, PDF gray && Calibre Hi Folks, I'm new Sony Reader PRS 505 user. First, I was very amused by it but now I'm starting to loose my illusions. So maybe someone can help me. 1) each PDF I upload to reader is rescaled, so even when i choose proper format 3,.. x 6,.. inchess and pick right size of font, when pdf is displayed, the text quality (due to aliasing) is very poor when comparing to text from lrf file. why(1x)? and there's more. Each pdf has slight gray background. I've found note it can be done nothing against it. Why(2x) ? That is some silly joke made by Sony Programmers. Now I understand why(4x) reader loads pdfs and switch pages so slowly - thats because 90% of pdf loading time is spent in generating artificial gray background. 2) That leads me to converting books from other formats to lrf. Hmm, seems to be very bad idea. Why ? (3x) Because I'm Czech and my native character set is Central European. Ok. I started with same book in each of DOC,RTF,TXT,TXT-8UTF,PDF and HTML format and used Book Designer 4.0 with update to make lrf. All ok to this point, then I loaded book, tried export to lrf, all fine (except strange czech characters of course), but when I chose additional font to embed in lrf file, Sony reader hungs when formatting file (formatting forever and strange artifacts are shown on screen). When I try to view this file in Calibre View - everything is fine. Hmmm - why (5x) ? I tried fixLrf utility, no error found. 3) finaly this leads to Calibre. Now I put aside the fact, that Calibre 0.4.73 and 0.4.76 removes in TXT,TXTUTF8,RTF,HTML all paragraph formatting (autor: i can upload test files to see yourself), but major thing is when I specify serif,mono... fonts for example as "Arial", convert is done fine, viewer shows file ok (text is in arial), file is bigger - thats ok, but Sony Reader shows text in internal fonts. Why (6x) ? I used GUI version, command line utils, nothing helped. I have to be doing something wrong. Emh, 10 options, none of them works ? Why (7x) ? Please, help me in one of 3 points - proper format of PDF which is not changed in any way, and just displayed on screen - run BookDesigner export properly - maybe sample - run Calibre properly - maybe command line This leaves me only choice: change fonts in Sony Reader, but my SD is unavailable now, so it must wait for now. Thanks in advance Hranostak P.S. sorry for my english P.S.S. if post is in wrong section, sorry P.S.S.S i can post source books if needed Last edited by Hranostak; 07-03-2008 at 12:30 PM.

07-05-2008, 06:33 AM	#4
Jelis Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 742 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: France Device: sony 505	PDF2LRF Welcome to MobileRead May be this thread might help http://https://www.mobileread.com/for...ad.php?t=13135 Hope it does. You might also want to look at the Wiki of this site, look at the very top of this page and you will see Wiki next to Home/Forums. Lots of material there about conversion. Jelis Last edited by Jelis; 07-05-2008 at 07:25 AM.

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07-02-2008, 05:00 PM	#2
Hranostak Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: Sony Reader PRS 505	hmm, greate, by pressing back (in opera) i doubled the post. please ignore this one or someone mighty - delete it. sorry. Hranostak

07-03-2008, 06:08 AM	#3
dhbailey Guru Posts: 604 Karma: 733 Join Date: Mar 2007 Device: HP iPAQ211 / PRS 500, 700 and 505	No need to apologize for your English -- it communicated what you wished very well. This is a fine section for this post. PDF files on the Reader are indeed "some silly joke." I realize that it is possible to get PDF files which work on the Reader, but it's not easy. I haven't noticed the gray background, but then I was so frustrated by the way PDF files are displayed so I haven't spent much time with them. You can convert them to LRF files using Calibre if the PDF files are mainly text. In Calibre you can define different fonts for your lrf file. I don't know how this works for character sets not native to the fonts on the Reader, so I can't advise about that. Possible raising the question at the Calibre web-site will get you the most knowledgeable answers. I do hope someone with more knowledge about this chimes in. You might consider copying this post to the Content subforum.

07-12-2008, 05:48 PM	#5
Hranostak Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: Sony Reader PRS 505	Thank you both.

11-24-2008, 11:50 AM	#6
BlackVoid Evangelist Posts: 415 Karma: 510423 Join Date: Nov 2006 Device: Sony PRS-505	I am from Hungary and I had some success converting books that came out OK. I gave up on Calibre a long time ago (the same formatting mess, that you also mention), so this is for BookDesigner. First you should install Unicode font support for the Reader from here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27177 You must also replace the fonts with the new ones on your PC where the Sony Connect software is installed. tt0003m_.ttf, etc. Then use BookDesigner to convert. BD actually supports Czech as an input language (lucky for you). With this method some of my Hungarian ebooks convert just fine. Still some come out as crap (due to different encoding is my guess). An alternative is to replace all special characters with normal ASCII characters (should be still readable if you are not too picky).

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