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Old 03-16-2012, 05:39 PM   #1
Hedaya
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Arabic on PSR-T1

Hello,

I found these directions, but can't make them work:

Quote:
Originally Posted by dmiller
Thanks for the instructions jackie_w.

Unfortunately, I can't them to work in my slightly different scenario: I am trying to embed fonts in the sblgnt-v1.2.epub online here (http://katadrew.com/files/sblgnt/) so as to get polytonic Greek displaying on my Sony PRS-T1. Instead of GenBK I used GenR102 and GenI102, but followed the other directions as closely as possible. The Greek text displays in Calibre, but not as Gentium. It is still gibberish on the PRS-T1.

If by 'gibberish' you mean that many characters are replaced by '?' on the PRST1 then perhaps the font you are using does not contain all the necessary characters. Did you try GentiumPlus 1.508 downloadable from this page?

I tried it and it looked reasonable to me (however as I don't read Greek I'm not the best judge ). There are only 2 font files (Regular and Italic, no Bold or BoldItalic) so you'll need to adjust the css @font-face statements accordingly by pointing Bold to the Regular .ttf and BoldItalic to the Italic .ttf:

Code:
@font-face {
font-family: serif;
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
src: url(fonts/GentiumPlus-R.ttf)
}
@font-face {
font-family: serif;
font-weight: normal;
font-style: italic;
src: url(fonts/GentiumPlus-I.ttf)
}
@font-face {
font-family: serif;
font-weight: bold;
font-style: normal;
src: url(fonts/GentiumPlus-R.ttf)
}
@font-face {
font-family: serif;
font-weight: bold;
font-style: italic;
src: url(fonts/GentiumPlus-I.ttf)
}I copied the font files to directory Styles/fonts and added these 2 lines to the manifest section of content.opf

Code:
<item href="Styles/fonts/GentiumPlus-R.ttf" id="serifr" media-type="application/x-truetype-font"/>
<item href="Styles/fonts/GentiumPlus-I.ttf" id="serifi" media-type="application/x-truetype-font"/>If you want Bold and BoldItalic to display correctly you will need to find a font family with all 4 variants and with all the necessary characters included.


One, I'm confused as to where to put the actual font files. I get drive E:reader and G:reader when I connect my sony.

Second, I'm not sure how to name them, not really the URL, once I get some clarity as to where to put it on the sony, (I think at least). But what's the font family? the name of the font? In this case, the name of the font is "Traditional Arabic", but then the file name is like trado.ttf or something like that. Please if anyone can help, it would be appreciated.

Someone whose patient, b/c I doubt I'm smart enough to be able to get this w/o techie TLC. :-)
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Old 03-17-2012, 04:13 PM   #2
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Things have moved on a little since those referenced instructions, which were about embedding actual font files inside each and every epub. You can now achieve the same result more easily by copying the font files, once only, to the PRST1.

There are different approaches:
  1. use Calibre features to convert your books to epub (even if they are already epub). This will edit the css inside each epub to reference the Arabic fonts you have copied to the PRST1.
  2. update your PRST1 with Morkl's customised version of the Sony reading app. This will allow you to replace 1-6 fonts in the T1 select-a-font option (Menu - Font - Select Font Type) with fonts of your choice. Or if ALL your books are in Arabic you can configure the app so that 'Original' will be set to Arabic. No special editing of each epub is required. However, updating part of the Sony firmware cannot be considered 100% risk free. You'll probably be OK, but there are no guarantees.
  3. fully root your PRST1 (also not risk-free). You can then load other Android apps which have better font-handling features. Many people have chosen to do this but I'm not one of them. There are many threads about it in the MR Sony Reader Dev Corner forum.

First you need to decide which of the above you're most comfortable with. Then it will be easier to guide you on what to do next.

For further info, how many font files (.ttf) do you have? Is it just a single, trado.ttf, or are there also bold/italic variations. Please forgive my total ignorance of the finer points of Arabic
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Old 03-17-2012, 04:25 PM   #3
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I'm glad to see you are a "wizard", b/c God knows i need one, LOL! =)

Ok, let me ask some questions, etc:
1. Is rooting the only way to accomplish this? b/c even for my nook someone said rooting would work, but I don't know if I'm tech savvy enough, so if I HAVE to root, maybe I should do it with the nook, since I don't like it as much (although, I come back to: I haven't figured it out yet).

2. How do I install this Morkl's customized version? Do I still need to root if I do? Are there directions?
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Old 03-17-2012, 05:15 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hedaya View Post
Ok, let me ask some questions, etc:
1. Is rooting the only way to accomplish this? b/c even for my nook someone said rooting would work, but I don't know if I'm tech savvy enough, so if I HAVE to root, maybe I should do it with the nook, since I don't like it as much (although, I come back to: I haven't figured it out yet).
No, all 3 options I outlined are possible. I chose not to root because I don't think I'm Android savvy enough to dig myself out of any hole rooting dropped me in. Many people have had no problem at all, others have. The installation process seems simple, I suspect the problem comes when installing/uninstalling/configuring things one doesn't fully understand.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hedaya View Post
2. How do I install this Morkl's customized version? Do I still need to root if I do? Are there directions?
There are 2 methods to install Morkl's app, one for those who have already rooted and one for those who don't want to root. There are some brief instructions inside the downloaded zip. The process for non-rooted T1s is very simple if you're using a Windows PC.

This is Morkl's main thread. He has 2 separate customised apps
  • one to tweak the Homescreen appearance (limited benefits if you haven't rooted)
  • the other is the Reader app - this is the one you need for custom fonts. It also lets you customise font-sizes and change the no. of pages between screen full refreshes.

This is another thread where Morkl's Reader app is discussed at length.

Edit: Everything I've written refers to a Sony PRST1 not a Nook. I think similar things can be done on a Nook but you'd need to ask in the Nook forum.

Last edited by jackie_w; 03-17-2012 at 05:17 PM. Reason: clarification
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Old 03-17-2012, 05:27 PM   #5
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Hmmmm, I'll try calibre again then, but so far, I have failed to make that one work. Where in the world am I supposed to put the fonts on my sony? as long as I don't have to root, I'll use that since I don't really like the nook.
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Old 03-17-2012, 05:48 PM   #6
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I don't think you can do it although I hope that you do.
I downloaded your file and a few arabic fonts and learned how much I didn't know in this area. Reflowable is AFAIK left to right only in epub.

Have you tried html on your reader?

Helen
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Old 03-17-2012, 05:56 PM   #7
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Yeah, I think b/c of the nature of Arabic, rooting sounds like the only solution OR apparently pocketbooks actually work, like out of the box, it's a supported language. So, while i hate to keep collecting readers, I'm going to try that, b/c I don't know that I can root my device and it's not just a matter of reading the font. It has to know *how* to read it. The difference is like this:


ولا وصول إلى نهايتها إلا بعد إحكام بدايتها

But just merely adding the font will get me this:

و ل ا و ص و ل ال ى ن ه ا ي ت ه ا ا ل ا
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Old 03-17-2012, 06:05 PM   #8
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But I'm grateful to all the help people have given. I will continue to try to learn to root my nook, b/c if I CAN, it does work. Someone sent me a screen shot. So, I am going to keep trying. I just need someone patient enough to break it down into simpler instructions. They'll say things like reformat the image of my SD card. Ok, great, I know what an SD card is, and I have some concept of reformatting, but I need a little more than that. People are taking for granted background knowledge I don't have.
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Old 03-17-2012, 07:12 PM   #9
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Ah, no Sonys do not read right-to-left epubs. Sorry for my ignorance.

Pocketbook may well work. I have an old PB360 which was able to display a sample Hebrew epub RTL.

My experience of Pocketbook (as a company) was not totally positive, though. I found their firmware bug fix strategy to be quite poor. They have a habit of releasing models with problematic firmware and abandoning old models completely once their new ones come out, even if there are still bugs. Nevertheless if you can find a model which does what you want they are easy to customise even with little tech knowledge (they're even more customisable if you are a bit tech savvy). Adding custom fonts is very easy with FBReader, which is one of its 2 standard reading apps.

Last edited by jackie_w; 03-18-2012 at 08:23 AM.
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Old 03-17-2012, 07:41 PM   #10
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Yes, I think when you are a small company, there is a certain pressure to release ahead of due process. This does get the job done (I got them to try some of my files and send me screen shots! =)

That said, I do really like the Sony, it does PDF's well, so that was a good purchase.

The nook I regret, and I will never get another one, but that said, I'm going to try to learn something about rooting b/c if I can do that, it will be salvageable.

Not to say that I don't read books in English (obviously), or other languages, but that's easy to find a reader that can do that.
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Old 03-17-2012, 08:15 PM   #11
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Hi. A bit of confusion here: The SBLGNT is a Greek New Testament, not Arabic. Greek is not RTL. I am a newbie, but...

I'd prefer to have it in epub, but I am using the SBLGNT in PDF on the PRST1. I merged into one file using PDFSAM together with a glossary from another source. Added some fine tuning using OpenOffice and Calibre (both input and output pdf format) which seems to have improved the display. It is far from perfect... big and slow on the Sony PRST1 but it displays the fonts okay. It is irritating that the Sony software won't display the fonts correctly-even in their Windows reader software, though they are installed and work fine in other apps. (Adobe reader, Calibre, Openoffice, etc).

I have also made a tentative conversion of a Hebrew-English Bible that is available in HTML - it's also in PDF and it seems to display okay at first glance.
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Old 03-18-2012, 08:45 AM   #12
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@kdm,

The original post is quoting (in blue) from an old thread where someone was trying to read the Greek New Testament on a T1 (the original issue was never about RTL). None of the T1 built-in fonts had the all necessary Greek characters. At the time the only way to use a font which did contain all the characters was to fully embed the chosen fonts INSIDE the epub. This was not a difficult exercise but it does require some surgical editing of each epub. Most people wouldn't want to do it on a regular basis. The old post was about how to do the surgical editing.

Things have moved on since then and easier methods have been found for Sony epub font customisation -- but only for LTR epubs. PDFs will work, for LTR and RTL, as well (or badly) as they ever did.

@dnaeseth70,
Refer to the 2 threads linked in post #4 above. You can find a download link in the first post of the first one. There are some install instructions in the download zip.
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Old 03-19-2012, 01:39 PM   #13
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Well, for reading Arabic, the simplest approach is probably a pocketbook. That's the conclusion I came to. It supports Arabic out of the gate, rather than doing all these complicated electronic gymnastics like rooting (except for my extremely tech savvy friends who really can do it, but it's risky if you aren't very proficient in e-readers - and I do mean e-readers. I know my way around networking and laptops, but I read how to root, and I decided I was "killing" myself for nothing).
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Old 03-21-2012, 06:14 AM   #14
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The problem for RTL text on Sony PRS-T1 is that Sony used a version of Adobe Digital Edition that doesn't support it (and I don't know if Adobe finally released a version that actually support it).
I think (but someone that actually did that and made some tests with RTL language would be better, I remember of someone asking for hebrew support) that rooting and installing other ePUB readers (not based on ADE) is the only way.
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Old 04-28-2012, 10:03 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by seabee View Post
The problem for RTL text on Sony PRS-T1 is that Sony used a version of Adobe Digital Edition that doesn't support it (and I don't know if Adobe finally released a version that actually support it).
I think (but someone that actually did that and made some tests with RTL language would be better, I remember of someone asking for hebrew support) that rooting and installing other ePUB readers (not based on ADE) is the only way.
That is correct. I have verified that Moon+ Reader Arabic & Hebrew Special Edition displays rtl Hebrew fine on a rooted PRS-T1. https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/PRST...l_Reading_Apps
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