visual artifacts in book view

[cybmole]

i experience visual annoyances when editing in book view, as text reflows thens sometimes stray dots ( bits of characters?) get left in the book window . they vanish as soon as a force a window re-draw e.g. by resizing slightly.

could be a general issue with sigil's video driver or could be specific to my O/S win 7 64 bit , by graphics ( ATI + catalyst drivers)and/or my screen resolution 1920 x 1080 ?. I suspect it is sigil code though, as no other program that I have behaves like this.

I am pretty sure that the left behind bits are serifs - those below the line bits of some letters. by themselves thy look like specs of dust on the screen or unwanted .

tried a serach of forum for artifacts but no hits. is this a known issue ?

[Perkin]

I think it may be a QT problem, as quite often happens in calibre reader as well.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by Perkin

I think it may be a QT problem, as quite often happens in calibre reader as well.

is there any cure or workaround.please

i try not to have apple software installed but would installing latest Quick time , or any specific component thereof help any ?

[Toxaris]

QT is a framework from Nokia, not Apple (thank god!). Some people have the problem, others not. On my laptop with Win7/64bit and ATI graphic card I have no problem whatsoever. To be honest, I have never seen this behaviour. Then again, I am usually not in Bookview.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

QT is a framework from Nokia, not Apple (thank god!).

Every upgrade of Quicktime became more invasive . I fixed the 'problem' by uninstalling and cleaning the registry of all the Apple cruft.

[cybmole]

I see a bunch of QT...dll files in sigil program folder, also in Calibre folder & a few other places. probably the same set each time. Kindle for PC has a set also.

but I don't get the Nokia connection, there's no Nokia hardware in this PC ???

& yes this exclusively a book view issue, never happens in code view. it's when text is re-flowed in existing window as I add/delete characters. As the letters are shifted, some serifs are left behind & not cleared until window is re-drawn.

go to book view, type some stuff into an existing body of text, see if you get the artifacts...

I don't want to cry "BUG" if it only happens to me... I looked at issues tracker & did no see any mention there...

[theducks]

Originally Posted by cybmole

I see a bunch of QT...dll files in sigil program folder, also in Calibre folder & a few other places. probably the same set each time. Kindle for PC has a set also.

but I don't get the Nokia connection, there's no Nokia hardware in this PC ???

& yes this exclusively a book view issue, never happens in code view. it's when text is re-flowed in existing window as I add/delete characters. As the letters are shifted, some serifs are left behind & not cleared until window is re-drawn.

go to book view, type some stuff into an existing body of text, see if you get the artifacts...

I don't want to cry "BUG" if it only happens to me... I looked at issues tracker & did no see any mention there...

Nokia developed QT and contributed it to Open Source
(phones have displays for other than numbers these days )

[Perkin]

The way I get rid of the artefacts is to use page-up/down then back again, so the screen/page gets redrawn.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by Perkin

The way I get rid of the artefacts is to use page-up/down then back again, so the screen/page gets redrawn.

thanks for that tip - anything that saves having to grab the mouse more often is good for me.

so you confirm the artifacts issue - is it already in the issuer tracker somewhere ?

[Toxaris]

Probably not. However, I think that Perkin is correct and that it is a Qt issue and out of Valloric's hands. Open an ticket and let Valloric take a look at it. He would know for sure.

[cybmole]

there's a dependency on fonts , here.
Am currently proofing a book with has an explicit font type of times new roman set in styleshhet. I see no artifacts at all (& good looking curly quotes...)

I reckon that the artifacts occur only when there is no explicit font type set in CSS. sigil then seems to default to some ugly font which does not support curly quotes & which does have the artifacts bug.

so it could maybe be fixed ( by Valloric ) via a change to sigil's default book view font, and a workaround could be for me to define a font type in each book ( knowing that my Sony reader will ignore any such definition & will use it's own fonts anyway ?

What IS sigil's default book view font & how easy to change it ?

PROOF. open sigil, select new document, start typing e.g.
testing new book font " " " "
I observe immediiately that the g in testing has a badly formed serif which will break up when text is reflowed. sure enough it does, as I insert more text to cause a new line.

the bottom of curve of the g is cut off, as if the letter is too large for the line space, and it's that missing bottom bit that later appears as an artifact.

I can improve things with zoom in option but that is not a sticky option if seems to apply only to current page in current book & is lost on save / reload.

[crutledge]

Has anyone written a "how to" for properly inserting fonts in sigil?

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by crutledge

Has anyone written a "how to" for properly inserting fonts in sigil?

i see no user preferences to tweak. I would open a book wheich has a font set & copy the css from that . e.g. the book I am proofing just now has this:
.calibre {
display: block;
font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
font-size: 1em;
line-height: 1.2;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-left: 5pt;
margin-right: 5pt;
margin-top: 0;
padding-left: 0;
padding-right: 0
}

the padding settings are superfluous, I guess.

now here's one from a book that presents with artifacts. the differences seem to be
1. no font specified.
2 font-size set

.calibre {
display: block;
font-size: 1em;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-left: 5pt;
margin-right: 5pt;
margin-top: 0;
padding-left: 0;
padding-right: 0;
page-break-before: always
}

the font-size seem irrelevent in this latter example though - I see no difference in book view if I remove that line from CSS

it would be good to see documented a table of defaults. ie what does sigil use when no value is specified, for each of the above css lines ?

[crutledge]

I guess I should be more explicit. I use the following entry in the CSS.

p, div {
             .......
	font-family:"Times New Roman", Times, serif;
}

Suppose I want to use Fancy Font. The entry would be:

p, div {
             .......
	font-family:"Fancy Font";
}

The font (Fancy Font.ttf) would have to somehow be installed into the Sigil file. I believe the Misc section is where it should be placed but I'm not sure this is best. Does Sigil automatically look into the Misc section when the CSS call is encountered or are other steps requied?

How should copyrighted fonts be handled or are they not allowed? Can multiple fonts be used?

Cut and try can be a long process and have possible hidden glitches that only show up late in the process. A little tutorial by one of you experts would be very nice.

[cybmole]

i am not a fonts expert but I think sigil can access any font that windows has installed in its font directory ( or the equivalent location for other O/s ) . you don't add any .ttf to the per-book epub files collection AFAIK

But once your epub arrives on your re-reader device then that device will most likely substitute its own fonts, or give up entirely if you use one it does not like

My Sony prs650 e.g. does not seem to like italic + Ariel. and chapter titles with that style come out blank on the reader though they look fine on PC.

I know that Kindle also has it's own collection of fonts so when an epub is converted to mobi & sent there, K substitutes its own fonts for those specified in CSS.

it is possible to add fonts to Sony readers but that's another topic for another forum.