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Old 09-06-2011, 12:20 PM   #1
therealjoeblow
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Gentium Book font (ttf) doesn't render correctly

After trying about about a dozen different fonts, my favorite font by far is the Gentium Book Basic from SIL .org at:

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/p...=Gentium_basic

It has just the right amount of serif to look very pleasing, has nice proportions in width and height, and has a slightly heavier stroke, without looking overly bold, very easy to read.

However, I have a problem with it rendering correctly. Things that are supposed to be italic show up as bold, and things that are supposed to be bold show up in normal font weight. This is in every epub (sideloaded, drm-free) that I tested, about a half dozen of them.

The thing is that with any other ttf that I've tried, and the built in ones, the italics and bold always render correctly, so I'm pretty sure it's not the epubs themselves, but something wonky about how the Gentium Book font is seen by the Kobo.

I have ensured that the fonts are named correctly, and as all of the other fonts I have tried, ie:

GenBkBas.ttf
GenBkBas-Bold.ttf
GenBkBas-BoldItalic.ttf
GenBkBas-Italic.ttf

I've also verified with Windows properties and a font management program (Typograf) that the fonts have their properties properly identified within the .ttf files and none of the bold/italics are misnamed.

In trouble shooting, I found that if I install only the regular and italic fonts, then italics show up correctly in the proper font-face (and *not* in the Kobo's attempt to make an italic out of a regular font) and all of the bold shows up as normal weight, as expected. But as soon as I add the -Bold version, then all of the italics are bold and bold stays normal weight.

Can someone else please test and give me some insight into whether there is something wrong with the Gentium Book fonts themselves, or if the Kobo has a glitch that needs to be addressed?

Fonts are attached for easier reference.

Thanks
The REAL Joe
Attached Files
File Type: zip GenBkBas.zip (417.0 KB, 306 views)
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Old 09-06-2011, 01:12 PM   #2
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I don't know if this will help any or not, but for all the (working) ttf fonts I've used on my own Kobo Touch, they were named:

font-Regular.ttf
font-Bold.ttf
font-Italic.ttf
font-BoldItalic.ttf
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Old 09-06-2011, 01:18 PM   #3
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I have installed the fonts in your attachment and tested them on two books:

Kobo EPUB - all fonts display as expected i.e. regular, bold, italic and bold italic
Non-Kobo EPUB - everything is displayed in bold whereas there is text in bold, regular and italic in the book viewed using ADE

ETA: I have done some additional testing of fonts with non-Kobo EPUBs. In my tests, the fonts displayed correctly when using the pre-installed fonts but not for user-installed fonts. Additionally, the error was different for the same book when different user-installed fonts were used. e.g. for the same book when one set of fonts was used everything displayed as bold but when using another set everything displayed as regular.

Two of my four user-installed fonts did work correctly with non-Kobo EPUBs.

Last edited by Joe563; 09-06-2011 at 01:46 PM. Reason: More info.
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Old 09-06-2011, 03:54 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe563 View Post
I have installed the fonts in your attachment and tested them on two books:

Kobo EPUB - all fonts display as expected i.e. regular, bold, italic and bold italic
Non-Kobo EPUB - everything is displayed in bold whereas there is text in bold, regular and italic in the book viewed using ADE

ETA: I have done some additional testing of fonts with non-Kobo EPUBs. In my tests, the fonts displayed correctly when using the pre-installed fonts but not for user-installed fonts. Additionally, the error was different for the same book when different user-installed fonts were used. e.g. for the same book when one set of fonts was used everything displayed as bold but when using another set everything displayed as regular.

Two of my four user-installed fonts did work correctly with non-Kobo EPUBs.
Thanks for the input. It's not just me then.

So it appears that there's a high probability that the Kobo itself is not calling the fonts correctly in all cases for non-kepubs. I also note that the epubs show perfectly in ADE (mixed italics/bold/regular) but not on the Kobo with this particular font.

Could one of the Developers please take a look into this?

Thanks
The REAL Joe
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Old 09-06-2011, 08:08 PM   #5
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Quote taken from this thread:

Quote:
Originally Posted by george.talusan View Post
The resolution is that fonts should end with -Bold, -BoldItalic, -Italic, or alternatively, b, i, z.
I recommend you rename the files to use the -Bold, -BoldItalic, and -Italic endings.
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Old 09-06-2011, 10:40 PM   #6
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I tried this as well using a non-Kobo acquired commercial epub (The Lamorna Wink by Martha Grimes). Gentium, Gentium Book and Charis -- all for SIL -- render in one weight only; but all Kobo supplied fonts and others I have acquired such as PT Serif display correctly -- all weights and styles.

I would raise it with SIL; they must be doing something non-standard.

PT Serif and PT Sans are from Paratype and available under open (ie free) license. See: http://www.paratype.com/public/. The serif ismy favourite font for the Kobo Touch.
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Old 09-06-2011, 10:40 PM   #7
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FWIW,

I converted the GentiumBook TrueType fonts to .OTF fonts using the free web service at:

http://onlinefontconverter.com/

...and now they render bold, italic and normal text correctly.

Not saying that the issue I originally posted about is fixed, but at least I can use my favorite font without issue now.

For anyone else having problems with their favorite font(s) not rendering correctly, you might want to give this a try too.

Cheers
The REAL Joe
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Old 09-06-2011, 10:45 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SensualPoet View Post
I tried this as well using a non-Kobo acquired commercial epub (The Lamorna Wink by Martha Grimes). Gentium, Gentium Book and Charis -- all for SIL -- render in one weight only; but all Kobo supplied fonts and others I have acquired such as PT Serif display correctly -- all weights and styles.

I would raise it with SIL; they must be doing something non-standard.

PT Serif and PT Sans are from Paratype and available under open (ie free) license. See: http://www.paratype.com/public/. The serif ismy favourite font for the Kobo Touch.
I was also using PT Serif before I moved to GentiumBook, and while I liked PT very much, I found that there is a gap in font sizes somewhere just a bit to the left of middle on the slider - one is a bit too small, and the next larger is quite a bit too big - it's almost like the one jump in font sizes on the slider actually jumps by about 3 font sizes if you know what I mean.

GentiumBook doesn't seem to do that, and the ever-so-slightly heavier stroke makes it a bit more readable than my previous favorite, PT Serif.

Cheers
The REAL Joe
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Old 09-06-2011, 10:56 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SF&F Reader View Post
Quote taken from this thread:



I recommend you rename the files to use the -Bold, -BoldItalic, and -Italic endings.
Thanks, awesome tip! Totally fixed CharisSIL for me - now works perfectly. Between that and Amasis, I think I'm all set for now.
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Old 09-07-2011, 01:57 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by therealjoeblow View Post
FWIW,

I converted the GentiumBook TrueType fonts to .OTF fonts using the free web service at:

http://onlinefontconverter.com/

...and now they render bold, italic and normal text correctly.

Not saying that the issue I originally posted about is fixed, but at least I can use my favorite font without issue now.

For anyone else having problems with their favorite font(s) not rendering correctly, you might want to give this a try too.

Cheers
The REAL Joe
I am curious to know if the conversion changed the names of the fonts to the -Bold, -BoldItalic, and -Italic endings as suggested by another poster.
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Old 09-07-2011, 09:11 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by therealjoeblow View Post
FWIW,

I converted the GentiumBook TrueType fonts to .OTF fonts using the free web service at:

http://onlinefontconverter.com/

...and now they render bold, italic and normal text correctly.
Now that you've confirmed there is something not quite right with the source fonts, will you be forwarding the issue to the font developer?
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Old 09-07-2011, 09:58 PM   #12
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I have the same problem (kobo showing bold instead of italics) with Bitstream Vera Sans .ttf. The online font converter created the .otf files as -Roman (not -Regular), -Oblique (instead of -Italics), and -BoldOblique

I renamed them for the kobo, and after powering off and on, it worked! Thanks for the advice

Side note: My original .ttf files work properly on the Cybook Opus.

Last edited by Nina182B; 09-07-2011 at 10:13 PM.
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Old 09-07-2011, 11:23 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SensualPoet View Post
Now that you've confirmed there is something not quite right with the source fonts, will you be forwarding the issue to the font developer?
Frankly, as others have had similar experience with other fonts, I don't think it's the font itself. These fonts perform perfectly in Windows and on other platforms as reported above, in every way, there are no anomalies with using or rendering them there.

I think it's the way the Kobo is calling the fonts. That's most likely where the problem lies in my opinion.

Cheers
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Old 06-21-2015, 09:24 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by therealjoeblow View Post
FWIW,

I converted the GentiumBook TrueType fonts to .OTF fonts using the free web service at:

http://onlinefontconverter.com/

...and now they render bold, italic and normal text correctly.

Not saying that the issue I originally posted about is fixed, but at least I can use my favorite font without issue now.

For anyone else having problems with their favorite font(s) not rendering correctly, you might want to give this a try too.

Cheers
The REAL Joe
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After days of trying to get Trebuchet to work (tried everything: renaming, font name and properties editing...), just saving it to otf made it, and now Trebuchet shows italics correcly.
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