Stuck on embedded Hebrew font in ePub

[odedta]

A book that flips in both directions is impossible without javascript to my knowledge since what determines the direction is the spine attribute page-progression-direction, I have never heard of anything else that can change the direction of the page flip.

If you're talking about an auto flip pdf, I have never tried to do both direction flip before, I don't really want to nor do I see anyone else wanting that.

I also don't understand why you're confused about the progression direction, every book has a main language, if you have both Hebrew and English in a book then obviously one of them is the primary, e.g. dictionary English->Hebrew, main language is English so page progression direction should be ltr.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by odedta

A book that flips in both directions is impossible without javascript to my knowledge since what determines the direction is the spine attribute page-progression-direction, I have never heard of anything else that can change the direction of the page flip.

EGGZACKLY right. It can't. That's precisely my point.

If you're talking about an auto flip pdf, I have never tried to do both direction flip before, I don't really want to nor do I see anyone else wanting that.

Nope, wasn't talking about that, was discussing ePUBs only. And possibly mobis. In the "can't be done" category.

I also don't understand why you're confused about the progression direction, every book has a main language, if you have both Hebrew and English in a book then obviously one of them is the primary, e.g. dictionary English->Hebrew, main language is English so page progression direction should be ltr.

Yes, sorry, I should remember that not everyone here is actually living inside my head, and privy to my meaning, versus what I type. I meant...this person and others have wanted auto-flip, or worse, read-along. WITH auto-play, for BOTH languages, in BOTH directions, at the reader's option. You can see why this would make my poor, decrepit noggin hurt. Can I make a book auto-flip in one direction? You betcha. Can I make it play, sing, dance (sorta), and highight words in one direction? You betcha. (in iBooks, and to a lesser extent, in Nook-pubs. And, arguably, even in .mobi, except, it cannot be published via KDP).

BUT, can even I, along with my two ugly sisters, the cauldron, and some eye of newt and tongue of dog, make it flip in both directions, singing in English and Hebrew, highlighting left-to-right and then right-to-left, from one page to the next? Auto-flipping first in one direction, then the next? Hell, no, and y'know, I'm just too damn old for that s**t. I'm serious. I'm going to let you, Liz, Azardi, the Readium guys, Lisa, or one of the rest of the damn gang figure that crap out. When it's good to go, I think I'll just mooch it from YOU guys. :-)

I mean, Dammit, Jim, I'm a bookmaker, not a wizard.

Hitch

[odedta]

Hah! love reading your posts as always

I have a question, how can you make the ePub auto flip page every number of seconds?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by odedta

Hah! love reading your posts as always

I have a question, how can you make the ePub auto flip page every number of seconds?

It's a fixed-format thing in iBooks. You use it, generally (but not always) when you have a book that is reading aloud for children. You first embed the read-aloud controls (start, stop, start-stop), and then you define the page-turn style thusly:

<p ibooks:readaloud="startstop" ibooks:readaloud-turn-style="automatic">Automatic</p>
<p ibooks:readaloud="startstop" ibooks:readaloud-turn-style="manual">Manual</p>

I know, I know, really tricky stuff. {smile}. From the iBooks Asset Guide:

You can set the timing for page turning in pages that do not have audio. iBooks has two default zoom levels
in each orientation: page and spread. When a reader zooms into a page, each page is focused independently
during navigation. When a reader zooms to a spread, the spread is treated as a single step during book
navigation.
1. If Turn Pages is set to Automatically, iBooks pauses reading for 3 seconds on any pages or spreads that
do not have any associated audio. After 3 seconds, reading continues, and the reader is taken to the next
page or spread.
2. If Turn Pages is set to Manually, iBooks takes the reader to pages or spreads with no audio, and the corner
of the page is immediately turned up, indicating to the reader that it is time for them to turn the page.
To override this behavior and skip the spread entirely, provide a <par> that corresponds to the skipped
spread, and define a duration of 0s. If you want a pause longer than 3 seconds, build that time into the
audio file.

Just become an iTunes Publisher, and you can pull down their Asset Guide. The tedious part is the CSS and the SMIL, really. The rest isn't hard, as they've oriented iBooks for precisely this type of use.

Did that answer your question? Truthfully, you need to read the info in the larger context of the rest of the Asset Guide, for it to be useful, IMHO.

Hitch

[odedta]

Yes it did, I never worked with the ibooks format before, that was why it was news to me. Thanks.

[doubleshuffle]

Working with three bits of Hebrew text in a German book. Everything is working fine thanks to the great suggestions in this thread.

BUT: I'm running into problems with one passage which ends a paragraph of otherwise German text. It should be to the right of the German text, obviously, but my Kobo (and only my Kobo - ADE, Sigil Bookview and Calibre Preview all display it correctly) puts the Hebrew text to the left of the German text that should come before it, and even switches the punctuation directly outside the Hebrew span from ltr to rtl. Obviously, the easy, dirty fix would be putting the Hebrew into a new paragraph, but it isn't in a new paragraph in the original, so I would like to avoid that. And also - we wouldn't be here if we wanted easy, dirty fixes, would we?

So, respected Witches and Wizards, any suggestions?

Here's the code, lifted from Doitsu's great Arabic test epub:

Text:

<p>... Der Herr behüte uns vor allem Bösen. <span class="hebrew"><span class="ade">ער לכמ ונרמשי ׳ה</span><span class="noade">ה׳ ישמרנו מכל רע</span></span> …«</p>

CSS:

.hebrew {font-family: "TaameyFrankCLM"; direction:rtl}
.ade {display:none;}

[PeterT]

When you say Kobo, are you viewing this as an ePub OR KePub? The two of them use totally different rendering engines.

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by PeterT

When you say Kobo, are you viewing this as an ePub OR KePub? The two of them use totally different rendering engines.

I know. Sorry, should have specified. Regular epub.

[Doitsu]

@doubleshuffle: AFAIK, Kobos support ePub3 books and will automatically select the NetFront ACCESS engine, if the file extension is changed to kepub.epub.

I converted my test book to epub3 with the Sigil epub3 plugin and it looks OK in ADE 1.7-4.5 and Sigil.
Try changing the file extension to kepub.epub and test the file on your reader.

For those who want to test my file on other readers, have a look at the attached screenshot for the expected rendering.

[doubleshuffle]

Thanks, Doitsu. Kepub works! I didn't want to go down that route, but it's the only way it seems. (I just hate that enforced header in kepubs...)

Interestingly, the Kobo picks the regular epub renderer for your epub3 and makes the same mess of it. Isn't the regular Kobo epub renderer supposed to be ADE/RMSDK? Why does it work there and not on the Kobo? I'm so glad I don't have to do this for a living (Hi Hitch )

And I solemnly vow to finally update my Sigil and start exporting to epub3. Been putting that off long enough...

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Thanks, Doitsu. Kepub works! I didn't want to go down that route, but it's the only way it seems. (I just hate that enforced header in kepubs...)

Interestingly, the Kobo picks the regular epub renderer for your epub3 and makes the same mess of it. Isn't the regular Kobo epub renderer supposed to be ADE/RMSDK? Why does it work there and not on the Kobo? I'm so glad I don't have to do this for a living (Hi Hitch )

And I solemnly vow to finally update my Sigil and start exporting to epub3. Been putting that off long enough...

Hi:

Authors be swarming today (in other words, I'm slammed), but I'll try to drop in on this thread later. I'm glad, DoubleShuff, that the solution worked for you. We've had a HORROR with KOBO lately, vis-a-vis their "look inside/preview/whatever it's called", so...I'm none too happy with them.

Hitch

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Hi:

Authors be swarming today (in other words, I'm slammed), but I'll try to drop in on this thread later. I'm glad, DoubleShuff, that the solution worked for you. We've had a HORROR with KOBO lately, vis-a-vis their "look inside/preview/whatever it's called", so...I'm none too happy with them.

Hitch

I've actually decided against the kepub way. The kepub renderer throws so many other spanners in my works that I guess I'll go with the quick and dirty fix. I'd perhaps be able to patch my reader so that things would be okay-ish, but I want to upload the book here and people with unpatched Kobos should be able to enjoy it too.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

I've actually decided against the kepub way. The kepub renderer throws so many other spanners in my works that I guess I'll go with the quick and dirty fix. I'd perhaps be able to patch my reader so that things would be okay-ish, but I want to upload the book here and people with unpatched Kobos should be able to enjoy it too.

I've had so much email today that my shoulder joint is literally too ouchy to do a bunch of typing. I'll regale you with the horror story of the client, the eBook (workout book) and KoboBooks when I can.


Hitch

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I've had so much email today that my shoulder joint is literally too ouchy to do a bunch of typing. I'll regale you with the horror story of the client, the eBook (workout book) and KoboBooks when I can.


Hitch

Relax, Hitch... But I'm certainly looking forward to that horror story.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Relax, Hitch... But I'm certainly looking forward to that horror story.

:-)

Hitch