epub fonts embedding

arslonga · 07-14-2014, 06:10 AM

Many epubs do not have their fonts embedded, which means that the original publisher font will not be displayed by an erader unless the font is installed in the device.

I was wondering: is it possible to have Calibre embed the fonts in an epub even if those fonts are not installed on my PC? If so, how? Perhaps some settings in the Look & Feel screen? Thank you for your attention.

theducks · 07-14-2014, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arslonga

Many epubs do not have their fonts embedded, which means that the original publisher font will not be displayed by an erader unless the font is installed in the device.

I was wondering: is it possible to have Calibre embed the fonts in an epub even if those fonts are not installed on my PC? If so, how? Perhaps some settings in the Look & Feel screen? Thank you for your attention.

You can use the ebook-editor to manually embed ANY (this applies to books for personal use. You need to license those used for commercial usage. ) fonts you have .

Remember, there needs to be the matching '@fonts' entry for each font embedded

faltradl · 07-14-2014, 10:07 AM

I think "... even if those fonts are not installed on my PC ..." says not only "not installed". The fonts wont't be in any form on his PC. So he can't embed them manually.

He only can let it be as it is. Used fonts, which are not embeded, ara not a real problem. When there are not special characters used, which fail when other font are used for diplaying on the reader. For example the german characters Ä,Ö,Ü.

Sabardeyn · 07-14-2014, 07:03 PM

As Faltradl said, if the fonts are not on your personal computer, they cannot be embedded.

However, I wanted to add that font names are not used definitively. While commercial typographic font makers try to come up with a unique name that could be trademarked if their product is wildly popular, most knock-off and hobby font makers do not.

Commercial fonts generally include a larger selection of glyphs/characters than most free fonts offered. Another difference is the usage rights; many free fonts are for "personal use" and cannot be used in/for commercial products. So embedding the font for anything other than your own use can be an issue.

So, for example, the font Times New Roman (one of the most well know and used fonts in western publishing), there can be wildly different appearances between the same letters over several different maker's interpretations and skills at font crafting & hinting. In other words, you could download 20 versions of Times New Roman and get 20 different fonts. Admittedly, most of these variations will be minor and quite possibly will not appear except at larger font sizes (20 points and up), but sooner or later the differences will appear - particularly in accented letters or ligatures.

So even if you:

search the internet,
find a comparably named font,
install it on your computer, and
then embed the font into the ebook

you still might not have the same visual appearance as the author/publisher intended because it's not the exact same font.

The best that you can do is embed an acceptable font, to you, by using the Editor to replace the font references and re-save the ebook.

theducks · 07-14-2014, 07:13 PM

I have 3 folders of Fonts.

1)Installed. You want this lean as it does impact system performance when it gets bloated.

2)Open source (GPL) fonts like you can get from http://www.google.com/fonts/ (note: some link to Paid font$

)

3)Licensed fonts (only for personal use) that came with software packages (eg Corel Wordperfect 8 Pro)

Calibre will only find #1.

I embed #2 and #3 manually, includes makein the proper stylesheet entries.

arslonga · 07-15-2014, 03:40 AM

Thank you all for your replies.

My initial question was about the possibility of embedding fonts using the epub to epub conversion with the appropriate settings in Look and Feel. I have also been told that I can always change the .epub extension to .zip, unzip the resulting archive, find the aptly named fonts folder and install these fonts on my PC. After that, convert epub to epub instructing Calibre to embed those fonts. Convoluted as it appears, this may be the way to do it. Thank you for your attention.

itimpi · 07-15-2014, 04:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arslonga

Thank you all for your replies.

My initial question was about the possibility of embedding fonts using the epub to epub conversion with the appropriate settings in Look and Feel. I have also been told that I can always change the .epub extension to .zip, unzip the resulting archive, find the aptly named fonts folder and install these fonts on my PC. After that, convert epub to epub instructing Calibre to embed those fonts. Convoluted as it appears, this may be the way to do it. Thank you for your attention.

this is confusing!

If you already have a fonts folder inside the epub file containing font files then they are already embedded!

arslonga · 07-15-2014, 05:00 AM

If so, why is the ebook displayed in Times New Roman instead of the publisher font?

itimpi · 07-15-2014, 05:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arslonga

If so, why is the ebook displayed in Times New Roman instead of the publisher font?

No idea - that is probably an artefact of the reader program you are using (or the settings within that program).

theducks · 07-15-2014, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arslonga

If so, why is the ebook displayed in Times New Roman instead of the publisher font?

a) Your reading program is set (by default) to ignore embedded fonts.
b) there is a typo/case difference in one of the filenames/CSS call outs Note: Validation will not usually catch this.
c) the fonts 'internal name' does not match the font-family: <name> (you will see an advisory note that appears in the book editor validation results)
d) spaces in the file name:eg. Times New Roman.ttf

You are wasting our time if you don't post the problem CSS (sections)

eschwartz · 07-15-2014, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

b) there is a typo/case difference in one of the filenames/CSS call outs Note: Validation will not usually catch this.

...Except for the one in calibre's editor.

nqk · 07-26-2014, 10:27 AM

I can embed fonts alright, but
1) Most of readers (in Android) bypass them. I see only MoonReader supports this.
2) To reduce font file size, I used subset feature, but the fonts become unreadable (Vietnamese Unicode characters)

JSWolf · 07-26-2014, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arslonga

Many epubs do not have their fonts embedded, which means that the original publisher font will not be displayed by an erader unless the font is installed in the device.

I was wondering: is it possible to have Calibre embed the fonts in an epub even if those fonts are not installed on my PC? If so, how? Perhaps some settings in the Look & Feel screen? Thank you for your attention.

If there is no embedded font, then you either get the default font or you can choose the one you want from the list of possible fonts. It all depends on which reader you have. Some have more font capability then others. Kindle has limited font switching, Sony has some font switching depending on the model. Kobo has very good font switching with the ability to sideload your own choices.

Why would you want to embed a font just to get what the publisher left out? How do you even know which font to embed? Just because there is no embedded font does not mean there should be one.

DoctorOhh · 07-27-2014, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Quote:

Originally Posted by arslonga

Many epubs do not have their fonts embedded, which means that the original publisher font will not be displayed by an erader unless the font is installed in the device.

Why would you want to embed a font just to get what the publisher left out? How do you even know which font to embed? Just because there is no embedded font does not mean there should be one.

I agree, if there was no font embedded then there was no original publisher font.

theducks · 07-27-2014, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

I agree, if there was no font embedded then there was no original publisher font.

Good Dr.

There are publisher remnants that indicate 'left out fonts'.
Like the(desired) font names commented out in the CSS.

For personal use, I can use ones I have available (My Wordperfect 8 came with a disk of hundreds. Other programs also shipped with font libraries).

The Publisher would have to spend Thousands to be able to include them.

So, Yes! I do embed fonts (and remove the comment marks in the CSS) so I can view the book the way the designer intended (and the paper version was printed).

07-14-2014, 07:03 PM	#4
Sabardeyn Guru Posts: 644 Karma: 1242364 Join Date: May 2009 Location: The Right Coast Device: PC (Calibre), Nexus 7 2013 (Moon+ Pro), HTC HD2/Leo (Freda)	As Faltradl said, if the fonts are not on your personal computer, they cannot be embedded. However, I wanted to add that font names are not used definitively. While commercial typographic font makers try to come up with a unique name that could be trademarked if their product is wildly popular, most knock-off and hobby font makers do not. Commercial fonts generally include a larger selection of glyphs/characters than most free fonts offered. Another difference is the usage rights; many free fonts are for "personal use" and cannot be used in/for commercial products. So embedding the font for anything other than your own use can be an issue. So, for example, the font Times New Roman (one of the most well know and used fonts in western publishing), there can be wildly different appearances between the same letters over several different maker's interpretations and skills at font crafting & hinting. In other words, you could download 20 versions of Times New Roman and get 20 different fonts. Admittedly, most of these variations will be minor and quite possibly will not appear except at larger font sizes (20 points and up), but sooner or later the differences will appear - particularly in accented letters or ligatures. So even if you: search the internet, find a comparably named font, install it on your computer, and then embed the font into the ebook you still might not have the same visual appearance as the author/publisher intended because it's not the exact same font. The best that you can do is embed an acceptable font, to you, by using the Editor to replace the font references and re-save the ebook. Last edited by Sabardeyn; 07-14-2014 at 07:12 PM.

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07-14-2014, 06:10 AM	#1
arslonga Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	epub fonts embedding Many epubs do not have their fonts embedded, which means that the original publisher font will not be displayed by an erader unless the font is installed in the device. I was wondering: is it possible to have Calibre embed the fonts in an epub even if those fonts are not installed on my PC? If so, how? Perhaps some settings in the Look & Feel screen? Thank you for your attention.

07-14-2014, 10:07 AM	#3
faltradl Guru Posts: 602 Karma: 1712372 Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: germany Device: PocketBook Touch	I think "... even if those fonts are not installed on my PC ..." says not only "not installed". The fonts wont't be in any form on his PC. So he can't embed them manually. He only can let it be as it is. Used fonts, which are not embeded, ara not a real problem. When there are not special characters used, which fail when other font are used for diplaying on the reader. For example the german characters Ä,Ö,Ü.

07-14-2014, 07:13 PM	#5
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,802 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	I have 3 folders of Fonts. 1)Installed. You want this lean as it does impact system performance when it gets bloated. 2)Open source (GPL) fonts like you can get from http://www.google.com/fonts/ (note: some link to Paid font$ ) 3)Licensed fonts (only for personal use) that came with software packages (eg Corel Wordperfect 8 Pro) Calibre will only find #1. I embed #2 and #3 manually, includes makein the proper stylesheet entries.

07-15-2014, 03:40 AM	#6
arslonga Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	Thank you all for your replies. My initial question was about the possibility of embedding fonts using the epub to epub conversion with the appropriate settings in Look and Feel. I have also been told that I can always change the .epub extension to .zip, unzip the resulting archive, find the aptly named fonts folder and install these fonts on my PC. After that, convert epub to epub instructing Calibre to embed those fonts. Convoluted as it appears, this may be the way to do it. Thank you for your attention.

07-15-2014, 05:00 AM	#8
arslonga Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	If so, why is the ebook displayed in Times New Roman instead of the publisher font?

07-26-2014, 10:27 AM	#12
nqk Fanatic Posts: 516 Karma: 32106 Join Date: Feb 2012 Device: Onyx Boox Leaf	I can embed fonts alright, but 1) Most of readers (in Android) bypass them. I see only MoonReader supports this. 2) To reduce font file size, I used subset feature, but the fonts become unreadable (Vietnamese Unicode characters)