Question about font

[jblitereader]

I've been reading reviews about ereaders and noticed that people are complaining up and down, left and right like little cry babies that certain ereaders have limited font options.

To me, what's important is the font sizes. But apparently, some people absolutely can't read a book if it doesn't have certain font.

Have I stumbled onto a real issue or is this all a joke? Are people really willing to pay 500 bucks so they could read a book in certain font types?

[Ken Maltby]

It appears that there are some who prefer to pay $99, then just complain a lot.

The use of distinctive fonts can make for a nicer presentation, and is a good thing
for a reader to support, but even on desktops, fonts can use up memory. The readers
have much less memory to spare.

Memory and its support circuitry, take up space, add weight, generate heat, cost money, and most importantly consume power. Things you want to consider the trade off values of, for a very compact battery powered device you want to market at the
lowest price point. I think the JBL has the tradeoffs just about right, for now.

At some point, memory tech. and other components (the cpu for sure) will advance in
a direction that a "better"/improved JBL could be made, hopefully without loosing the
balance of features that makes it so handy now.

I can have any font I want on my Netbook; but it won't fit in my pocket. I can have
almost as many on my PDA, and it will fit in my pocket but it has a smaller screen and
I couldn't get >20hours of reading time out of it.

For something I can pick up off the night stand, turn on and start reading right back
where I left off; the JBL has it just right, IMHO.

Luck;
Ken

[jblitereader]

I'm a reading addict. I are times when it only takes me a day to read a book. I have read about 20 books on the jbl.

Again, I absolutely don't understand this obsession people have with the font. Do money grow on trees where they live that they can afford to complain about such an insignificant thing?

From now on, whenever I see someone complain about font, I will simply point them to the $300 devices. I'm sure after they've bought those units they will find something to bitch about.

[PodPeople]

I prefer reading a serif font -- probably 98% of print books use serif fonts. That's why I bought an Aluratek Libre. It has a very nice serif font - BitStream Vera Serif. The Jetbook and Jetbook Lite have two sans serif fonts - Ariel and Verdana.

[asperger]

With Sigil, I embed my own fonts into the epubs i produce for my libre, hence unlimited fonts.

However, so far I only use 'decorative' fonts for chapter headers ( i.e. victorian fonts for mr holmes, and occasional ornate illuminated drop cap for the bible ), and leave the default font alone. I may may experiment with additional fonts (biolinum, libertine) for the body of the text, but legibility is extremely important.

In any case, with the ability to embed fonts directly into the epub file, the discussion of 'limited' built-in fonts of a device in moot.

[heffe2001]

Do embedded fonts work on the JB, or just the Libre? The only epub I have with any other fonts is a copy of The Lord of the Rings from my library, but the other 'fonts' are actually images.

[WillAdams]

Typography is ``the art (or craft) of setting type so as to honour the content'' of a text.

Unfortunately, eBook viewing programs are _very_ primitive, using brain-dead / greedy one-line at a time h&j algorithms and _not_ affording much control over appearance --- the limited number of typeface choices is a symptom of this.

Here's an article, which while written regarding the iPad, can pretty much be applied to all other ebook formats:

http://fontfeed.com/archives/ipad-typography/

William

[asperger]

"Do embedded fonts work on the JB, or just the Libre? The only epub I have with any other fonts is a copy of The Lord of the Rings from my library, but the other 'fonts' are actually images."

Best way to see is to try. Open this. There are images but the Chapter headers and sub headers are a font named 'Victorian' regular.

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by asperger

"Do embedded fonts work on the JB, or just the Libre? The only epub I have with any other fonts is a copy of The Lord of the Rings from my library, but the other 'fonts' are actually images."

Best way to see is to try. Open this. There are images but the Chapter headers and sub headers are a font named 'Victorian' regular.

Doesn't look like it works on the JB's.

*EDIT* If I had to guess, the version of the epub reader on your Libre that allows for drm'ed epubs is what's letting you change fonts. I'll try it on my wife's Lite when I get home, but I'm not holding out any hope that it will do it either. Not that the font choice is a major problem anyway.

[asperger]

"Doesn't look like it works on the JB's."

That's a shame