[Kindle Touch] Font Hack - Page 18

adamselene · 06-18-2012, 05:39 PM

BTW, it's worth noting that with USE_ALT_FONTS and with*out* /mnt/us/fonts, I do see some extra fonts displayed in the Aa dialog (presumably some builtins). So it clearly does something. I'm guessing the real problem here is that ;fc-cache isn't actually doing what I want.

eureka · 06-18-2012, 06:15 PM

@adamselene, try following file structure:

Code:

/mnt/us/fonts/Averia Bold Italic.ttf
/mnt/us/fonts/Averia Bold.ttf
/mnt/us/fonts/Averia Italic.ttf
/mnt/us/fonts/Averia Regular.ttf

I.e. put fonts (.ttf files) directly in the /mnt/us/fonts.

Also, KT must "reboot" automatically in 7-8 minutes after ;fc-cache entering (cache invalidating is slow and alt fonts are added to cache last of all). Only after this "rebooting" new fonts will be available ("rebooting" is not real rebooting, it's just restarting of framework, but it looks like rebooting).

Which version of firmware do you have?

adamselene · 06-18-2012, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eureka

@adamselene, try following file structure:

Code:

/mnt/us/fonts/Averia Bold Italic.ttf
/mnt/us/fonts/Averia Bold.ttf
/mnt/us/fonts/Averia Italic.ttf
/mnt/us/fonts/Averia Regular.ttf

I.e. put fonts (.ttf files) directly in the /mnt/us/fonts.

Also, KT must "reboot" automatically in 7-8 minutes after ;fc-cache entering (cache invalidating is slow and alt fonts are added to cache last of all). Only after this "rebooting" new fonts will be available ("rebooting" is not real rebooting, it's just restarting of framework, but it looks like rebooting).

Which version of firmware do you have?

I eventually figured out both of those things. Basically I just have to wait.

I also noticed that it only displays the first 2 or 3 fonts alphabetically—and since the builtin fonts it displays are HangulGothicMTC-Medium_E and HeiseiMaruG, this means that fonts later in the alphabet can't be used. (There's an obscure Russian page which mentions that the fonts have to start with A-G, but it doesn't actually say why. The dependency appears to be on the actual font name, embedded in the file, and not the file name.) This is slightly annoying for me, because the font I really want on the Kindle is Warnock Pro. (I did a mockup of some books with Warnock Pro embedded, and they look great!) Time to edit some .ttf files.

Firmware is 5.1.0.

adamselene · 06-19-2012, 03:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamselene

This is slightly annoying for me, because the font I really want on the Kindle is Warnock Pro. (I did a mockup of some books with Warnock Pro embedded, and they look great!) Time to edit some .ttf files.

Alright, I used fontforge to change the name to Arnock Pro, and it works! Renders the same as embedding the font in the .epub and converting to KF8 with the embedded font.

knc1 · 06-19-2012, 04:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamselene

Alright, I used fontforge to change the name to Arnock Pro, and it works! Renders the same as embedding the font in the .epub and converting to KF8 with the embedded font.

These electronic devices are getting almost human...
If they don't do what you want the first time - lie to it.

adamselene · 06-19-2012, 12:56 PM

Arno Pro also works pretty well. It's a little narrower, and running it one size larger gives about the same horizontal density as (W)arnock Pro, but with slightly lower vertical density. Both look quite nice. Also, BTW, both of them are actually .otf fonts.

Turns out it will display more than 3 fonts, as long as they all start with A-G. In one case I actually got it to display part of an I name (ITC Berkeley) after the builtin H names, so it seems to be indexing them, but has a very strange idea about what to display.

Overall, this strikes me as a very crufty and possibly unintentional hack. But hey, it works. Mostly.

eureka · 06-19-2012, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamselene

Turns out it will display more than 3 fonts, as long as they all start with A-G. In one case I actually got it to display part of an I name (ITC Berkeley) after the builtin H names, so it seems to be indexing them, but has a very strange idea about what to display.

Alt fonts' names are displayed in one horizontal line in Aa window, so width of this line is a limiter for number of displayed fonts. I guess, if you'll give one-letter names (A to G) to your fonts' typefaces, you'll see more than 3-4 alt fonts in the Aa window.

Also, fonts' names are displayed in alphabetical order, aren't they? Does your case with ITC Berkeley contradicts with this observation?

All fonts in the /mnt/us/fonts are available in system after refreshing Fontconfig cache (i.e. ;fc-cache), so fonts with typface name starting from I-Z are "hidden" (i.e. displayed out of bounds of Aa window) only because of alphabetical order of displaying and not so wide single horizontal list "line".

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamselene

Overall, this strikes me as a very crufty and possibly unintentional hack. But hey, it works. Mostly.

This way isn't hack at all. It's a "stock feature". I mean, it was intentionally implemented by Amazon programmers, I've just discovered it.

adamselene · 06-19-2012, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eureka

Alt fonts' names are displayed in one horizontal line in Aa window, so width of this line is a limiter for number of displayed fonts. I guess, if you'll give one-letter names (A to G) to your fonts' typefaces, you'll see more than 3-4 alt fonts in the Aa window.

I thought that at first, but I currently have 6 fonts displaying in two lines in the window. I cannot explain how it decides what to display.

Quote:

Originally Posted by eureka

Also, fonts' names are displayed in alphabetical order, aren't they? Does your case with ITC Berkeley contradicts with this observation?

No, it doesn't contradict the alphabetical ordering, but for some reason in that case it displayed two lines—the second with the builtin fonts and just part of the ITC Berkeley name trailing at the end.

Quote:

Originally Posted by eureka

This way isn't hack at all. It's a "stock feature". I mean, it was intentionally implemented by Amazon programmers, I've just discovered it.

There are lots of things the software can do that are not advertised. This one is clearly not well tested.

adamselene · 06-19-2012, 11:59 PM

BTW, just to be clear, what it currently shows in the Aa dialog is:
() Serif () Sans () condensed
() Adobe Jenson Pro () Arno Pro () Arnock Pro
() Brioso Pro () Chaparral Pro () Garamond Premier P[cut off]

geekmaster · 06-23-2012, 03:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamselene

There are lots of things the software can do that are not advertised. This one is clearly not well tested.

I suspect that amazon intentionally removes things from the list of features that are known to have too many bugs to be useful to most users.

KittyChuan · 06-25-2012, 11:02 PM

I accidentally found that Calisto MT looked sharp and clear on e-ink screen. It's an old style serif font with large x-height but easy to read. If you have Office 2007 installed you already have it on your computer. I uploaded it for the people who don't have and want to try it.
Font verision is 1.26 without any changes. Tested on KT with fonthack 1.3.1

[Mod: Attachment deleted. Please do not upload copyright material to MobileRead without the permission of the copyright holder.]

knc1 · 06-26-2012, 06:11 AM

Hmm...
$29.00 a copy (per font):
http://www.fonts.com/font/monotype-imaging/calisto
The owner would probably object to someone giving away enough copies for all the Kindles in the world.

KittyChuan · 06-27-2012, 09:23 AM

That's my fault. I gave a little too much info about the font, or it would've not got deleted.

knc1 · 06-27-2012, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KittyChuan

That's my fault. I gave a little too much info about the font, or it would've not got deleted.

No such luck at this site.
Site policy is to respect the Intellectual Property Rights of others and there are people here watching attachments for things like copyright theft.

If you have purchased an unlimited re-distribution license for this font, available at the link I posted, you should include a mention of that in your post and attach proof of the license agreement.

adamselene · 06-28-2012, 02:31 AM

Calisto isn't bad, but Warnock has a little better horizontal density without sacrificing any legibility.

Honestly, there are a zillion fonts, and you could spend an enormous amount of time wading through them without gaining much. At the size they're being rendered on a Kindle, most of the differences are very subtle—mostly you'll notice they have different aspect ratios and x-heights.

Generally speaking, a higher ratio of x-height to ascender height yields more readable bulk text, so that's what I look for. I also stick with only Pro fonts because they tend to have better hinting and kerning, and wider character sets.

06-18-2012, 05:39 PM	#256
adamselene Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 11050 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Touch, Kindle 2	BTW, it's worth noting that with USE_ALT_FONTS and without /mnt/us/fonts, I do see some extra fonts displayed in the Aa dialog (presumably some builtins). So it clearly does something. I'm guessing the real problem here is that ;fc-cache isn't actually doing what I want. Last edited by adamselene; 06-18-2012 at 06:06 PM.

06-18-2012, 06:15 PM	#257
eureka but forgot what it's like Posts: 741 Karma: 2345678 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: north (by northwest) Device: Kindle Touch	@adamselene, try following file structure: Code: /mnt/us/fonts/Averia Bold Italic.ttf /mnt/us/fonts/Averia Bold.ttf /mnt/us/fonts/Averia Italic.ttf /mnt/us/fonts/Averia Regular.ttf I.e. put fonts (.ttf files) directly in the /mnt/us/fonts. Also, KT must "reboot" automatically in 7-8 minutes after ;fc-cache entering (cache invalidating is slow and alt fonts are added to cache last of all). Only after this "rebooting" new fonts will be available ("rebooting" is not real rebooting, it's just restarting of framework, but it looks like rebooting). Which version of firmware do you have?

06-25-2012, 11:02 PM	#266
KittyChuan Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: Kindle Touch	I accidentally found that Calisto MT looked sharp and clear on e-ink screen. It's an old style serif font with large x-height but easy to read. If you have Office 2007 installed you already have it on your computer. I uploaded it for the people who don't have and want to try it. Font verision is 1.26 without any changes. Tested on KT with fonthack 1.3.1 [Mod: Attachment deleted. Please do not upload copyright material to MobileRead without the permission of the copyright holder.] Attached Thumbnails Last edited by pdurrant; 06-26-2012 at 02:54 AM. Reason: Copyright violation

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06-19-2012, 12:56 PM	#261
adamselene Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 11050 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Touch, Kindle 2	Arno Pro also works pretty well. It's a little narrower, and running it one size larger gives about the same horizontal density as (W)arnock Pro, but with slightly lower vertical density. Both look quite nice. Also, BTW, both of them are actually .otf fonts. Turns out it will display more than 3 fonts, as long as they all start with A-G. In one case I actually got it to display part of an I name (ITC Berkeley) after the builtin H names, so it seems to be indexing them, but has a very strange idea about what to display. Overall, this strikes me as a very crufty and possibly unintentional hack. But hey, it works. Mostly.

06-19-2012, 11:59 PM	#264
adamselene Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 11050 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Touch, Kindle 2	BTW, just to be clear, what it currently shows in the Aa dialog is: () Serif () Sans () condensed () Adobe Jenson Pro () Arno Pro () Arnock Pro () Brioso Pro () Chaparral Pro () Garamond Premier P[cut off]

06-26-2012, 06:11 AM	#267
knc1 Going Viral Posts: 17,212 Karma: 18210809 Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Central Texas Device: No K1, PW2, KV, KOA	Hmm... $29.00 a copy (per font): http://www.fonts.com/font/monotype-imaging/calisto The owner would probably object to someone giving away enough copies for all the Kindles in the world.

06-27-2012, 09:23 AM	#268
KittyChuan Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: Kindle Touch	That's my fault. I gave a little too much info about the font, or it would've not got deleted.

06-28-2012, 02:31 AM	#270
adamselene Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 11050 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Touch, Kindle 2	Calisto isn't bad, but Warnock has a little better horizontal density without sacrificing any legibility. Honestly, there are a zillion fonts, and you could spend an enormous amount of time wading through them without gaining much. At the size they're being rendered on a Kindle, most of the differences are very subtle—mostly you'll notice they have different aspect ratios and x-heights. Generally speaking, a higher ratio of x-height to ascender height yields more readable bulk text, so that's what I look for. I also stick with only Pro fonts because they tend to have better hinting and kerning, and wider character sets.