Kobo future firmware feature request thread

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by GERGE

RMSDK has little to do with Kobo, Kobo's own engine does not support kerning.

GERGE; Kobo has TWO engines on it. One (Netfront ACCESS) is used for kEpub format material; the other (RMSDK) for PDF and ePub content.

[frostschutz]

I read on the H2O using a custom font (Linux Libertine), EPUB, and it does kerning, if only slightly so, but Ty the T hangs over the y as it should. I only use KEPUB for Japanese (as it's not supported on the EPUB side) and you don't really need kerning there...

[GERGE]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You would need a font with kerning added to it. A lot of fonts do not have kerning.

No, having a font file with kerning pairs makes no difference in kepub renderer. All of my sideloaded typefaces have kerning pairs. I have licenses for GT Sectra, Storm Baskerville and Livory. Their kerning pairs work in epubs, they don't work in kebups.

Originally Posted by PeterT

GERGE; Kobo has TWO engines on it. One (Netfront ACCESS) is used for kEpub format material; the other (RMSDK) for PDF and ePub content.

RMSDK belongs to Adobe and Kobo doesn't have any say in it. Kepub, on the hand, while uses Netfront engine, is still Kobo's own format. Netfront's engine is originally an epub renderer anyway, Kobo clearly modified it or have Netfront modify it. Moreover, Netfront engine in Kobo supports kerning as we can see with Amasis. Therefore it is clear that the problem is with Kobo, they should enable kerning support for sideloaded typefaces too.

PS. Engine Kobo uses is called PUBLUS this days, here: http://gl.access-company.com/product...publus_reader/

[PeterT]

Nice to see such a polite expert here.

[JSWolf]

Well, the answer is that if you want properly working kerning, use ePub and the problem will be solved.

[hannah]

For a dutchspeaking belgian the qwerty keyboard is really annoying.
Would it be possible to have the choice for an azerty keyboard ?

[MacEachaidh]

Just quietly, it's annoying for a lot of English speakers too. It's far from an optimal arrangement of keys.

But yes, you'd think a template based on location or default language should be easy to provide, wouldn't you?

[hannah]

Well I don't know, I'm no developer, but would it be so difficult to give the choice for language and for keyboard ?
I almost never see qwerty keyboards here and I'm not used to it at all. But as you say, I'm certainly not the only one to be bothered by that.

[Lebowsky]

I have the same problem (french-switzerland keyboard, which is qwertz). I asked support and was told "no"...

Unfortunately we cannot custom make or make any adjustments on the software. You are not able or download new dictionaries
or programs to Kobo readers.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

I hope it's doable. This is really the only thing I find would be so easy to implement and is missing...

[Dchiplin]

Sort collection by "status". I want to be able to see all of my Finished and partially read books.

Perhaps someone on the forum knows how to accomplish this in some other fashion?

[davidfor]

The library list has a filter for "All", "Reading", "Unread" and "Finished". Do they do what you want?

[Patricius]

1. Global zoom factor or, if possible, resizing-with-text for all raster images?

I have lots of books with mathematical formulas or queerly accented texts as inline raster images and found it annoying when some images become so tiny that they are barely legible and nearly impossible to pinch on.

Currently I'm using some scripts to modify the the css style sheet to enlarge those images, but this will make the books looks weird on my desktop.

2. Default fontface family basing on book language?

I use three fontfaces to read books & magazines in four language: Amasis for Romance languages, Ryumin for Japanese and Adobe_Fangsong for chinese. Due to some problems about vertical text and glyph coverage, interchanging those three with each other will cause problem, and selecting between fonts every times for a new book(or news) can become a chore.

If anyone has a terser way to solve the problems I've encountered please inform me!

[Patricius]

After days of reading, I've come up with some suggestions for GUI:

1. Two touches instead of three:
Frequently used functions like highlight and annotation could be placed in the first layer of the long-press menu, as a language learner, one page might has 1~2 highlights, and as far as I know, less screen refresh, less power consumption.

2. Book darts on header ( upper edge ) for bookmarks:
We use book darts or dog-ears on a real book when we want quick references. The current GUI makes this a formidable task when I need to switch between bookmarks: tap -> menu -> annotations -> flipping and searching -> finally tap on the bookmark.
Instead, many book darts shown on the top sorted and tagged with their page numbers should be excellent.

All of these shouldn't be a problem if the screen is reacting to touches promptly, which is not. And as a programmer, I wonder is there any official opensource repos of their firmware for H2O?

[Dr. Drib]

Moderator Notice

Mobileread does not allow profanity on its site. Any use of such language will promptly cause the post to be deleted, which is exactly what I did.

A look at our Posting Guidelines (and common sense) will help advise anyone who can't figure this one out.

[Dchiplin]

davidfor - somehow I never noticed that!! Huge time saver - thanks so much!