Touch Widows and Orphans and firmware, oh my!

MacEachaidh · 05-02-2013, 02:49 AM

I tend to clean up sideloaded epubs a bit, and one thing I usually do is to set widows and orphans to zero, to give me a full page of text. I also remove spacing between paragraphs and use first-line indents instead, which means – barring section headings and the like – every ereader page has the same number of lines of text.

One thing I'm noticing with firmware 2.5.x is that when a chapter ends on the last line of a screen page, for no reason that I can discern the last line is actually broken over to the next screen, and appears there on its own while leaving a blank line at the bottom of the previous page, which seems to defeat the coding.

Does anyone have any idea why this might be? I don't think it happened in 2.4x, though I haven't downgraded my system to check. Could it be something in the display engine? (These are standard 2.0 epubs, not kepubs.) Could it be something caused by the pagebreak code that begins the next html file?

And yes, I've checked in Sigil that there is no errant coding at the end of the text.

Any thoughts?

davidfor · 05-02-2013, 03:05 AM

It isn't new to 2.5.1. I definitely saw it with 2.4.0 and I am sure people have commented on it for a while. I am sure it is a bug in the display engine.

MacEachaidh · 05-02-2013, 04:14 AM

Thanks mate. I did a search, but couldn't find any relevant discussion.

Worth putting in a bug report, or has it already been raised?

taming · 05-02-2013, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

Thanks mate. I did a search, but couldn't find any relevant discussion.

Worth putting in a bug report, or has it already been raised?

Kobo is definitely aware of this problem. It was an issue, was fixed, and then reappeared. Check to see if using the Georgia font seems better.

MacEachaidh · 05-02-2013, 06:48 AM

Thanks taming, I'll give that a try.

I've noticed a few bugs have made a reappearance in 2.5.1 — how does that happen?! For instance, the text-based cover when the device goes into sleep mode is back, and this time going back to the home screen and letting the image file regenerate doesn't fix it. Also, my system is far slower now on 2.5.1 than it was on 2.5.0 or 2.4.0. I'm actually tempted to do a factory reset and go back a few versions.

Anyway. Meanwhile, I'll give Georgia a try. Thanks for your help.

taming · 05-02-2013, 11:14 AM

This is entirely speculation, but it is based on previous experience.

There seem to be times, immediately following a "big" release, when Kobo finds out that they screwed up on something enormously important to one segment of their market. For example, dictionary screw ups. They very quickly fix that big thing, but don't seem to catch effects that may be cascading out of that fix. Definitely not a good thing, and not something one sees coming from companies that generally do one big update a year when new devices are released.

The pattern has been that we wait a bit longer than we would like (but we are talking a few weeks, not months) to get a fix that takes care of those things, and a few more items on the to-do/most-wanted list.

05-02-2013, 02:49 AM	#1
MacEachaidh Browser Posts: 745 Karma: 578294 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Touch, Kobo Aura HD	Widows and Orphans and firmware, oh my! I tend to clean up sideloaded epubs a bit, and one thing I usually do is to set widows and orphans to zero, to give me a full page of text. I also remove spacing between paragraphs and use first-line indents instead, which means – barring section headings and the like – every ereader page has the same number of lines of text. One thing I'm noticing with firmware 2.5.x is that when a chapter ends on the last line of a screen page, for no reason that I can discern the last line is actually broken over to the next screen, and appears there on its own while leaving a blank line at the bottom of the previous page, which seems to defeat the coding. Does anyone have any idea why this might be? I don't think it happened in 2.4x, though I haven't downgraded my system to check. Could it be something in the display engine? (These are standard 2.0 epubs, not kepubs.) Could it be something caused by the pagebreak code that begins the next html file? And yes, I've checked in Sigil that there is no errant coding at the end of the text. Any thoughts? Last edited by MacEachaidh; 05-02-2013 at 03:01 AM.

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05-02-2013, 03:05 AM	#2
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	It isn't new to 2.5.1. I definitely saw it with 2.4.0 and I am sure people have commented on it for a while. I am sure it is a bug in the display engine.

05-02-2013, 04:14 AM	#3
MacEachaidh Browser Posts: 745 Karma: 578294 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Touch, Kobo Aura HD	Thanks mate. I did a search, but couldn't find any relevant discussion. Worth putting in a bug report, or has it already been raised?

05-02-2013, 06:48 AM	#5
MacEachaidh Browser Posts: 745 Karma: 578294 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Touch, Kobo Aura HD	Thanks taming, I'll give that a try. I've noticed a few bugs have made a reappearance in 2.5.1 — how does that happen?! For instance, the text-based cover when the device goes into sleep mode is back, and this time going back to the home screen and letting the image file regenerate doesn't fix it. Also, my system is far slower now on 2.5.1 than it was on 2.5.0 or 2.4.0. I'm actually tempted to do a factory reset and go back a few versions. Anyway. Meanwhile, I'll give Georgia a try. Thanks for your help.

05-02-2013, 11:14 AM	#6
taming Trying for calm & polite Posts: 4,012 Karma: 9455193 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Mostly in Canada Device: kobo original, WiFI, Touch, Glo, and Aura	This is entirely speculation, but it is based on previous experience. There seem to be times, immediately following a "big" release, when Kobo finds out that they screwed up on something enormously important to one segment of their market. For example, dictionary screw ups. They very quickly fix that big thing, but don't seem to catch effects that may be cascading out of that fix. Definitely not a good thing, and not something one sees coming from companies that generally do one big update a year when new devices are released. The pattern has been that we wait a bit longer than we would like (but we are talking a few weeks, not months) to get a fix that takes care of those things, and a few more items on the to-do/most-wanted list.

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