Kobo Touch - No Margins

[fbrII]

I very much appreciate Calibre and I have moved almost my entire book collection over to Calibre. One problem I have run into is I lose the margins whenever I convert to epub and I often have to make an epub to epub conversion in order to preserve the cover image.

How do I get the margins back or set up a default for margins when converting? Any tips or advice will be greatly appreciated.

[fbrII]

hello? Hello!, HHHEEELLLLLLOOOO! Is anybody there?

[kovidgoyal]

In the conversion settings, look under page setup to set default margins.

[fbrII]

Well I could swear that I messed around with those settings before and nothing happened but I just tried resetting the margin to twenty points and it worked just fine.

The default 5 points brings the text flush with the margin with my Kobo touch so I will check to see if a default can be set.

Many Thanks

[kiwipippa]

fbrII, I'm having the same problem. 5 points is too small, so I set it to 10 - still too small. So I've used 20. But for some reason, I cannot change the margins using the KT function on any books uploaded via calibre. Annoying really as it means that I have to remember to do it before loading them on the device.

[fbrII]

kiwipapa

But for some reason, I cannot change the margins using the KT function on any books uploaded via calibre.

Same here, I believe that is true of any side loaded book not bought from Kobo. I noticed with their new firmware upgrade you can now look up words in the dictionary and change fonts when using a side loaded epub. However, margin adjustments are still not possible.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by fbrII

However, margin adjustments are still not possible.

So the KT allows you to adjust the main body margins on the fly? I found that if I used a css the specified font size in pts then the font scaling ability is inhibited. Open a epub using the tweak epub feature, find the area of the css where calibre specified the body margins in pts and either change them to something like .3em or remove them and see if this changes how you KT handles margins.

[fbrII]

dwanthy,

Not familiar with the tweak epub feature but I will check the user manual and give it a try. Thanks for the tip.

[JBlyth]

I have found that if you remove the stylesheet.css settings for left and right margins near the top of the file (carefully) the KT margin options will then work.

Perfection for the KT would be to be have an option in Calibre to de-activate left and right margins..... But perhaps that is asking a little too much ;-)

Cheers
John - in really fine and sunny Takikawa - Japan

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by JBlyth

I have found that if you remove the stylesheet.css settings for left and right margins near the top of the file (carefully) the KT margin options will then work.

You need to be specific, exactly what code are you removing?

[JBlyth]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

You need to be specific, exactly what code are you removing?

Sorry - The left and right margins in the stylesheet.css file.....

as in:-
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: 0;

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by JBlyth

Sorry - The left and right margins in the stylesheet.css file.....

as in:-
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: 0;

I know what left and right margins are but the above isn't code you removed, it is code that you changed it to. Never mind maybe someone who has a KT will decide to navigate the specifics.

I'm glad you got it working the way you want it to.

[JBlyth]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I know what left and right margins are but the above isn't code you removed, it is code that you changed it to. Never mind maybe someone who has a KT will decide to navigate the specifics.

I'm glad you got it working the way you want it to.

Hi dwanthy,

Sorry if I was too brief, but that is what worked for me in the epub I processed. I have just done another, and the .css file was much more complex, so I suggest the following....

1. Convert the book with Calibre using a strange left and right margin. I used 9pt in this example.
2. Tweak the converted file and open the stylesheet.css and look for the margins which have 9pt in them - as below
   ;
   margin-left: 9pt;
   margin-right: 9pt
3. Delete from the preceding ":" to the end of the right margin "9pt" leaving the ";" - this makes it easier to delete the correct sections.
4. Rebuild the epub
5. Upload to your KT

Hope this helps....

[EDIT] I have since found that it is much better to do this process BEFORE sending the epub to the KT, otherwise it seems that the ?Caibre database gets a little confused and doesn't process the book. The solution to this is to move the epub out of its "Caibre" folder on the KT and into the root folder. Disconnect the KT so it is processed, then delete the epub file and the original author folder and re-load from Calibre again. It is getting rather complicated, isn't it ;-)

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by JBlyth

Sorry if I was too brief

No problem I was just curious if what I stated that the margins in pts is the limiting factor was correct.

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Open a epub using the tweak epub feature, find the area of the css where calibre specified the body margins in pts and either change them

Originally Posted by JBlyth

1. Tweak the converted file and open the stylesheet.css and look for the margins which have 9pt in them - as below
   ;
   margin-left: 9pt;
   margin-right: 9pt
2. Delete from the preceding ":" to the end of the right margin "9pt" leaving the ";" - this makes it easier to delete the correct sections.

Since the problem with the KT being able to adjust margins on the fly are books using with margins in pts you should submit a bug/enhancement request and see if Kovid could create a option to eliminate or change these kind of margins.

Good Luck.

[JBlyth]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Since the problem with the KT being able to adjust margins on the fly are books using with margins in pts you should submit a bug/enhancement request and see if Kovid could create a option to eliminate or change these kind of margins.

Good Luck.

Done !!!!