Long words running off page

[BKh]

I just noticed that on the Sony Reader and ADE, words that are longer than the line just run off the page. I'm accustomed to the Kindle where long words are broken and run on to the next line.

Is there something I could be putting in the CSS to tell the reading device to go ahead and break a word if it is too long for the line?

I'm not interested in inserting special characters in these long words.

I realize that the Kindle's method of just chopping at the end of the line is a little crude, but not displaying the text at all as ADE does seems unacceptable.

[Toxaris]

There is something wrong in your stylesheet. I suspect there is a 'pre' value there. There was an mention about that about a week ago.

[BKh]

Oh, I should have included my stylesheet. Sorry. But I don't use any pre tags.

Here is the css specificially for the text in question.

.bodytext {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    font-size: 1em;
    margin-bottom: 0em;
    margin-left: 0;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
    text-indent: 1em
    }

Here is the whole style sheet.

@namespace h "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml";

@font-face {
font-family : Verajja;
font-weight : normal;
font-style: normal;
src : url('../Fonts/Verajjan.ttf');
}
@font-face {
font-family : Verajja;
font-weight : normal;
font-style: italic;
src : url('../Fonts/Verajjai.ttf');
}

@font-face {
font-family : Verajja;
font-weight : bold;
font-style: normal;
src : url('../Fonts/Verajjab.ttf');
}

@font-face {
font-family : Verajja;
font-weight : bold;
font-style: italic;
src : url('../Fonts/Verajjat.ttf');
}

body {
	font-family: Verajja; 
}


p.sgc-1 {text-align: center; font-size:small}

.bodytext {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    font-size: 1em;
    margin-bottom: 0em;
    margin-left: 0;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
    text-indent: 1em
    }

.book {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    display: block;
    font-size: 1.83333em;
    font-weight: bold;
    margin-bottom: 0.5cm;
    margin-left: 0;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
    text-align: center
    }
.break {
    page-break-after: always
    }
.calibre {
    
    
    font-size: 1em;
    margin-bottom: 0;
    margin-left: 5pt;
    margin-right: 5pt;
    margin-top: 0;
    padding-left: 0;
    padding-right: 0;
    page-break-before: always
    }
.calibre1 {
    display: block
    }
.calibre2 {
    color: inherit;
    cursor: inherit;
    text-decoration: inherit
    }
.calibre3 {
    display: block;
    page-break-after: always
    }
/*
.center {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    display: block;
    margin-bottom: 0;
    margin-left: auto;
    margin-right: auto;
    margin-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
    text-align: center
    }
*/
.centered {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    display: block;
    font-size: 1em;
    margin-bottom: 1em;
    margin-left: auto;
    margin-right: auto;
    margin-top: 1em;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
    text-align: center;
	font-style:italic;
    }
/*
.centered1 {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    display: block;
    font-size: 1em;
    margin-bottom: 0.5cm;
    margin-left: 0;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
    text-align: center
    }
*/
.chapter {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    display: block;
    font-size: 2em;
    font-weight: normal;
    margin-bottom: 0.5cm;
    margin-left: 0;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-top: 3em;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
    text-align: center
    }

.title {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    display: block;
    font-size: 1.5em;
    font-weight: normal;
    margin-bottom: 0.5cm;
    margin-left: 0;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-top: 2em;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
    text-align: center
    }

 /* Gatha line 1 */
  .gatha1 { font-size: 1em; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0em;margin-top:.5em; margin-bottom:0em; font-style:italic}

  /* Gatha line 2 */
  .gatha2 { font-size: 1em; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0em;margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:0em; font-style:italic;}

  /* Gatha line 3 */
  .gatha3 { font-size: 1em; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0em;margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:0em; font-style:italic;}

  /* Gatha last line */
  .gathalast { font-size: 1em; margin-bottom: .5em; margin-left: 0em;margin-top:0em; font-style:italic;}


/*
.gatha {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    display: block;
    font-size: 1em;
    margin-bottom: 0;
    margin-left: 1em;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0
    }
.gathalast {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    display: block;
    font-size: 1em;
    margin-bottom: 0.5cm;
    margin-left: 1em;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0
    }
*/

.hangnum {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    display: block;
    font-size: 1em;
    margin-bottom: -14.4pt;
    margin-left: 0;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
    text-indent: 2em
    }
.logo {
    height: 112px;
    margin-bottom: -0.1em;
    margin-left: 0.25em;
    margin-right: 0.5em;
    margin-top: 0;
    width: 270px
    }
.nikaya {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    display: block;
    font-size: 2em;
    font-weight: bold;
    margin-bottom: 0.5cm;
    margin-left: 0;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
    text-align: center
    }
.note {
    color: gray;
	font-size:small;
    }
.paranum {
    font-weight: normal;
	font-size:small;
    }
.subhead {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    display: block;
    font-size: 1em;
    font-weight: bold;
font-style: italic;
    margin-bottom: 0.5cm;
    margin-left: 0;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-top: 1em;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
    text-align: center
    }
.sutta {
    border-bottom: 0;
    border-top: 0;
    display: block;
    font-size: 1.2em;
    font-weight: normal;
    margin-bottom: 0.5cm;
    margin-left: 0;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-top: 2em;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
    text-align: center
    }

span.sutnum {
font-size:.75em;
}
span.chaptnum {
font-size:.75em;
}
span.pn {
	font-size:small;
	color:gray;
}

[Doitsu]

Does your ebook contain non-Latin text or transliterated text? If so, did you make sure that:

• your xhtml source files are encoded in Unicode
• the embedded font is also Unicode-compatible
• the language code of the epub is correct

Can you post a screen capture and the corresponding html source code section?

[BKh]

Thanks for the ideas.

It does contain non-standard Latin characters. But the source files are encoded as utf-8, the font is absolutely unicode compatible and contains the correct characters, and the language is set correctly. It's Pali.

But ADE doesn't have any capacity to split words based on the language, does it? I'm not even hoping for that, just to have all the characters displayed.

I will work on a screen shot.

[BKh]

OK, here's the code for an example:

<p class="bodytext"><a id="para813"></a><a id="para813_sn5"></a><span class="paranum">813</span>. “Cattārome <a id="T5.0326"></a><a id="V3.0328"></a><a id="M3.0222"></a><a id="P5.0254"></a><span class="pn">[254]</span> bhikkhave, iddhipādā bhāvitā bahulīkatā apārā pāraṃ gamanāya saṃvattanti. Katame cattāro? Idha, bhikkhave, bhikkhu chandasamādhippadhānasaṅkhārasamannāgataṃ iddhipādaṃ bhāveti, vīriyasamādhippadhānasaṅkhārasamannāgataṃ iddhipādaṃ bhāveti, cittasamādhippadhānasaṅkhārasamannāgataṃ iddhipādaṃ bhāveti, vīmaṃsāsamādhippadhānasaṅkhārasamannāgataṃ iddhipādaṃ bhāveti. Ime kho, bhikkhave, cattāro iddhipādā bhāvitā bahulīkatā apārā pāraṃ gamanāya saṃvattantī”ti. Paṭhamaṃ.</p>

Here is a screen shot in ADE with the page stretched wide enough so all the long words fit...


And this is a shot when I make the page more narrow, simulating a smaller screen (note, I'm just changing the viewing window size). You can see that the fifth, seventh and ninth line run off the screen.

[Toxaris]

If the word cannot fit on one line, it will run off. It will not hyphenate. ADE will have no choice than to let the word run off.

[BKh]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

If the word cannot fit on one line, it will run off. It will not hyphenate. ADE will have no choice than to let the word run off.

Thank you. I'm not wanting it to hyphenate. That's asking a bit much. But of all the ways to deal with long strings of unbroken text, not displaying seems to be the worst. It may not be pretty, but at least on the Kindle (different format, I know) it wraps the text to the next line.

Thanks to all the folks who responded.

[Toxaris]

Wrapping is worse in my opinion. The break is guessed and is very strange. Then again, I cannot imagine too many words that would be longer than a line.

ADE does display the rest of the line, it is only not visible.

[mrmikel]

You might want to make a note at the beginning of your book asking the reader to switch their book view to landscape, if that is possible on the Kindle. That is, they would hold and read their book with the longest screen dimension horizontal. That will allow longer lines. If editing for epub, also make sure you pull out all non breaking spaces to avoid compounding the problem of overlong words.

[mmat1]

Originally Posted by BKh

I'm not wanting it to hyphenate.

I noticed that most readers and reading software have serious problems with long words. I'm talking about standard-ascii. Like this:
Transvaaltruppentropentransporttrampelthiertreiber trauungsthraenentragoedie!

My solution was to insert small spaces after each letter. Lucklily, with this text this strategy was possible.

Even <span>s won't help. I guess, inserting something is the only way to help certain reader software to find a spot to break the word to the next line.

I know, you told us you don't want to do so. So i'm sorry, but i don't see any other way

edit: ----------------------------------------------------
It was not in my intention to add as space into the long word shown above. The MR-editor did it.

[Jellby]

Newer ADE versions, like the 1.8 preview (is it still a preview? is it still available?) or the embedded versions in newer readers can hyphenate. It's not a perfect feature (my reader will sometimes leave a single letter in a line, or insert a hyphen between a letter and a punctuation character), but it won't allow words to overflow a line.

Or you could use a zero-width space (& #8203;), but that's inserting special characters.

[BKh]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Then again, I cannot imagine too many words that would be longer than a line.

Some languages make heavy use of compound words. It's not extremely common to have words that long, but it does happen.

You might want to make a note at the beginning of your book asking the reader to switch their book view to landscape, if that is possible on the Kindle. That is, they would hold and read their book with the longest screen dimension horizontal. That will allow longer lines. If editing for epub, also make sure you pull out all non breaking spaces to avoid compounding the problem of overlong words.

Actually, the Kindle just wraps the line if it is longer than the screen width. Since I personally use a Kindle, this is the behaviour I am accustomed to. It was when I used a Sony Reader that I saw the problem with long words not displaying.

Removing any non-breaking spaces is a great idea.

Thanks everyone.

[HarryT]

What language is this? It'll be a problem in any "agglutinative" language which forms sentences by joining words together. Turkish is perhaps the most commonly encountered (for a European, anyway) agglutinative language.

[BKh]

The language is Pali, the scriptural and liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism.