In my opinion the video review is fair as kepub is Kobos preferred ebook format and should also be considered as best optimized or customized for Kobos devices. Why else would they create their own proprietary format? To tie users/generate traffic to the Kobo eco-system, I know. Kobos business is to sell (more) books and there's nothing wrong with that.
The video clearly shows the output of the kepub format, which can not be changed bythe user:
- a very wide (margin in the) header and footer
- empty text line after every paragraph (does not happen with all kepubs)
- additional margins to left and right which can not be tweaked to zero
With the introduction of fw 2.5.2 the top header is also introduced in regular epubs, so it doesn't make the comparison unfair. This is what you would see if you go to a local shop and compare a Kobo device with any other ereader brand.
Kobos chosen presets can make a direct comparison look unfavorable, because
- the default font size is 12pt (100%), Kobo uses 14pt as default
- a relative larger default line height
Increasing the font size or line height is not a problem, making it smaller is limited. Till the dot in the slider is placed in the most left position.
In a direct comparison there will be - almost with absolute certainty - less text on a Kobo screen, and when the kepub format is used the layout may look different then other readers. While the layout on the non Kobo devices look pretty much the same as they'll follow the original layout of the publisher (even when font sizes, line heights etc. can be changed; e.g. Cybook Odyssey HD)
Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB
I'd already seen that video -- what I was looking for was one showing an epub with the title bar. In the video posted, the bottom of the screen shows the pages within the chapter which says it is showing a kepub not an epub. Kepubs had the title of the books showing at the top of the screen long before the introduction of the Aura. Check reviews of the Touch and Glo for examples.
Part of what the reviewer said and I agree with is that kepub book do tend to use a wider line and paragraph spacing, wider than I prefer but, at most, 10 minutes with Sigil corrects that issue for epubs and non-DRMed kepubs. Part of this comes from the differences between the Adobe and ACCESS rendering engines – rename a epub to .kepub.epub and take a look at the difference in appearance.
Much of the difference between how a Kobo device display epubs and the way other epub devices display them seems to follow Kobo's apparent philosophy of allowing styles specified in the ebook to control the appearance of the ebook. Line heights set in the style basically disable the line spacing slider, margins can be made wider but not narrower and there is no control over the paragraph spacing.
I would have preferred the reviewer to have used the same font and font size on both devices so a comparison of the amount of text on the page would have been easier to do. I do realize that would require some familiarity with the devices which most reviewers do not have the opportunity to gain.
Regards,
David
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