Quote:
Originally Posted by kAlvaro
I mostly use my H2O reader to read regular epub files I purchase in non-Kobo shops. Line height is too large for my liking: it appears to be around 1.3 or 1.4 but I'd prefer something close to 1 as in most paperback books. For whatever the reason, I can change all font settings except line height. No matter what value I set, all my books will look the same.
There're endless Google results that suggest you need to edit every book you buy with Calibre. I've just learnt here that there're unofficial firmwares and alternative reading software.
What'd be your recommendation to just fix the line-height issue?
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There are two separate issues: the minimum size of the line spacing, and whether it can be adjusted using the slider on the device.
It would be best if you could try a book where the line spacing is adjustable to see if the minimum slider setting is small enough for you when used with your preferred fonts. If the minimum settting is still too large, then your only option to make it smaller and retain the adjustability using the Kobo ePub or KePub readers would be to patch the firmware, and that might simplify your decisions later.
On the other hand, if the smallest line spacing setting in the stock firmware is acceptable, then you have the option of fixing the non-adjustablility problem just by editing the book's stylesheet (either manually or automatically during conversion by tweaking the settings in Calibre) without the need to patch. There is a new feature in recent Calibre versions that looks like it could allow a way of making the stylesheet changes needed to fix this problem automatically without many of the bad side-effects that result from simply stripping all line-height styles in the book.
If you haven't yet come across a book where the line spacing is adjustable,
this one from the Baen free lbrary should work as an example. Also
this post will give you an idea of what can be done to customise the range of line spacing settings by patching.
[Edit: What I use personally is a combination: patch to allow narrower line spacing; and editing the book's stylesheet to allow the main body text to be adjustable, while retaining a fixed line-height for special cases (such as line-height:0 for raise-caps, subscripts, etc.) I find that there are usually many things that need fixing in a book, from OCR errors to poor-quality images to formatting, the line-height issue is just one of many.]