[davidfor]

Originally Posted by mobama

Compare this to what you said earlier: "ePub's margins are based on the CSS code. If the CSS code says to have wide margins, then th ePub will have wide margins. It's nothing to do with software on a Kobo Reader."

The truth is that it is both. The Kobo software respects the formatting in the book. And that means the stylesheet. That means that if the creator put a margin in the book, or on certain elements, they will be used. But, the software can also add extra margins. Or maybe it is better to say it resizes the viewing window.

From my point of view, this quote by itself states a decisive reason to avoid Kobo's inbuilt reader. I most definitely want the ability to switch off the inbuilt CSS and set my own styles, select between indented versus block paragraphs etc. I want this because a very common file format in my ebook collection is HTML - I save a lengthy talky webpage, load it onto the ereader and then read it. Often enough, some tinkering is needed for comfortable reading. The tinkering, to keep it simple, involves stripping all CSS written into the page and cleaning the HTML markup so that headings and titles are defined as headings and titles, paragraphs and blockquotes as paragraphs and blockquotes, etc, so that when I apply my own styles in the reading app in the ereader, everything makes visually perfect sense as it should. If the reading app cannot apply my preferred CSS, it's not a reading app worth the name.

And the Kobo software would be perfectly happy displaying that HTML page. It does support HTML as a format.

Same with epubs - some are beautifully formatted with the internal CSS and markup, let these be as they are, but others are atrocious and it's an instant improvement to switch their internal styles off.

And as crappy as some epubs are, just turning of the internal CSS could be just as bad. A lot of them use spans with a class for italics or bold, which means losing the emphasis these supply. And there are plenty that use a div instead of p. I've no idea what disabling the internal CSS would do for that. I'm not convinced that the option is better.

As to the ability to set margins in Kobo reading app, yes, the settings are there, which is good. But when I first mentioned "outrageously wide margins" I included the footer/statusbar in the concept and I mentioned it too. Those are outrageously wide indeed and configurable/removable only by patching, mentioned in passing by the reviewer, which is near-equivalent to installing another app.

And what are you basing he claim on the top margin on? What is to much? Looking at my current epub on my Aura H2O, the space at the top is about the same as the space between lines for my current font size. That is maybe 3mm. Again, if you are judging it on that review, you aren't seeing the whole story.

Yes, the bottom margin is bigger due to the space left for the page number. Use the full screen reader, and that disappears.

By the way, I'm sure you know the reviewer and you cannot blame him for ignorance or bias. You can only blame him for his preferences, but it really is not blameworthy to have preferences.

I can blame him if he doesn't setup the device for reviewing to show it in its best light. Or show all the features of the device. Your reaction to that review demonstrates this. I can also blame him for not doing the work to make sure that when he says the Kindle is better because it has a particular function, that he ignores that same function on the device he is comparing it to.

And I didn't pay attention to who did the review. Now that I see who it is, he claims to be an expert on ereaders, has reviewed these devices many times. He should know all the features of them.