[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I asked over in the 4.32 firmware thread but I suspect it got buried and really it’s more of a patch question anyway.

With the whole WebKit rendering option in the config file do we need to use the patches that do something similar to them? Are they both getting to the same goal in different ways, or would they work together? And if they do work together could they be combined with a non matching option, e.g legibility and precision one from the configuration file the other from the patches?

For those who don’t know it was discovered you can add the following to the config file:

[Reading]
webkitTextRendering=*

Where the value is one of the following
optimizelegibility
geometricPrecision
optimizeSpeed
auto

Sorry, I must have missed your question in the other thread. This is my current understanding of the state of play...

The 2 existing kobopatches,

1. KePub stylesheet additions - optimizeLegibility
2. KePub stylesheet additions - optimizeSpeed

are no longer required because, in fw 4.32, Kobo have provided an alternative (unannounced) way of achieving the same result by adding an extra line to your Kobo's config file (.kobo/Kobo/Kobo eReader.conf)

1. If you usually enable kobopatch KePub stylesheet additions - optimizeLegibility (in libnickel.so.1.0.0.yaml) to enable kepub ligatures/kerning then you can now disable it.
   
   Instead, manually edit the Kobo config file with your text editor to add this line to all the other lines under the existing [Reading] section header
   

   webkitTextRendering=optimizelegibility

2. If you usually enable kobopatch KePub stylesheet additions - optimizeSpeed (in libnickel.so.1.0.0.yaml) for whatever kepub benefits you feel it gives you (which doesn't include ligatures/kerning) then you can now disable it.
   
   Instead manually edit the Kobo config file with your text editor to add this line to all the other lines under the existing [Reading] section header

   webkitTextRendering=optimizespeed

I don't believe there's any actual harm leaving the patches enabled after editing the Kobo config - but it's pointless. In addition, the contents of the Kobo config file will survive a firmware upgrade whereas kobopatches won't. Besides, you need to convince yourself that the new "Kobo config method" adequately replaces the old "kobopatch method" on your own Kobos

Assuming nothing unexpected crawls out of the woodwork, I'll be retiring both of the above kobopatches at the next firmware upgrade.

P.S. Before anyone asks, I've no idea what you should expect to see on your Kobo if you set the config file to either of the following options:

webkitTextRendering=auto
webkitTextRendering=geometricprecision

I'll leave that as an exercise for another curious mind.