[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

@JSWolf,
You are welcome to add your own opinions, but neither yours nor mine are the 'One True Way'. But taking your points one at a time:

I included a line-height merely as an illustrative option of what you can use if you feel like it, along with an example of how to supercede it when using a different font. In addition, the case for including it is that it is a good way of (trying) to override an unwanted line-height value which may already be in an epub's internal css file. Retail epubs often set a line-height in their body{...} css.

I find a lot of publishers use a line height of 1.2 and to me, that's too large. For a sample, I suggest a smaller value that would be good for those who want more of a lace between the lines, but not that big.

Similarly, I listed the @page{...} as optional. It's a way (I think) of
a) not needing to add margins to every single epub using calibre
b) overriding page margins in calibre epubs, that you wish you'd never put in, in the first place.
Putting the @page{} in here should override any already in the epub. I think I need to test that rash statement tomorrow.

I would not put @page in the CSS here. It's fixed that way and there's nothing you can do about it. If it does override what might be in the ePub's CSS then that is the only @page you get for every ePub. I would suggest setting the margins in Calibre and using the Modify ePub plugin to add in the @page. That way, you can change it if you want very easily or remove it if that's what's you want.

Adding margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0 in the body{...} css. I'll concede that one and add it to the original post. It's a good way to try and neutralise the ludicrous left/right margins, publishers put in retail epubs. I missed it because it's one of the things I obsessively edit manually in every epub.

I find that the way the bezel of the Sony readers is made, that having a margin of 0 is not a problem. One way to deal with the silly overly large margins in ePub is again to use the Modify ePub plugin. Sometimes that silly margin is set in the page template file and Modify ePub can easily and quickly get rid of it.

Adding margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; to the body{...} css. This may suit you (and probably many others) but it wouldn't suit everyone, me for one. I like a bit of space between some types of paragraphs and a lot of space between other types e.g. scenebreaks. Include it if you want, but it's one of the things that is difficult to achieve your 'perfect' result unless you manually selectively edit parts of every epub.

I mostly agree here. I do set a space of 2em for scene break space and yes, there should be some space between certain types of paragraphs. But the majority of paragraphs don't need space between them. But for example, when something is centered, a space of .5em top/bottom

With retail epubs which have DRM still in place and which include their own embedded fonts, you have a better chance of overriding with your custom font choice if you put the font-family: serif in a body{...} statement, as per my example, rather than the html{...} statement, as per your example.
However, some people may like to use the publisher's embedded font in these special circumstances. In which case, your way is better. Although, since most (95%+ ?) retail epubs which do embed fonts, embed the standard Charis font rather than your superior darkened version (did I really just say that ) why would I ever want to use the embedded font.

Do you have a solution on how to get the publisher font to work in case the eBook has fonts you do want to see doing it your way?

Re: widows and orphans... I deliberately didn't include these for 2 reasons. Firstly, this was meant to be a primer and not everyone knows what widows and orphans are. Secondly, and more important, I have tried to use them on the PRST1 and couldn't get them to work. I frequently saw multi-line paragraphs which had the first line on one page and the rest of the paragraph on the next page - which I thought those settings were supposed to stop. I also saw the converse, namely all but the last line of a paragraph on one page and its last line on the next page.

I put them in as a matter of course because I don't like the end of the page changing. I don't mind single lines from a given paragraph at the top/bottom of the page.

As for repeating all css code in all css files. You can choose to do it this way if you prefer, but I'm an old-school programmer type. If I have to hard-code anything, I do it in the minimum of places so that when I want to change it I only have to do it once. It's purely a personal choice and everyone should do what they are most comfortable with.

I figure if it's good for the default, it's good for all fonts except maybe a specific font size to start with.

Lastly, people who are new to all this may not want to get into the finer points of using calibre's 'Modify Epub' plugin (which would also require learning about DRM removal beforehand) . I'm trying to suggest a default.css file which can customise as many epubs as possible without having to learn much about css, and nothing at all about DRM removal and calibre plugins.

I suggest Modify ePub as well. It's one very nice pugin that eliminates having to do a lot of things manually that I used to do.

BTW, I'm happy to further debate Sony vs. css best practice with you, if you like, but this thread is not the place to do it. PM me any time you like. Might be fun

Or we could start a new thread just on the modified reader and separate it from the home screen.