[LaurelRusswurm]

Q: Is it possible to bundle free fonts inside the ePub container so they can work on the ereader?

Backstory: Although I don't actually have an ebook reader, I have been playing around with ebooks on my computer (Calibre Reader). This is a big deal for me as I am a novelist learning about self publishing, and I want my novels to be a perfect as possible.

I played around with Calibre, and it seems I can fairly easily make an ePub but I was having trouble getting the table of contents to do what i want, and most especially to include fonts. I have used markup and CSS making websites, which ought to help me make this work.

So I've been trying to use Sigil, since it has the advantage of allowing me direct access to the code, an easy way to make chapter stops, and a place to load fonts and css. Except I can't actually edit the CSS in Sigil, and no matter what I do, the fonts I include don't work. So it occurred to me to seek expert advice, which is how I found my way here.

Old threads here say first it is not possible, later threads talk about doing the font face thing, but I hate the idea. Just I hated that the only way I could include fonts in my word press blog was to use Google fonts. The essential problem I see is that the existence of the font is in Google's hands, or it depends on the continued existence of the website where the font can be found, and no broken links.

What I want to truly embed my chosen fonts so they are there in the reader, bundled with the book. They don't take up much room. If the ebook sits in the ereader, why can't the publisher's fonts sit there in the epub file too?

There is no reason I can see why this should not be possible, if the markup is done the same way it would be for websites, with the publisher's choice listed first, then alternates, so the reader user can default to their own preferences if they like.