[GUI Plugin] Generate Cover

[slimcat]

I have an update on the font issue in the Generate Cover plugin, as well as a relatively easy workaround that works in Calibre 8.

The same issue (some fonts not showing up in the menu and other fonts not working) happens in Calibre’s Ebook Editor in the Editor Settings font picker. The failures are identical to Generate Cover and visible in the menu itself. I submitted a bug report and Kovid’s response was that it’s not a Calibre problem, it’s a Qt problem. I’m not a developer, so I wasn’t familiar with Qt, but apparently it’s the framework Calibre is built on. Bottom line: a fix is not coming from Calibre.

While rolling back to Calibre 7 may fix this issue on Windows, that doesn’t work on Mac. And even if it did, I use the Generate Cover plugin a lot, so jumping back and forth between different Calibre versions would be super inconvenient (and I wouldn’t be willing to stick to an outdated version of Calibre, especially since God knows when/if this will be fixed in Qt).

But there’s a very quick and simple hack to get specific fonts working correctly (and added to the menu if they’re missing) using the free, open-source app FontForge: https://fontforge.org/en-US/.

It only takes a minute or two and works on all static, user-installed fonts (~/Library/Fonts or /Library/Fonts). It doesn’t work on variable fonts, Adobe Creative Cloud-activated fonts, or system fonts.

This is how to do it on Mac, but I assume the steps are similar on Windows:

1. Make a copy of the font and add Calibre to the file name (e.g. Your-Font-Name.otf → Your-Font-Name-Calibre.otf)

2. Open the Calibre copy of the font in FontForge.

3. Go to Element → Font Info.

4. Edit the first 3 fields in PS Names so they match. Fontname can’t have any spaces, but it will match the others if the words are the same.

• Fontname: Your-Font-Name-Calibre
• Family Name: Your Font Name Calibre
• Name for Humans: Your Font Name Calibre

5. Review/edit the following four TTF Names. Family, Fullname, and Preferred Family (if it appears) must match. If your font is already in the Generate Cover menu, leave the Styles string alone. If you’re trying to add a font that’s missing, you’ll also (usually) need to change Styles (Subfamily) to Regular.

• Family: Your Font Name Calibre
• Styles (SubFamily): Regular
• Fullname: Your Font Name Calibre
• Preferred Family: Your Font Name Calibre

Leave everything else as is. Click OK when finished.

6. Click Change in the popup that appears asking to change the UniqueID.

7. Go to File → Generate Fonts

8. In the Generate Fonts window:

• Choose a save location (usually ~/Library/Fonts)
• Make sure the file name matches the name you created at the start
• Select the correct format: OpenType (CFF) for OTF fonts, TrueType for TTF
• Click Generate
• In the popup that appears saying the file already exists, click Replace (you’re just replacing the copy you made with your new edited version)

(For TTF fonts, you may get a Non-standard Em-Size popup. For both TTF and OTF fonts, you may get a warning about Windows kerning. You can safely ignore both. If you test the original, unedited font, you’ll see the same alerts.)

That’s all you have to do.

There’s no confirmation message from FontForge, but you can confirm it worked by looking in your fonts folder. If the font was successfully regenerated, you'll see a new modified date. Relaunch Calibre if it's open. Your new, working font will be in the Generate Cover font menu and ready to use.

For a walkthrough, screenshots are here: https://imgur.com/a/workaround-gener...-issue-QLAo9N1