Line spacing problems

[Asawi]

I use PRS+ on my Sony and I want to be able to use different line spacing in my CSS. This works well on my ePubs UNTIL I convert them with Calibre, when it seems Calibre puts a style sheet in that I cannot override.

What settings do I need to use when converting (ePub to ePub) to make my CSS be the one that decided line spacing?

I have tried putting "0" on lots of places, but no sucess. But then I really don't know what I'm doing so what can I expect...

I have a feeling this started when I started using the "filter CSS" option to filter out embedded fonts, but I could be totally wrong here.

[JSWolf]

ePub > ePub is a bad idea. Just load the ePub into Sigil to edit the CSS as you want/need and don't convert.

[Asawi]

Well, if I'm to do them individually I can just as well do them in Calibre ePub>ePub, but I'd like to do a bulk convert to have my existing library work with my different style sheets. I use different CSS for different devices but like to keep the books in one library. Everything except line spacing works well.

[Asawi]

Jon, thank you! You did put a useful idea in my head even though I won't do exactly as you say!
I tried a double convert ePub>Mobi>ePub and it gave exactly the result I wanted: An ePub that I can easily control with my set of CSS files.
I'll just put Calibre at work with the full bulk convert while doggy and I take our long walk!

THANK YOU!!!

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Asawi

Well, if I'm to do them individually I can just as well do them in Calibre ePub>ePub, but I'd like to do a bulk convert to have my existing library work with my different style sheets. I use different CSS for different devices but like to keep the books in one library. Everything except line spacing works well.

This may be too late to help, but just in case...

You may not need to reconvert at all. Many Sony users create their PRS+ css files containing a line something like:

body {
    font-family: whatever;
    line-height: whatever;
    ... etc etc
    }

This is often not adequate to override the css in calibre-created epubs. You might have more luck if you edit the PRS+ css file to:

body, body.calibre, body.calibre1, body.calibre2, body.calibre3 {
    font-family: whatever;
    line-height: whatever;
    ... etc etc
    }

[Asawi]

Thank you so much Jackie, I will try that too! I'm one of those curious people who doesn't just want things to work (even though that's my main concern) but many times also want to learn and find diferent ways to do things!
I think it's so great to be able to have different style sheets for different circumstances, and I've only recently started learning about them, and always eager to learn more!

[JSWolf]

When you talk line spacing, do you mean the spacing between the actual lines of the paragraphs or the space between paragraphs?

If it's the space between paragraphs, that's margins that are set that way. It's the top and bottom margins that cause the space between paragraphs. Also, if you don't like the margins on the left/right, that's cause by the left/right margins. Sometimes an @page is the problem. So set the margins in body and set the margins in @page for your PRS+ CSS.

You may not need to convert at all this way. And Sigil would be a lot easier to look at the code/CSS and see what's going on so you can make your CSS to cover most cases.

Converting with Calibre can cause this CSS not to work as it changes things. Going ePub > ePub is not good and going ePub > mobi > ePub is very bad as it changes everything in the CSS.

I'll put together some CSS code that might work for you. It won't contain anything to do with the fonts, but you can add that yourself.

[Asawi]

Line spacing = the distance between lines in the normal text. Most of what I read is just straight forward text and I don't care much about formatting except on some occations when I stumble across some really, really poorly fomatted books!

Margins, fonts, styles I don't have problmes with, and not really line spacing either if I didn't want to be able to control it with CSS on the devices. Some days, some books, I prefer bigger spacing, other days I want more text on one page. I have a set of different CSS with light variations in base font size and line height on my devices, and with PRS+ it's easy to go between them.

I have already converted the books I want on my devices at the moment (I don't keep a massive library on my device, just what I plan to read in the next month or so and a couple of short story/essay collection or somethings that are always handy when you've got 5 minutes in a waiting room) and it now works exactly as I want.

I'm still interested in what it is Calibre does, what kind f CSS that seems so hard to override (it has been discussed before), and I'll keep experimenting but it's something that will have to wait until after Christmas.

Thank you so much for trying to help! Much appreciated!