Best typesetting/typography engine: Kindle Voyage vs Kobo Aura H2O

[cerem0ny]

Just wondering, which ereader displays text the best? I know the new enhanced typesetting feature from Amazon has included hyphenation, ligatures and kerning but does the Kobo offer the 'holy trinity' as well? And which, in your opinion, displays fonts the best and in general just looks 'nicer' and is easier to read? I ask these questions 'cause I'm a stickler for typography and stuff but have no idea where to even start researching my question!! Cheers!

Oh and feel free to include the resolutions and displays and stuff too- personally I can't see a difference between the 300ppi Voyage and say the Kobo Aura H2O but I do believe the glo Hd looks a little worse than all of them...

[cerem0ny]

Hrrmph, as per the results, had no idea the text rendering was so subjective...

Based on the fact that only a percentage of Kindles books have rendering that is 'enhanced' (that is, doesn't have huge blank spaces between words and no hyphenations) I think I'm gonna assume the Kobo is better in this respect (if not all respects). I just wish they had better quality control on their hardware their devices are very unpredictable in their build quality ����

[johnnyb]

I love the Kobo "printed page" and a custom Garamond font looks just incredible but the large header and footer spaces look like a waste of space and the software is generally much more unstable...
Kindle looks generally much more rudimentary and it annoys me that the enhanced typesetting is not available for "brought" books... (among some other things)
Currently, I spend most of my time on the iPad (because even iBooks has much better typescript), but that's an LCD screen...

[kacir]

Originally Posted by cerem0ny

Just wondering, which ereader displays text the best?

You should ask also which one lets you choose hyphenation and the most basic things, such as comfortable font size.
When I had Paperwhite I was constantly annoyed by a default font sizes and margin sizes. One font size is a little bit small, the next one too large for my taste.

[GERGE]

Kindle has better defaults with the last updates (defaults are not subjective, not really; think of them as good use of generally accepted values); but if you are willing to give some effort, Kobo ends up looking better.

[344a]

I don't have a voyage, and never had one before. So I can't tell how good it is. But I love my H2O, and it is doing a good job for me, especially after I put the night mode to it.

[cerem0ny]

Hrmmm well after having my h2o for a few weeks now and using both I have to agree with the polls results, the Kobo does indeed render Te t much much better, it flows kind of like a word processor in that there's the tiniest of space between letters and spaces between words is more uniform... The Kindles typesetting is really quite bad, the letters don't seem to flow into one another and look kind of rudimentarily placed. The enhanced typesetting makes text flow less jagged together and hyphenation improves the spacing between words but the 'enhanced' thing is kind of a joke, it should really be standard.

Thanks for the responses guys

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

I love the Kobo "printed page" and a custom Garamond font looks just incredible but the large header and footer spaces look like a waste of space and the software is generally much more unstable...
Kindle looks generally much more rudimentary and it annoys me that the enhanced typesetting is not available for "brought" books... (among some other things)
Currently, I spend most of my time on the iPad (because even iBooks has much better typescript), but that's an LCD screen...

Your using kepub. If you use ePub, it uses the RMDSK (ADE) engine and does not have a header. So you don't have to be bothered with a header that way.

RMDSK will display ligatures and kerning if the font has them. Also you get hyphens and variable spacing as needed. The font rendering is quite good.

I've not had experience with the Voyage, but I have experience with the PW3 and from what I've read, it's the same in regards to typesetting. So in that case, the H2O is better because you don't need some custom format. The H2O just works with any ePub to give you the typesetting Amazon promised but did not properly deliver.

[cerem0ny]

Thought I'd chime in with some incorrigible evidence that typography is indeed better on the Aura/Kobo, at least when compared to books without enhanced typesetting - there are noticeable differences in kerning, ligatures, character and word spacing etc. that makes reading much more seamless and immersive than on the Kobo, pictured here... As for enhanced typesetting, the improvements do make a big difference, but only so much as as that they have finally caught up with their epub counterparts. Sticking with Kobo from now, as long as they don't screw up the QC on the hardware of their latest device! Take all my money!

[jackie_w]

@cerem0ny,

In case you're interested ... there's an improved English hyphenation dictionary available for the Kobo somewhere in the Kobo Developers subforum. No particular technical expertise required to install it.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by cerem0ny

Thought I'd chime in with some incorrigible evidence that typography is indeed better on the Aura/Kobo, at least when compared to books without enhanced typesetting - there are noticeable differences in kerning, ligatures, character and word spacing etc. that makes reading much more seamless and immersive than on the Kobo, pictured here... As for enhanced typesetting, the improvements do make a big difference, but only so much as as that they have finally caught up with their epub counterparts. Sticking with Kobo from now, as long as they don't screw up the QC on the hardware of their latest device! Take all my money!

So, just to be clear, the book you are showing on the Kindle isn't using the .kfx format that includes the enhanced typesetting. Is that correct?

Shari

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

@cerem0ny,

In case you're interested ... there's an improved English hyphenation dictionary available for the Kobo somewhere in the Kobo Developers subforum. No particular technical expertise required to install it.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=252405

That's the link for the thread for the improved English hyphenation dictionary. The reason it's improved is because it doesn't have such wonky numbers for where and when it hyphenates.

[MGlitch]

I'd argue that by default it's a toss up. But Kobo lets you tweak the typography way more than Kindle does.

[cerem0ny]

Originally Posted by shalym

So, just to be clear, the book you are showing on the Kindle isn't using the .kfx format that includes the enhanced typesetting. Is that correct?

Shari

That is correct... and I must say that I wasn't able to see much of any difference with enhanced typesetting enabled kfx's, but with so many books still without it being enabled, plus the typography and font options available on the Kobo, its a hands down win for Rakuten!
The display of the Voyage however is a bit more razor sharp however but it's nothing to complain about on the Kobo... Wish they'd announce a new device soon!

[cerem0ny]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=252405

That's the link for the thread for the improved English hyphenation dictionary. The reason it's improved is because it doesn't have such wonky numbers for where and when it hyphenates.

Cool, just installed it now. Love hacking my Kobo hehe... I have the patcher also, any other essential mods you might recommend?
Thanks 😀