Does Calibre embed "normal" font?

[radius]

I have been trying to embed fonts using Calibre and have been getting very confused

When I convert books from HTML or RTF using the GUI, under "Look & Feel" I have chosen three fonts for serif, sans-serif and monospace.

I don't see anything else in the GUI which might relate to embedding fonts.

But I don't fully understand the results I get and was hoping for some guidance. This is what I've observed:

1) I don't see the long lag everybody talks about with embedding fonts. I have a PRS-505 and the page turn seems to be under one second whether I choose fonts or not. I never see three second page turns.

2) I think at least some fonts are being embedded because it looks like the italics is displayed differently depending on which font I chose.

3) I also tried to choose unusual looking fonts (eg Monotype Corsiva) so that I could more easily see if the font was being embedded and Calibre complains that "Could not find the normal version of the serif font" so Calibre is doing something with the font chosen in the GUI

4) BUT I don't think the regular body font is being changed. Maybe the differences between the serif fonts I've tried is too subtle for me to see the difference, but to me the regular body text always looks the same regardless of the font I chose.


So between the fast page turns and unchanged appearance of body text I think that maybe fonts aren't embedded. But the fact that Calibre is doing something with fonts and that I think italics looks different make me think that maybe fonts *are* embedded.

Any illumination would be appreciated!

[kovidgoyal]

You can easily check if a font is being embedded by the file size of the LRF file (it will be much larger with an embedded font) You can see the file size by opening the edit metadata dialog.

[radius]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You can easily check if a font is being embedded by the file size of the LRF file (it will be much larger with an embedded font) You can see the file size by opening the edit metadata dialog.

Hi Kovid, thanks for the pointer. When I look at file sizes when I embed fonts versus when I don't, I can see a difference. For example, I used a test file which turns into a 0.2MB lrf when converted without a font, and into a 2MB lrf when I try to embed a font into it.

What I did was take an excerpt of text and then convert it three times using different embedded fonts. The three resulting lrfs were all different sizes. When I read the files on my 505 I can see clearly that the italicized text and headings use the embedded fonts.

However, as far as I can tell, the main, or normal body text looks the same in all three versions.

For example, I used the three fonts Cambria, Georgia and Constantia (Windows fonts but easily obtainable) and compare the glyph for the character '5'.

In Cambria, the top and the bottom of the 5 lines up with the text.

However, using Georgia or Constantia, the 5 is almost like a descender that is below the main line of the text, like this:

The quick brown fo5x jumps over the lazy dog.


In my test files, the 5 always looks the same to me.

Similarly, for the percent sign glyph, in all three of the fonts named above, the two circles should be completely separate from the slash.

But when I look at the text in my Reader, I can see the top circle is connected to the slash. I think that is the percent sign from Dutch801 Rm BT (ie: the default font on the PRS-505)

Any idea what is going on?

[kovidgoyal]

You should embed the fonts for all three families (serif, sans serif and monospace)

[radius]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You should embed the fonts for all three families (serif, sans serif and monospace)

I am doing exactly that. I am choosing Serif=Georgia, Sans-serif=Vera Sans, Monospace=Lucida Console

Any chance you could show me an HTML snippet which when run through Calibre which would show fonts correctly?

[kovidgoyal]

if you're setting all three use

<p style="font-family:serif">This is serif text</p>
<p style="font-family:sansserif">This is sansserif text</p>
<p style="font-family:monospace">This is monospace text</p>

[radius]

Hi Kovid, have you tried your example?

If I convert the following snippet, I get three lines which look correct in a web browser, but all three lines look identical on my Reader.

<html>
<head><title>Font test</title></head>

<body>
<p style="font-family:serif">The quick brown fox 012345</p>
<p style="font-family:sansserif">The quick brown fox 012345</p>
<p style="font-family:monospace">The quick brown fox 012345</p>
</body>
</html>

[kovidgoyal]

I dont use font embedding myself, but I know there are people that have used it successfully. The trick is in finding the right font to embed (the sony LRF renderer can only handle a rather small subset of all fonts).

[radius]

Ahh... OK. I'll continue experimenting then. Thanks for all your help.