Sigil edit italics size

[ebookscovers]

Hi there. I have an ebook which I made in quark press, finalised in sigil. When I see it in Kindle previewer the italic text is much smaller then the main body text. They are supposed to be same size. I used Garamond font should I always use Times new Roman instead as standard for formatting ebook?? Anyway I can globally fix the italic font size in sigil to match the body text?
David

[Turtle91]

Typically well designed Fonts of the same family will have consistent sizes.

Check your CSS to see if there is something designating italic font-size and compare that to your normal font-size.

Another way to see what is happening is to look at the inspector (looks like a </> button at the bottom of the preview pane). You can click on different areas of your text and it will tell you which CSS is effecting the area.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ebookscovers

Hi there. I have an ebook which I made in quark press, finalised in sigil. When I see it in Kindle previewer the italic text is much smaller then the main body text. They are supposed to be same size. I used Garamond font should I always use Times new Roman instead as standard for formatting ebook?? Anyway I can globally fix the italic font size in sigil to match the body text?
David

Personally, I would suggest not forcing any fonts unless you are using characters that are not found in most fonts and are willing to pay the cost to embed the font. An example would be the Enochian text in Terry Pratchett's golem stories.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by ebookscovers

When I see it in Kindle previewer the italic text is much smaller then the main body text. They are supposed to be same size. [...]

Anyway I can globally fix the italic font size in sigil to match the body text?

If I was going to take a stab in the dark...

What's most likely happening is something odd with the CSS font-size.

But, to get to the bottom of it, you're going to have to post an example of your HTML + CSS.

For example, go to the problematic HTML:

<p>This is an <i>italics</i> example.</p>

In Sigil, if you:

• Right-Click the <i> > Go To Link Or Style

Sigil will jump you to the correct location in the CSS:

i {
	font-size: .75em; <--- This is shrinking the font to 3/4 normal size.
	font-style: italic;
}

Copy/paste that code here, and maybe it can help figure out what's going on in your specific case.

- - - - -

Side Note: The HTML may not be as clean/easy-to-read as <i>, but it may be named:

• <span class="italics">
• <span class="random-class-name-123">
• <i class="quark-gibberish-345">

Same logic applies though, Go to Link Or Style should (hopefully) send you to the proper location in the CSS.

- - - - -

Originally Posted by ebookscovers

I have an ebook which I made in quark press, finalised in sigil. [...] I used Garamond font should I always use Times new Roman instead as standard for formatting ebook??

In Ebooks, it's best to just leave it up to the user's preferences + NOT embed fonts. (Don't specify "Garamond" or "Times New Roman" or anything.)

This isn't like Print where you only have 1 page size + 1 design + 1 font + 1 visual look for all readers.

Ereaders read on a million different devices + override and use all types of fonts, so you, as an ebook designer, should be getting out of the way as much as possible.

For more info, see some of my posts + surrounding discussion in:

• 2020: "To Embed Fonts or Not to Embed Fonts"
• 2021: "Locking Fonts?"

(Especially pay attention to Hitch's posts. She's been writing about the problems of embedded fonts in ebooks since... forever.)

Embedded fonts in ebooks should be used very sparingly (if at all). They should definitely NOT be used for the body of the ebook's text.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Embedded fonts in ebooks should be used very sparingly (if at all). They should definitely NOT be used for the body of the ebook's text.

Too true.

Case in point, last night, eyes tired, went to dark mode (in which my eyes have a strong preference for the Amasis font), only to discover that there was NO OPTION to change the font family AT ALL in my library loan.

The only option available was Publisher Default. There appears to be no particular need for a specific font to be set in the body of the ebook. It's Anne Hillerman's latest, The Sacred Bridge, published this April in case anyone is wondering, so NOT an older title.

The font set in the book is not a problem at all during the day, but it didn't work well for me with dark mode so I closed my reader and went to sleep, because my eyes couldn't deal.

I guess the big question is, why, in 2022, are we still seeing this kind of thing out of big publishing houses that should know better?