Quotation marks overhanging?

[Cameronpaterson]

I recently purchased a Kobo eReader Touch and in many respects am enjoying it However, there is one recurring irritation - a large number of overhanging quotation marks - that is to say, closing quotation marks relating to dialogue in one line appearing orphaned at the beginning of the next, otherwise empty line - i.e.:

He looked gleeful and murmured: "I told you so!
"

Is this simply a poorly formatted ebook ('A Clash of Kings' by George RR Martin) or it related in any way to the eReader software? Has anyone else encountered the issue? I have the font and line spacings on the default settings, by the way. Any input gratefully received
(Supplementary question - what is the mysterious 'Kobo styling' referred to in the font/ line dialogue settings page?)

[dmacmart]

Not just your book; it's true for all kepubs and not just for the KT. Affects my WiFi as well.

[p_a_smith]

I'd guess poorly formatted book. I think many publishers simply run the manuscript through some cheap software and then sell it.

I have a book from a major publisher where everytime there should be "..." it appears as ".?.?.?" in the text. Very annoying since the writer loves to use "..." in conversations.

[Cameronpaterson]

Originally Posted by dmacmart

Not just your book; it's true for all kepubs and not just for the KT. Affects my WiFi as well.

'Kepubs'? Not sure I've heard that term before

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by Cameronpaterson

'Kepubs'? Not sure I've heard that term before

It's Kobo's custom epub format (which includes more things than just their own DRM, since they've had to do special coding to do simple things with regular or Adobe DRM'd epubs like dictionary lookups).

[Cameronpaterson]

Originally Posted by p_a_smith

I'd guess poorly formatted book. I think many publishers simply run the manuscript through some cheap software and then sell it.

I have a book from a major publisher where everytime there should be "..." it appears as ".?.?.?" in the text. Very annoying since the writer loves to use "..." in conversations.

So you haven't encountered the overhanging quotation glitch yourself then? Other people are saying it's common problem

[Cameronpaterson]

Originally Posted by JD Gumby

It's Kobo's custom epub format (which includes more things than just their own DRM, since they've had to do special coding to do simple things with regular or Adobe DRM'd epubs like dictionary lookups).

Thanks for the clarification - and to everyone else for the info too I take it then, that if this is effectively a bug in the Kobo software, changing the font or line spacing won't fix the issue?
And what is the Kobo style option a reference to?

[p_a_smith]

Originally Posted by Cameronpaterson

So you haven't encountered the overhanging quotation glitch yourself then? Other people are saying it's common problem

Yes, I have seen it on occasion. Unfortunately strange formatting things in ebooks are all too common.

[RobertJSawyer]

I saw that glitch today, too. Really looks bush-league.

[Cameronpaterson]

Thanks for the info all. I keep coming across this particular glitch as I continue the book but don't let it bother me anymore, as strange as it looks. I am reluctant to mess with the default font settings, even though I suppose that might fix the issue (might). Even if this is fundamentally a poorly formatted book, I can't help but feel that an improvement in the eReader Touch's text layout systems would go a long way towards fixing such glitches. Here's to the next update!

[beautifulsoup]

Originally Posted by Cameronpaterson

...
(Supplementary question - what is the mysterious 'Kobo styling' referred to in the font/ line dialogue settings page?)

I'd love to know the answer to this one, too.

[Joe563]

According to a Kobo rep the Kobo styling feature is 'vestigial' and will be removed in a future firmware release.

The only difference I have noticed is that with Kobo Styling OFF hyperlinks are shown in a light gray font.

[beautifulsoup]

Thanks, Joe563.

[RealityMonster]

Almost all of the formatting errors that I've had with my Kobo go away if I read them on my Sony. Overhanging quotation marks, bad justification, mis-aligned graphics, etc.

I'm talking about ePubs that I bought from Kobo and read on a Sony PRS-500. There appear to be fundamental gaps in the way that Kobo renders the ePub files that aren't restricted to the hardware (the desktop reader renders the files the same, incorrect way).

I'm hoping a future update to the software will fix this. Until then, I guess we just deal with it or read on other hardware. :/

[Cameronpaterson]

Originally Posted by RealityMonster

Almost all of the formatting errors that I've had with my Kobo go away if I read them on my Sony. Overhanging quotation marks, bad justification, mis-aligned graphics, etc.

I'm talking about ePubs that I bought from Kobo and read on a Sony PRS-500. There appear to be fundamental gaps in the way that Kobo renders the ePub files that aren't restricted to the hardware (the desktop reader renders the files the same, incorrect way).

I'm hoping a future update to the software will fix this. Until then, I guess we just deal with it or read on other hardware. :/

Ah... that actually doesn't surprise me. I had suspected these formatting errors had more to do with the Kobo than other posters were admitting Let's hope Kobo is listening! Roll on the next software update - perhaps version 1 will sort it all out. Let's hope so!