Aura HD Full Justification Need Help

[xdrive]

I need help this is the first ereader I ever own, I have a couple of books epub with no DRM, I can change almost everything on them like fonts, weight,etc... the only thing I can't change is the justification on them, I would like to have full justification so it'll look like a real book. I have calibre and I've been trying to do it with no success.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by xdrive

I need help this is the first ereader I ever own, I have a couple of books epub with no DRM, I can change almost everything on them like fonts, weight,etc... the only thing I can't change is the justification on them, I would like to have full justification so it'll look like a real book. I have calibre and I've been trying to do it with no success.

More than likely this is because that particular epub contains internal css which is overriding the Kobo's 'justification buttons'.

If you understand how html & css works, this is easy enough to fix using the Sigil epub editor or calibre's Tweak ebook option.

1. If the 'full justification' button has no effect, the internal css file probably contains one or more occurrences of text-align:left hard-coded in there. Removing them all should result in the Kobo buttons now working as expected. (Ideally, if you understand css well enough, you should remove only those occurrences which are causing the problem.)
2. Alternatively, change every occurrence of text-align:left to text-align:justify. This option won't make the Kobo buttons work, but the book should now be full justified anyway.

If you're not comfortable with html/css there are a couple of calibre options you can try instead.

1. Convert epub to epub and make sure that the Convert - Look&Feel - Text Justification box is set to Justify text. The Kobo justify buttons probably won't work but the book should be full justified anyway. Check by opening the converted epub in the calibre Viewer.
2. Convert epub to epub with the following option set on the Convert - Look&Feel page. Find the Filter Style Information tab (about halfway down) and type text-align in the Other CSS Properties box. This option should allow the Kobo justify buttons to work as expected but there is a big caveat. This option will also remove any specific centre-align or right-align settings, e.g. centred headings will end up left-aligned. This may or may not be important to you.

Whichever of the 4 options you pick you will need to re-send-to-device the epub to the Kobo. Hope you can find something which works for you.

[xdrive]

Thank you for reply, it's been really helpful

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by xdrive

I need help this is the first ereader I ever own, I have a couple of books epub with no DRM, I can change almost everything on them like fonts, weight,etc... the only thing I can't change is the justification on them, I would like to have full justification so it'll look like a real book. I have calibre and I've been trying to do it with no success.

I cannot change justification on any of my books. I would agree with those that say it could be the book, except that the first time I tried it worked. It worked on two different books one on the mini and one on the Aura and would not work again. Even on the same two books and both books reverted back to flush left next time I opened them. I had the same problem with margins a few firmware back but they work again.

I don't actually like justified text so haven't pursued it. I was just trying it on the off chance that it would keep the books from opening on the wrong page.

Helen

[buffaloseven]

Using the new version of the Kobo driver in Calibre, you can create a file called "kobo_extra.css" in the root of your device's memory with CSS rules that will be applied to books sent to the device. In your case, you could specify a css rule of:

p {
    margin-top: 0;
    margin-bottom: 0;
    text-align: justify;
    text-indent: 1.5em; /* optional */
}

This would add those CSS rules to all the books you send to the device, and ensure that it correctly replaces any existing values.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by buffaloseven

Using the new version of the Kobo driver in Calibre, you can create a file called "kobo_extra.css" in the root of your device's memory with CSS rules that will be applied to books sent to the device. In your case, you could specify a css rule of:

p {
    margin-top: 0;
    margin-bottom: 0;
    text-align: justify;
    text-indent: 1.5em; /* optional */
}

This would add those CSS rules to all the books you send to the device, and ensure that it correctly replaces any existing values.

I will have to try that when I am energetic Only thing I could get to work previously with the kobo_extra.css was the widows orphans thing.

Helen

[GeoffR]

I think jackie_w's first suggestion is the best approach: just remove existing instances of "text-align: justify".

Doing an epub-->epub conversion can cause other things like margin adjustment to stop working because of the way Calibre creates the new stylesheet.

And adding text-align: justify to every paragraph, such as with Calibre's Kobo driver extra css option, can mess up a lot of other things such as chapter headings (a lot of books use paragraphs for chapter headings, and they look very bad justified because of the large font size).

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I think jackie_w's first suggestion is the best approach: just remove existing instances of "text-align: justify".

Doing an epub-->epub conversion can cause other things like margin adjustment to stop working because of the way Calibre creates the new stylesheet.

And adding text-align: justify to every paragraph, such as with Calibre's Kobo driver extra css option, can mess up a lot of other things such as chapter headings (a lot of books use paragraphs for chapter headings, and they look very bad justified because of the large font size).

Interesting, I would have thought that the majority of chapter headings would be centered and that centered or very short lines would not be affected by justification. Shows what I know

Helen

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Interesting, I would have thought that the majority of chapter headings would be centered and that centered or very short lines would not be affected by justification. Shows what I know

The centered lines would be using a text-align: center; which would be replaced by a text-align: justify;. This could either show the lines left flush if they are short enough not to be justified or as left flush/right flush if they are long enough to be justified.

While handy, Calibre, at times, is like using a shotgun to perform open heart surgery.

Regards,
David