Locked Publisher font?

tdonline · 01-24-2021, 11:57 AM

I downloaded an Overdrive book to my PW and Oasis. I cannot use my own font and page settings other than to change the font size. Am I missing a trick? Does this mean the publisher has locked down these settings? I can't understand why they would do this? All it did was make me go and find another book to read. In 10 years of Overdrive use, this is the first time I have encountered this.

jhowell · 01-24-2021, 02:40 PM

Perhaps it uses fixed-layout. If you share the ASIN of the book others can see if there is something unusual about it.

haertig · 01-24-2021, 05:36 PM

You can possibly fix it in Calibre. But this means you must first strip the DRM from the book - a questionable thing to do for a library book.

I encountered this problem once for a book I purchased from Amazon. I can't remember the name to the book, it was quite a while back. A little Google'ing on "can't change font on Kindle" turned up the answer on how to fix it with Calibre:

Quote:

I bought another couple of kindle books from Amazon, both of them have the same behaviour - text in Helvetica font which can't be changed.

So I finally had enough of this. I got to try to fix this.

Thankfully, the fix with Calibre is very easy (as long as you are ready to strip the DRM (if any), which you probably should anyway).

So if you bought from Amazon a book for your KIndle Paperwhite that is shown in Helvetica (sans-serif) font and you can't change the font using Font Dialog, do following:

a) (this needs to be done only once) configure Calibre to remove 'font-family' style element during conversion: in Calubre, go "Preferences" --> "Convertion - Common Options" --> select "Look & Feel" --> select tab at the bottom "FIlter Style Information" --> check "Fonts"

b) import the book into Calibre fron the Paperwhite device (make sure you have Aprentice Alf's plugin installed and configured for your device, otherwise Calibre will not be able to convert the book)

c) convert book to MOBI (even if it is already in MOBI format). May be you could convert to AZW3 too, I didi not try this - in any case, do convertion by Calibre. If asked Calibre to strip font styles (see step a), Calibre will strip hardcoded font styles and you will be able to change fonts using Font Dialog on the device.

d) send book back into the device

Note that if you did any conversion of this book in Calibre before, Calibre will store convertion options specifically for this book and will not use default options that we set up in step a) for this book any more. In this case you will need to make sure that "Fiter Style Information" --> "Fonts" is checked in this book convertion dialog.

tdonline · 01-24-2021, 08:04 PM

The Thursday Murder Club is the book. ASIN : B084M663VB

jhowell · 01-24-2021, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdonline

The Thursday Murder Club is the book. ASIN : B084M663VB

I took a look at the free sample for that book. The chapters from the point of view of Joyce (chapters 1 and 4 in the sample) have the font hard coded. It looks like a an intentional choice made by the publisher.

One way around that would be to edit the book as described by haertig.

A simpler method would be to remove the book from your Kindle and put it into airplane mode. Then use the "Download & transfer via USB" function of Amazon's website to download the book, which will be delivered as a .azw3 file. Sideload that to the documents folder of your Kindle via USB. This will allow the font to be altered in all of the chapters.

The reason that will work is that .azw3 (KF8 format) will allow all fonts to be overridden while the default KFX format does not.

tdonline · 01-25-2021, 12:33 PM

@haertig and @jhowell, thank you for proposed solutions. I moved on to another book but if I ever encounter another book or return to this one, I'll know there are options.

badgoodDeb · 01-25-2021, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhowell

...

A simpler method would be to remove the book from your Kindle and put it into airplane mode. Then use the "Download & transfer via USB" function of Amazon's website to download the book, which will be delivered as a .azw3 file. Sideload that to the documents folder of your Kindle via USB. This will allow the font to be altered in all of the chapters.

If this book is in Overdrive, I don't think the Amazon techniques will work?

JSWolf · 01-25-2021, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

If this book is in Overdrive, I don't think the Amazon techniques will work?

It will work to download from Amazon and get a KF8 version. I've done that with other Overdrive eBooks for Kindle.

NullNix · 01-26-2021, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhowell

I took a look at the free sample for that book. The chapters from the point of view of Joyce (chapters 1 and 4 in the sample) have the font hard coded. It looks like a an intentional choice made by the publisher.

That's because the change in font is often the only clue that Joyce's POV is being used at this point. The publisher had no choice: the only way they can say "use a different font for this bit" is to lock down the font.

(The most extreme case of this I've ever seen is Hal Duncan's intentionally hard to understand _Vellum_/_Ink_ series, which encoded information -- if you could figure out what it was -- in the varying alignment of the section headings, the size of the margin in particular parts of the book, and the font in use. And probably also in other things that I wasn't clever enough to spot.)

Quoth · 01-27-2021, 11:19 AM

I've tried reading several of Joyce's books. So another reason to not to revisit.

PoP · 01-28-2021, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhowell

I took a look at the free sample for that book. The chapters from the point of view of Joyce (chapters 1 and 4 in the sample) have the font hard coded. It looks like a an intentional choice made by the publisher....

I never could achieve locking fonts. By curiosity, I unpacked the sample and looked for the enabling statements ...to no avail.

Would you please point at the method?

[EDIT 12:43] Perhaps this from the sample opf? Then how to code it for Kindlegen?

Code:

<meta name="override-kindle-fonts" content="false" />

Here is a failed attempt:

jhowell · 01-28-2021, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PoP

I never could achieve locking fonts. By curiosity, I unpacked the sample and looked for the enabling statements ...to no avail.

Would you please point at the method?

As far as I know you cannot lock in a publisher font in KF8 (azw3) format. It only works for KFX.

I converted your "fontlocked" book to KFX (after fixing some problems with the OPF) and it works as desired. The special symbols are shown no matter what font the user selects.

(The file is attached.)

JSWolf · 01-28-2021, 04:41 PM

Another reason to avoid KFX.

PoP · 01-28-2021, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhowell

As far as I know you cannot lock in a publisher font in KF8 (azw3) format. It only works for KFX.

I converted your "fontlocked" book to KFX (after fixing some problems with the OPF) and it works as desired. The special symbols are shown no matter what font the user selects.

(The file is attached.)

Thank you. KFX only, nice to know. I too (but only after adding <meta name="override-kindle-fonts" content="false" /> to my opf) and converting to KFX got the desired behaviour:

Click image for larger version

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PoP · 04-11-2021, 12:58 PM

Upon today's update from the Apprentice

I converted the KFX of the B084M663VB sample to epub with Calibre.

I noticed that the fonts are not obfuscated and are not encrypted (as they were in the KF8 version).

I am guessing Amazon (is) was confident in KFX and felt no need to go the extra mile in this format.

01-24-2021, 11:57 AM	#1
tdonline Addict Posts: 309 Karma: 2644486 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: PW3, Nook Simple Touch	Locked Publisher font? I downloaded an Overdrive book to my PW and Oasis. I cannot use my own font and page settings other than to change the font size. Am I missing a trick? Does this mean the publisher has locked down these settings? I can't understand why they would do this? All it did was make me go and find another book to read. In 10 years of Overdrive use, this is the first time I have encountered this.

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01-24-2021, 02:40 PM	#2
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,070 Karma: 91577715 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Charlottesville, VA Device: Kindles	Perhaps it uses fixed-layout. If you share the ASIN of the book others can see if there is something unusual about it.

01-24-2021, 08:04 PM	#4
tdonline Addict Posts: 309 Karma: 2644486 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: PW3, Nook Simple Touch	The Thursday Murder Club is the book. ASIN : B084M663VB

01-25-2021, 12:33 PM	#6
tdonline Addict Posts: 309 Karma: 2644486 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: PW3, Nook Simple Touch	@haertig and @jhowell, thank you for proposed solutions. I moved on to another book but if I ever encounter another book or return to this one, I'll know there are options.

01-27-2021, 11:19 AM	#10
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,016 Karma: 105092227 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	I've tried reading several of Joyce's books. So another reason to not to revisit.

01-28-2021, 04:41 PM	#13
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,745 Karma: 145864619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Another reason to avoid KFX.

04-11-2021, 12:58 PM	#15
PoP curly᷂͓̫̙᷊̥̮̾ͯͤͭͬͦͨ ʎʌɹnɔ Posts: 3,018 Karma: 50506927 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: ♁ ᴺ₄₅°₃₀' ᵂ₇₃°₃₇' ±₆₀" Device: K3₃.₄.₃ PW3&4₅.₁₃.₃	Upon today's update from the Apprentice I converted the KFX of the B084M663VB sample to epub with Calibre. I noticed that the fonts are not obfuscated and are not encrypted (as they were in the KF8 version). I am guessing Amazon (is) was confident in KFX and felt no need to go the extra mile in this format.

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