Extra Kobo Fonts

rtiangha · 05-04-2022, 03:47 PM

I thought about putting this in one of the firmware threads, but figured I'd make it its own thing since it can apply to multiple versions. And I figured that if it's okay to post the links to the dictionaries, it'd be okay to do this too since the Arphic licensed fonts are encrypted anyway and are useless outside of a Kobo e-reader and the STIX fonts are open source.

As many have noticed by now, starting in firmware 4.3X, if you switch your language to Japanese or Chinese and sync, some extra fonts are downloaded to /mnt/onboard/fonts/kobo. There may be some people out there who (for whatever reason) can't sync and wish to sideload them instead. For those people, here are the URLs (I got them from snooping around in the firmware):

These get downloaded to /mnt/onboard/fonts/kobo/encrypted on sync:

These get downloaded to /mnt/onboard/fonts/kobo:

I believe the licensed Arphic fonts have to be in the fonts/kobo/encrypted folder for the firmware to see/use them. As for the STIX fonts, they seem to be binary equivalent to the v2.13 b171 release available on Github (the latest version as of this writing). Being open source, they are not encrypted either so you can place them in the root fonts folder if you like and they'll work just fine. I don't know if special things can happen/be unlocked if they're in the fonts/kobo directory, though.

That's all I've been able to find. Feel free to chime in if there's stuff I've missed.

iandol · 05-04-2022, 04:47 PM

So the STIX versions that get installed by Kobo are OTF versions not the TTF ones? I've been used to always using TTF as that is what the various script tools do, and I wasn't sure if this is just a throw back to older software or an actual current limitation (there seems like such a lot of complexity in font support by ereaders...)

rtiangha · 05-04-2022, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iandol

So the STIX versions that get installed by Kobo are OTF versions not the TTF ones? I've been used to always using TTF as that is what the various script tools do, and I wasn't sure if this is just a throw back to older software or an actual current limitation (there seems like such a lot of complexity in font support by ereaders...)

Seems to be. Traditionally on Kobo, ttfs were preferred despite otfs supporting more features because the advanced font controls wouldn't work in epubs with otf fonts, but since they revamped the font engine in firmware 4.3X, maybe it doesn't matter anymore. OpenDyslexic has always been otf format too.

Of course, there's nothing stopping someone from grabbing the ttf versions of STIX from Github and using those instead.

iandol · 05-05-2022, 04:58 AM

That is what I did, but as I prefer OTF in general I'll switch them back. Thanks for the info!

05-04-2022, 03:47 PM	#1
rtiangha Evangelist Posts: 495 Karma: 356531 Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: 'burta, Canada Device: Kobo Glo HD	Extra Kobo Fonts I thought about putting this in one of the firmware threads, but figured I'd make it its own thing since it can apply to multiple versions. And I figured that if it's okay to post the links to the dictionaries, it'd be okay to do this too since the Arphic licensed fonts are encrypted anyway and are useless outside of a Kobo e-reader and the STIX fonts are open source. As many have noticed by now, starting in firmware 4.3X, if you switch your language to Japanese or Chinese and sync, some extra fonts are downloaded to /mnt/onboard/fonts/kobo. There may be some people out there who (for whatever reason) can't sync and wish to sideload them instead. For those people, here are the URLs (I got them from snooping around in the firmware): These get downloaded to /mnt/onboard/fonts/kobo/encrypted on sync: AR Ming AR ShuYuanSongG30 BD These get downloaded to /mnt/onboard/fonts/kobo: STIX Two Text Regular STIX Two Text Bold STIX Two Text Bold Italic STIX Two Text Italic STIX Two Math Regular I believe the licensed Arphic fonts have to be in the fonts/kobo/encrypted folder for the firmware to see/use them. As for the STIX fonts, they seem to be binary equivalent to the v2.13 b171 release available on Github (the latest version as of this writing). Being open source, they are not encrypted either so you can place them in the root fonts folder if you like and they'll work just fine. I don't know if special things can happen/be unlocked if they're in the fonts/kobo directory, though. That's all I've been able to find. Feel free to chime in if there's stuff I've missed.

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05-04-2022, 04:47 PM	#2
iandol Enthusiast Posts: 40 Karma: 216612 Join Date: Feb 2022 Device: Kobo Nia	So the STIX versions that get installed by Kobo are OTF versions not the TTF ones? I've been used to always using TTF as that is what the various script tools do, and I wasn't sure if this is just a throw back to older software or an actual current limitation (there seems like such a lot of complexity in font support by ereaders...)

05-05-2022, 04:58 AM	#4
iandol Enthusiast Posts: 40 Karma: 216612 Join Date: Feb 2022 Device: Kobo Nia	That is what I did, but as I prefer OTF in general I'll switch them back. Thanks for the info!

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