epub books in bold type

lizzielou · 06-18-2022, 06:26 AM

If this has been covered elsewhere then I am sorry for repeating it but I have a v-e-r-y slow internet connection and it would take me several days to scroll through the forums.

As a diehard lover of lrf formats for my Sony readers I am reluctantly following advice I have received so many times to move to epub. I am doing this so that the books on my lovely 'new' prs-300 and prs-650 will be left justified - I just love Sony readers and have collected quite a few of them!

I have been struggling with fonts, sizes and scaling in Calibre for a while and finally have got everything looking the way I want and using font 'book antiqua'.

There is one more thing I would like to do and that is to generate all the text in bold in the same way my 'beloved' BookDesigner did. I know I can play about with shading options with the prs-650 but not for my other readers, I find the text a bit faint in the 300 and 505.

I don't want to change the font options in my Word input files, nor change the css file in each book individually. I just want to tell Calibre to output all the text as 'bold' and to do it for every book automatically.

If it is possible for me to do this then I might just finally put BookDesigner to rest and delete all my lrfs.

If someone could explain to me in very easy terms how to do this that would be wonderful.

lizzielou · 07-02-2022, 07:06 AM

Oh dear.
It looks like no one can help me here.
Looks like it's back to BookDesigner after all. At least I tried to change from lrf to epub.

theducks · 07-02-2022, 09:26 AM

Use the Calibre-Editor (T) and edit the CSS
Just search

Code:

font-weight: bold -> font-weight: normal

IMHO DON'T just change all you find, some may be for Headings or other special uses that you might still want.

Play 'match that class'

to be sure you go after the villains only

In code view: ctrl-mouseclick on the word class (in the tag), should take you to that place in the CSS for that series of use

retiredbiker · 07-02-2022, 10:46 AM

Quote:

nor change the css file in each book individually

This is really the stumbling block. Your desire for bold text everywhere is unusual enough that there is no automagic fix, at least that I've ever seen. Epub books totally rely on the css.

You will find that in most books, the font-weight lines are simply missing from most text styles--the assumption of "normal" is everywhere. So you would have to either add font-weight: bold everywhere needed, or embed a bold font.

You might find you can add it to some conversion setting, so you could just do a conversion and have it done, but I can't tell you exactly how since I don't use conversion for that sort of thing. Embed a dark font during conversion?

theducks · 07-02-2022, 11:05 AM

I got the request backwards. You wanted Bold . Just flip my answer or add the line if not there

(IMHO you must have a lousy font chosen/on the device, if you need to do this hack to read the book, Not all fonts do well on e-ink displays)

jackie_w · 07-02-2022, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

I got the request backwards. You wanted Bold . Just flip my answer or add the line if not there

(IMHO you must have a lousy font chosen/on the device, if you need to do this hack to read the book, Not all fonts do well on e-ink displays)

I suspect the main problem is the OP's list of eink devices - all ancient Sony. Modern screens have much better resolution. Any current Kobo model would allow reading epubs with the weight of any chosen font ramped up as high as she wants using the font weight slider. No book edits required.

retiredbiker · 07-02-2022, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I suspect the main problem is the OP's list of eink devices - all ancient Sony. Modern screens have much better resolution. Any current Kobo model would allow reading epubs with the weight of any chosen font ramped up as high as she wants using the font weight slider. No book edits required.

Definitely newer readers have better resolution, better contrast, and better controls. Still, I can understand--I have a Kindle Keyboard that I still use and enjoy at times!

Sirtel · 07-02-2022, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

Definitely newer readers have better resolution, better contrast, and better controls. Still, I can understand--I have a Kindle Keyboard that I still use and enjoy at times!

I still have two old Kindles from 2011 and 2012. Sometimes I look at their screens and wonder how I could ever read on those. No way I could do that now.

Quoth · 07-03-2022, 09:25 AM

The KK3, DXG, Sony PRS-350, Nook Touch are all OK. But the first eink screens certainly needed bright room lights or outdoors. I'd still have bought the first Sony I saw (maybe 2006), physically in Dublin. So would have the Wife. But we couldn't afford it. So I struggled on for years reading Gutenberg.org texts on the Laptop. I experimented with making paginated web pages with navigation and copying that to the 800 x 480 (I think) Archos 604 (?) PMP. It was a too locked down kind of device. LCD screen not as good as laptop anyway.

lizzielou · 07-03-2022, 05:06 PM

Wow! Thank you all so much for your replies. I might try playing a bit with css - all new to me but looks interesting.

I know newer readers have much better viewing options but I don't like the fact that they all connect to the internet these days. I am a bit paranoid and don't want Amazon or any other similar company tracking me as I roam around with my reader. I put all my books on my laptop and just let that connect to my readers.

Anyway, I have finally bitten the bullet and got rid of all my lrf files - a huge step forward for me!

Skydog · 07-03-2022, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lizzielou

Wow! Thank you all so much for your replies. I might try playing a bit with css - all new to me but looks interesting.

I know newer readers have much better viewing options but I don't like the fact that they all connect to the internet these days. I am a bit paranoid and don't want Amazon or any other similar company tracking me as I roam around with my reader. I put all my books on my laptop and just let that connect to my readers.

Anyway, I have finally bitten the bullet and got rid of all my lrf files - a huge step forward for me!

You control whether or not you want to connect to the internet by leaving wifi turned off. You can sideload and leave wifi off as many of us do.

theducks · 07-03-2022, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lizzielou

I know newer readers have much better viewing options but I don't like the fact that they all connect to the internet these days. I am a bit paranoid and don't want Amazon or any other similar company tracking me as I roam around with my reader. I put all my books on my laptop and just let that connect to my readers.

As long as your device can load via USB or accepts a SD card, there is no reason to take it out of AirPlane mode (after initial setup).
My Kobo's / Kindle rarely connect. I use USB cables to load 99.9% of the content

Bookstooge · 07-03-2022, 06:43 PM

Jumping on the bandwagon here. I haven't had my oasis online since I registered it. Keep the wifi off and only sideload through usb from calibre

slm · 07-03-2022, 07:33 PM

In the bad old days when all the Kindle fonts were too light for me, I used to add as "extra css" in the "Styling" tab of the "Look and Feel" section of the conversion box:

"*{font-weight:bold !important}"

As someone will surely point out, this overrides everything and can have odd results, but most of the time it worked well enough for me to keep using it.

BookCat · 07-03-2022, 07:37 PM

I don't even have wifi. Everything is done wired, even the laptop. So if my ereaders attempted to connect, they couldn't, at least while I'm at home. I don't take them out with me, they're too precious.

06-18-2022, 06:26 AM	#1
lizzielou Connoisseur Posts: 65 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: No longer near a beach in Spain - back in the UK Device: Sony PRS-505, 300, 350 & 650	epub books in bold type If this has been covered elsewhere then I am sorry for repeating it but I have a v-e-r-y slow internet connection and it would take me several days to scroll through the forums. As a diehard lover of lrf formats for my Sony readers I am reluctantly following advice I have received so many times to move to epub. I am doing this so that the books on my lovely 'new' prs-300 and prs-650 will be left justified - I just love Sony readers and have collected quite a few of them! I have been struggling with fonts, sizes and scaling in Calibre for a while and finally have got everything looking the way I want and using font 'book antiqua'. There is one more thing I would like to do and that is to generate all the text in bold in the same way my 'beloved' BookDesigner did. I know I can play about with shading options with the prs-650 but not for my other readers, I find the text a bit faint in the 300 and 505. I don't want to change the font options in my Word input files, nor change the css file in each book individually. I just want to tell Calibre to output all the text as 'bold' and to do it for every book automatically. If it is possible for me to do this then I might just finally put BookDesigner to rest and delete all my lrfs. If someone could explain to me in very easy terms how to do this that would be wonderful.

07-02-2022, 09:26 AM	#3
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,047 Karma: 60358908 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Use the Calibre-Editor (T) and edit the CSS Just search Code: font-weight: bold -> font-weight: normal IMHO DON'T just change all you find, some may be for Headings or other special uses that you might still want. Play 'match that class' to be sure you go after the villains only In code view: ctrl-mouseclick on the word class (in the tag), should take you to that place in the CSS for that series of use

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07-02-2022, 07:06 AM	#2
lizzielou Connoisseur Posts: 65 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: No longer near a beach in Spain - back in the UK Device: Sony PRS-505, 300, 350 & 650	Oh dear. It looks like no one can help me here. Looks like it's back to BookDesigner after all. At least I tried to change from lrf to epub.

07-02-2022, 11:05 AM	#5
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,047 Karma: 60358908 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	I got the request backwards. You wanted Bold . Just flip my answer or add the line if not there (IMHO you must have a lousy font chosen/on the device, if you need to do this hack to read the book, Not all fonts do well on e-ink displays)

07-03-2022, 09:25 AM	#9
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,010 Karma: 105092227 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	The KK3, DXG, Sony PRS-350, Nook Touch are all OK. But the first eink screens certainly needed bright room lights or outdoors. I'd still have bought the first Sony I saw (maybe 2006), physically in Dublin. So would have the Wife. But we couldn't afford it. So I struggled on for years reading Gutenberg.org texts on the Laptop. I experimented with making paginated web pages with navigation and copying that to the 800 x 480 (I think) Archos 604 (?) PMP. It was a too locked down kind of device. LCD screen not as good as laptop anyway.

07-03-2022, 05:06 PM	#10
lizzielou Connoisseur Posts: 65 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: No longer near a beach in Spain - back in the UK Device: Sony PRS-505, 300, 350 & 650	Wow! Thank you all so much for your replies. I might try playing a bit with css - all new to me but looks interesting. I know newer readers have much better viewing options but I don't like the fact that they all connect to the internet these days. I am a bit paranoid and don't want Amazon or any other similar company tracking me as I roam around with my reader. I put all my books on my laptop and just let that connect to my readers. Anyway, I have finally bitten the bullet and got rid of all my lrf files - a huge step forward for me!

07-03-2022, 06:43 PM	#13
Bookstooge Member Retired Posts: 805 Karma: 2091358 Join Date: May 2019 Device: Kindle Oasis 1st Gen, PB Era	Jumping on the bandwagon here. I haven't had my oasis online since I registered it. Keep the wifi off and only sideload through usb from calibre

07-03-2022, 07:33 PM	#14
slm Fool Posts: 468 Karma: 4113712 Join Date: Feb 2003 Device: Kindle: Voyage,PW1,KOA, Kobo: Clara Colour, Nook GLP, Pocketbook verse	In the bad old days when all the Kindle fonts were too light for me, I used to add as "extra css" in the "Styling" tab of the "Look and Feel" section of the conversion box: "*{font-weight:bold !important}" As someone will surely point out, this overrides everything and can have odd results, but most of the time it worked well enough for me to keep using it.

07-03-2022, 07:37 PM	#15
BookCat C L J Posts: 2,911 Karma: 21115458 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Birmingham UK Device: Sony e-reader 505, Kindle PW2, Kindle PW3, Kobo Libra2	I don't even have wifi. Everything is done wired, even the laptop. So if my ereaders attempted to connect, they couldn't, at least while I'm at home. I don't take them out with me, they're too precious.

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