Embedding fonts - strange issue

[aceflor]

Oooohhh..

Can any one of you experts modify Trebuchet for me and make it a tad bolder, but not as bold as the bold one (gosh, my English is so fluid today ) or point me to a freeware that would allow me to do it myself ?

I would really appreciate that.

[Katsunami]

You could try FontForge. It's open source, ugly, crashes a lot, but if you're lucky, it works.

After opening the font, select all glyphs with CTRL+A, and select "Element -> Style -> Change Weight". Then set the "Embolden" setting to 75 or so. Do so for all four fonts. Embed the stuff into a book; read. Too fat? Use 60. Not fat enough? Use 95. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat...

edit: you have to click "File -> Generate" to actually create the font.

Until next month

I can't make DejaVu Serif Condensed bolder using FontForge. The fracking application crashes if I try to do that. It did work for the normal DejaVu Serif; barely.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Jswinden, and Booklover6: run your books through the Hyphenate This! plugin before you upload them. It can use an OpenOffice hyphenation dictionary to put in soft hyphens, in EPUB and AZW3. The Kindle Paperwhite supports this. You can see this in the attachment already:

1st: be-fore
2nd: Whis-per, be-fore
3rd: dart-ing, re-ceding

I just tested this, and it really worked! That is awesome! Now for a margin fix....

[slantybard]

FYI, the behaviour of calibre 1.7 has made font embedding better. When choosing to strip fonts and embedding new fonts in the same conversion, the embedding now takes priority.

Take a look at this thread:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=224995

[Katsunami]

Yes, it was a feature request to change font embedding in such a way that Calibre would first strip fonts, and then embed the selected ones, instead of the other way around, if both options were used at the same time.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by slantybard

FYI, the behaviour of calibre 1.7 has made font embedding better. When choosing to strip fonts and embedding new fonts in the same conversion, the embedding now takes priority.

Take a look at this thread:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=224995

Solved my problem as well! yay!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Thanks. Yes that would help. I think CharisSIL, Deja Vu, and other fonts would look better on non-lit Kindles. It is that darn plastic light layer they add to the PW2 that causes fonts to lose contrast. We are actually seeing the eInk screen through a plastic layer. It isn't as bad as the old Sony PRS-700 by any means, but it does degrade the way fonts are seen a little bit.

The new Charis SIL should have more weight then any of the default fonts Amazon includes.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=184056

Anyone trying these fonts on a PW2, please let me know how it works. Thanks.

[GoSharks]

A question on the stripping and embedding of fonts with Calibre.... Is there any harm in just routinely having Calibre 'strip' the fonts from books on conversion? If I do this and do not embed a new font, am I correct in assuming that I will be able to select my preferred font on my PW. However, if I wish to use my non-Amazon preferred font on the PW2 I would then need to embed that font with Calibre and select the option to use publisher font on the PW2? (sorry, kind of new to this tweaking of books)
Thanks in advance...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by GoSharks

A question on the stripping and embedding of fonts with Calibre.... Is there any harm in just routinely having Calibre 'strip' the fonts from books on conversion? If I do this and do not embed a new font, am I correct in assuming that I will be able to select my preferred font on my PW. However, if I wish to use my non-Amazon preferred font on the PW2 I would then need to embed that font with Calibre and select the option to use publisher font on the PW2? (sorry, kind of new to this tweaking of books)
Thanks in advance...

If you have USE_ALT_FONTS properly installed, take an AZW3 with embedded fonts and with the publisher font off, try selecting a different font and see if it works. If it works, then you don't have to convert/strip the embedded fonts to use what you want. But if it doesn't work, then yes, you do have to strip.

Oh, for those converting so you can embed fonts, I'd like to very highly suggest you also turn on font subsetting as that can make a significant difference in the size of the eBook.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by GoSharks

A question on the stripping and embedding of fonts with Calibre.... Is there any harm in just routinely having Calibre 'strip' the fonts from books on conversion?

If the book uses special fonts to create "effects" in the text, or display glyphs that are not normally found in western/default fonts, you'll break the book. There may be characters or text missing, or it may look wrong because it's written in the wrong font.

Keep the original file outside of Calibre ("Save to disk") if you're not 100% sure so you can always revert.

You can always take a peek first using "Tweak Book", and see if there are any "weird" fonts. If you encounter something like Charis only, you can strip it, but if the book uses 5 different fonts for example, or one with a name that obviously hints at some sort of special text or glyphs, it won't be a good idea to strip them.

If I do this and do not embed a new font, am I correct in assuming that I will be able to select my preferred font on my PW.

Yes.

However, if I wish to use my non-Amazon preferred font on the PW2 I would then need to embed that font with Calibre and select the option to use publisher font on the PW2? (sorry, kind of new to this tweaking of books)
Thanks in advance...

Yes.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by GoSharks

A question on the stripping and embedding of fonts with Calibre.... Is there any harm in just routinely having Calibre 'strip' the fonts from books on conversion? If I do this and do not embed a new font, am I correct in assuming that I will be able to select my preferred font on my PW. However, if I wish to use my non-Amazon preferred font on the PW2 I would then need to embed that font with Calibre and select the option to use publisher font on the PW2? (sorry, kind of new to this tweaking of books)
Thanks in advance...

Yes in reply to both questions.

[GoSharks]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you have USE_ALT_FONTS properly installed, take an AZW3 with embedded fonts and with the publisher font off, try selecting a different font and see if it works. If it works, then you don't have to convert/strip the embedded fonts to use what you want. But if it doesn't work, then yes, you do have to strip.

Oh, for those converting so you can embed fonts, I'd like to very highly suggest you also turn on font subsetting as that can make a significant difference in the size of the eBook.

Thanks for the reply... (*deleted the rest as sparklemotion answered it before I could ask!*)

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

OK, I've renamed the two bold versions as the two regular versions and I've upped the bold versions to be even bolder. I think this should work. The new Charis SIL should have more weight then any of the default fonts Amazon includes.

Wow. These fonts have so much weight I'm actually unable to pick up my Paperwhite after installing them. That's some heavy stuff you put together man

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

If the book uses special fonts to create "effects" in the text, or display glyphs that are not normally found in western/default fonts, you'll break the book. There may be characters or text missing, or it may look wrong because it's written in the wrong font.

The problem here is the way Amazon has handled font embedding. Amazon totally botched it (IMHO). The reason it's botched is they set the use publisher font default wrong. It should be on. I can easily see a lot of people NOT turning on the publisher font and if there is a need for the publisher font, then the eBook won't look right or read correctly. On should have been the default with allowing the user to then turn off the embedded font(s).

So if you are embedding a font because you need to so parts of your book with display correctly, I can easily see a lot of people NOT turning on the embedded font and not having the book display correctly.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Wow. These fonts have so much weight I'm actually unable to pick up my Paperwhite after installing them. That's some heavy stuff you put together man

What do you think of them? I don't have access to a PW2 to see. I did have access to a Kindle Touch some of the time when I was doing the original mods.