Which Kobo Embedded Font Do You Use Most Often?

[dmapr]

Don't use any of the built-in fonts. I'm using sideloaded Charis SIL exclusively.

[shanghaichica]

Caecilia. I just seem to always choose this font type no matter what the device is.

[graycyn]

Georgia here. I like it. Can't stand Caecilia. Amasis would do in a pinch, I had that on my original Nook.

[JD Gumby]

I just got a Mini recently ('cos my Touch's battery is now crap and needs to be recharged like twice a week when reading an hour or so throughout a day and leaving it in sleep mode at other times) and it saddens me that there is no more Rockwell.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by JD Gumby

I just got a Mini recently ('cos my Touch's battery is now crap and needs to be recharged like twice a week when reading an hour or so throughout a day and leaving it in sleep mode at other times) and it saddens me that there is no more Rockwell.

You can always download one of the old firmware versions (e.g. 1.9.x) from the Direct Links to Kobo Firmware thread. If you unzip everything and dig deep enough there will be a fonts directory which contains the 4 x Rockwell font family files.

If you then copy them to your Mini's \fonts directory you can use Rockwell like any other sideloaded font. No need to be sad after all

[buffaloseven]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

You can always download one of the old firmware versions (e.g. 1.9.x) from the Direct Links to Kobo Firmware thread. If you unzip everything and dig deep enough there will be a fonts directory which contains the 4 x Rockwell font family files.

If you then copy them to your Mini's \fonts directory you can use Rockwell like any other sideloaded font. No need to be sad after all

I was actually quite surprised. I did that and picked out Felbridge, Delima and Rockwell and threw them into the Fonts folder on my Kobo Glo. They show up in the main font list and are fully adjustable. I wonder if we can use that information to see if there's ways to add some information into font files to enable them to have the advanced adjustments as well.

[paola]

Originally Posted by buffaloseven

I was actually quite surprised. I did that and picked out Felbridge, Delima and Rockwell and threw them into the Fonts folder on my Kobo Glo. They show up in the main font list and are fully adjustable. I wonder if we can use that information to see if there's ways to add some information into font files to enable them to have the advanced adjustments as well.

very interesting!!!

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by buffaloseven

I did that and picked out Felbridge, Delima and Rockwell and threw them into the Fonts folder on my Kobo Glo. They show up in the main font list and are fully adjustable.

Well spotted I see my sideloaded Times New Roman has access to the Advanced options, as well. I never noticed that before

It looks as if Kobo allow built-in fonts old & new to have access to the Advanced button. I wonder if it's deliberate or a happy accident

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Well spotted I see my sideloaded Times New Roman has access to the Advanced options, as well. I never noticed that before

It looks as if Kobo allow built-in fonts old & new to have access to the Advanced button. I wonder if it's deliberate or a happy accident

I've added these fonts to the sticky font thread

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Well spotted I see my sideloaded Times New Roman has access to the Advanced options, as well. I never noticed that before

It looks as if Kobo allow built-in fonts old & new to have access to the Advanced button. I wonder if it's deliberate or a happy accident

I *think* it's based solely on the name of the font; not sure whether it's the external or internal. I took the Amasis font from 1.9.17, used Type Light 3.2 to rename it both internally and externally to Masis. The Glo correctly sees Masis as a font, but does not offer the Advanced Settings.

I suppose a fuller test would be to take Delima and repeat the experiment with that; making a new font called Elima.

** And YES... the new font named Elima is NOT adjustable; whereas the original 1.9.17 Delima IS.

[jackie_w]

Thanks for those tests, Peter.

So, to summarise:

• Take your favourite sideloaded font family (with good coverage of your required character sets), which normally looks a bit lightweight on the Kobo, especially with the frontlight on.
• Rename the 4 font files, inside and outside (using a font editor), as Delima or Rockwell or Felbridge or Times New Roman (maybe others???).
• Sideload to \fonts and reboot Kobo.
• Use your favourite font just like a fully adjustable Kobo font.
• Keep fingers crossed, they don't remove the option in the next fw update

Sounds like a nice new trick for those who need it and who have access to a font editor. I'll double-check later with a couple of my favourites.

Update: Yes, it seems to work OK.

[buffaloseven]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Thanks for those tests, Peter.

So, to summarise:

• Take your favourite sideloaded font family (with good coverage of your required character sets), which normally looks a bit lightweight on the Kobo, especially with the frontlight on.
• Rename the 4 font files, inside and outside (using a font editor), as Delima or Rockwell or Felbridge or Times New Roman (maybe others???).
• Sideload to \fonts and reboot Kobo.
• Use your favourite font just like a fully adjustable Kobo font.
• Keep fingers crossed, they don't remove the option in the next fw update

Sounds like a nice new trick for those who need it and who have access to a font editor. I'll double-check later with a couple of my favourites.

Update: Yes, it seems to work OK.

So then the question is where exactly do they store the list of font names that can use advanced settings? If we can find that (hopefully it's compiled in a binary) then we could add our own fonts.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by buffaloseven

So then the question is where exactly do they store the list of font names that can use advanced settings? If we can find that (hopefully it's compiled in a binary) then we could add our own fonts.

Well the only occurence of the string Delima is in libnickel.so.1.0.0 and appears in a list of the following

Amasis
Avenir Next
Caecilia
Delima
Felbridge
Gill Sans
Kobo Nickel
Malabar
Rockwell
Times New Roman
Arial
Trebuchet MS
Calibri
Cambria
Constantia
Lucida Sans
Palatino
Tahoma
DFKai-SB
KaiTi
Meiryo
MS P????
MS P??
MS Gothic
MS PGothic
MS UI Gothic
MS Mincho
MS PMincho
SimHei

Immediately before this list of font names is the string void FontManager::scanForFonts(QString, QStringList).

SimHei, KaiTi, Meiryo, DFKai-SB, MS Mincho, MS PMincho all appear to be valid font names.

[Anak]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Thanks for those tests, Peter.

So, to summarise:

• Take your favourite sideloaded font family (with good coverage of your required character sets), which normally looks a bit lightweight on the Kobo, especially with the frontlight on.
• Rename the 4 font files, inside and outside (using a font editor), as Delima or Rockwell or Felbridge or Times New Roman (maybe others???).
• Sideload to \fonts and reboot Kobo.
• Use your favourite font just like a fully adjustable Kobo font.
• Keep fingers crossed, they don't remove the option in the next fw update

Sounds like a nice new trick for those who need it and who have access to a font editor. I'll double-check later with a couple of my favourites.

Update: Yes, it seems to work OK.

Thanks, it proves that TypeGenius works with sideloaded fonts too when the name is in the "TypeGenius" font list and the (renamed) font is present in the \fonts folder.
It basically means TypeGenius can be enabled for all fonts present on the device.
Kobo should rewite the TypeGenius code that enables these advanced settings for all fonts. Then it is a 'unique' selling feature that makes Kobo devices stand out of many others.

I wrote 'unique' becaused it isn't really unique. The Bookeen Cybook Odyssey (HD) has a similar (even the same?) feature to make a font bolder. Unfortunate, this reader isn't available in North America (as far as I know).

My guess is it probably proofs that Kobo implements features that are natively available in a rendering engine (or as engine add-on; making a feature available for all customers/companies that use the engine) in a very limited way.
Like:

• kepub only
• advanced font customization (TypeGenius) only available for a limited number of fonts

While other hardware manufacturers/vendors implement these features less limited. E.g. work with all books or all fonts.

For discussion’s sake. I know Kobo uses a different engine for kepubs and epub. Let's leave that out of the discussion. Features that are available for kepubs only could also made available for regular epubs (like onther vendors do). Features that are available but Kobo chose to enable those only for kepubs to make kepubs at least 'appear' better than regular epubs. Did they succeed with it? That is another discussion too.

[buffaloseven]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Well the only occurence of the string Delima is in libnickel.so.1.0.0 and appears in a list of the following

Amasis
Avenir Next
Caecilia
Delima
Felbridge
Gill Sans
Kobo Nickel
Malabar
Rockwell
Times New Roman
Arial
Trebuchet MS
Calibri
Cambria
Constantia
Lucida Sans
Palatino
Tahoma
DFKai-SB
KaiTi
Meiryo
MS P????
MS P??
MS Gothic
MS PGothic
MS UI Gothic
MS Mincho
MS PMincho
SimHei

Immediately before this list of font names is the string void FontManager::scanForFonts(QString, QStringList).

SimHei, KaiTi, Meiryo, DFKai-SB, MS Mincho, MS PMincho all appear to be valid font names.

I'm on a trip and don't have my reader with me this weekend, but then the question is if somebody would be willing to try adding a font to the list and seeing if it enables advanced features. Lato is a great sans-serif font that appears too thin on the Glo and I would love it if we can add custom fonts to that list. Does the libnickel have to be edited before the firmware is uploaded to the device, or can it be done on the fly?