Unchangeable font

[shalym]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The book is The Martian. They embedded free serif, free sans, and free mono. These fonts are awful and yes, you should remove them. The monospace font is so light, it can cause eyestrain. The others aren't much better. I did remove these fonts. There's no way at all I was going to read with these fonts embedded.

Well, since the embedded font didn't show up at all until I was a third of the way through the book, I'm not willing to stop reading and fix it. It's annoying, but again, I'm lazy, and since I *can* read it with my glasses, it's not a total show stopper.

Shari

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by shalym

Here's an example of a *really* bad decision on the part of the book formatter. I don't know what font they embedded for this, and to tell you the truth, I don't care what font it is.

Looks like plain Courier to me. But a cut that's too thin for screen.
If it's embedded, can't you just turn off publisher fonts?
Kindle has an OK monospaced font you can use if you really need it.
So I can't guess why such a font was embedded at all. I guess it was just a default and not an informed choice.

By the way, it looks like Courier was used to indicate a "computer font". Which is pretty dumb for a book set in the future. I used fonts like that (actually, better than that) when I was using a line printer back in the 70s (screens? You know how much one of those costs?). I might use a sans as that's more common with screen fonts this century. Though personally I use Georgia most of the time if I can choose.

Only times I've used a typewriter mono font was to 1) emulate a typewritten document or 2) for ASCII art. (Again, back in the 70s, you could print out cheesecake pictures on a few fanfold pages.) But the built-in mono fonts are fine for those.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by shalym

Well, since the embedded font didn't show up at all until I was a third of the way through the book, I'm not willing to stop reading and fix it. It's annoying, but again, I'm lazy, and since I *can* read it with my glasses, it's not a total show stopper.

Shari

All the fonts you see are embedded. I've been in the code to dump the fonts.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

Looks like plain Courier to me. But a cut that's too thin for screen.
If it's embedded, can't you just turn off publisher fonts?
Kindle has an OK monospaced font you can use if you really need it.
So I can't guess why such a font was embedded at all. I guess it was just a default and not an informed choice.

By the way, it looks like Courier was used to indicate a "computer font". Which is pretty dumb for a book set in the future. I used fonts like that (actually, better than that) when I was using a line printer back in the 70s (screens? You know how much one of those costs?). I might use a sans as that's more common with screen fonts this century. Though personally I use Georgia most of the time if I can choose.

Only times I've used a typewriter mono font was to 1) emulate a typewritten document or 2) for ASCII art. (Again, back in the 70s, you could print out cheesecake pictures on a few fanfold pages.) But the built-in mono fonts are fine for those.

In The Martian, the monospace is used for a good reason. If the book was properly made, it would have use the default fonts instead of these awful embedded fonts.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

Looks like plain Courier to me. But a cut that's too thin for screen.
If it's embedded, can't you just turn off publisher fonts?
Kindle has an OK monospaced font you can use if you really need it.
So I can't guess why such a font was embedded at all. I guess it was just a default and not an informed choice.

By the way, it looks like Courier was used to indicate a "computer font". Which is pretty dumb for a book set in the future. I used fonts like that (actually, better than that) when I was using a line printer back in the 70s (screens? You know how much one of those costs?). I might use a sans as that's more common with screen fonts this century. Though personally I use Georgia most of the time if I can choose.

Only times I've used a typewriter mono font was to 1) emulate a typewritten document or 2) for ASCII art. (Again, back in the 70s, you could print out cheesecake pictures on a few fanfold pages.) But the built-in mono fonts are fine for those.

Publisher fonts *are* turned off. I'm using Ember bold as the regular font. As noted earlier in this thread, turning off publisher font only allows selection of the main body font. It doesn't do anything to change any custom fonts used in other parts of the book.

Shari

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

In The Martian, the monospace is used for a good reason. If the book was properly made, it would have use the default fonts instead of these awful embedded fonts.

I just want everyone here to know--that's NOT our book. We'd never have used those fonts, not in a million years. Not for the swaths of text that those cover. I might have used the one, for a short piece of text-like a sentence, at most--but not the way those are deployed.

(Is that the original self-pubbed version? Does anyone know who DID do it?)

Hitch

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I just want everyone here to know--that's NOT our book. We'd never have used those fonts, not in a million years. Not for the swaths of text that those cover. I might have used the one, for a short piece of text-like a sentence, at most--but not the way those are deployed.

(Is that the original self-pubbed version? Does anyone know who DID do it?)

Hitch

I just bought it a couple of weeks ago, the publisher is listed as Random House.

Shari

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by shalym

I just bought it a couple of weeks ago, the publisher is listed as Random House.

Shari

AH. Well, that probably tells most of us where that was done. (Hey, Tex--your faves!) Still--it's not, really, the bookmaker's fault. (yes, yes, sure, some of it is, they should argue, but...if you have RH as a client, would YOU?) RH's editors and folks should know better. Does no one there have a bloody Kindle?

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I just want everyone here to know--that's NOT our book. We'd never have used those fonts, not in a million years. Not for the swaths of text that those cover. I might have used the one, for a short piece of text-like a sentence, at most--but not the way those are deployed.

(Is that the original self-pubbed version? Does anyone know who DID do it?)

Hitch

Here is who published The Martian. It's not the self-published version.

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

And with eInk, the contrast is very poor. The fonts used are AWFUL!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Here is who published The Martian. It's not the self-published version.

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

And with eInk, the contrast is very poor. The fonts used are AWFUL!

Yeah, so I see, bro. That's dreadful. (and here I was thinking, just the other day, that I really wanted to read that, too!!!). I mean, there is exactly ZERO CHANCE that I will download a book and then reformat it. That's like thinking that someone who shows their own horses, after years of hard work, etc., wants to take someone ELSE's problem horse and "fix it" before riding it. Uh...no, thanks?

Rats. El sucko.

Hitch

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by shalym

Well, since the embedded font didn't show up at all until I was a third of the way through the book, I'm not willing to stop reading and fix it. It's annoying, but again, I'm lazy, and since I *can* read it with my glasses, it's not a total show stopper.

Shari

I find this totally bizarre. NOTHING, until a third of the way? ???

Hitch

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I find this totally bizarre. NOTHING, until a third of the way? ???

Hitch

For the first third of the book, it's all just straight narrative...although the narrative is couched as log entries, it's still just narrative. About a third of the way through the book, he goes out and finds an old piece of equipment and boots it up. The boot sequence is in a font that's even worse than the one I showed in my picture. After that, there are emails that go back and forth...the emails are all in the font I posted.

Shari

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

AH. Well, that probably tells most of us where that was done. (Hey, Tex--your faves!) Still--it's not, really, the bookmaker's fault. (yes, yes, sure, some of it is, they should argue, but...if you have RH as a client, would YOU?) RH's editors and folks should know better. Does no one there have a bloody Kindle?

Hitch

A Kindle would be a terrible choice for a Reader to test eBooks with. I can see whoever is doing the testing would have one of the built in fonts selected and it would look OK and still suck.

An ePub capable Reader would be better because then the embedded fonts would show and they can see that most used are lousy.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Yeah, so I see, bro. That's dreadful. (and here I was thinking, just the other day, that I really wanted to read that, too!!!). I mean, there is exactly ZERO CHANCE that I will download a book and then reformat it. That's like thinking that someone who shows their own horses, after years of hard work, etc., wants to take someone ELSE's problem horse and "fix it" before riding it. Uh...no, thanks?

Rats. El sucko.

Hitch

It's worth the effort. It's a really good book.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I find this totally bizarre. NOTHING, until a third of the way? ???

Hitch

I think it could be that the embedded fonts were not noticed. Free Serif and Free Sans are also used and maybe you just didn't notice. But trust me, they suck too.