Embedded Fonts: Keep or Remove?

enuddleyarbl · 10-07-2026, 06:50 PM

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I'm wondering if there's any kind of consensus on keeping or removing embedded fonts in fiction books. I've always had Calibre strip out any embedded fonts in fiction epubs (with Modify ePub) and let my Kobo's set the font I want to use. But, I'm wondering if I should leave those fonts in place instead.

JSWolf · 10-07-2026, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I'm wondering if there's any kind of consensus on keeping or removing embedded fonts in fiction books. I've always had Calibre strip out any embedded fonts in fiction epubs (with both Polish Books and Modify ePub) and let my Kobo's set the font I want to use. But, I'm wondering if I should leave those fonts in place instead.

That is not a good idea to just strip out embedded fonts. What you need to do is see what fonts are in the book and decide which ones you want to keep. Some book have more fonts then just the main font. I delete the main body font. If there are any sans-serif fonts left, I look at them and decide if I want them. If not, I change them to just sans-serif. That means that whatever the default is is what I'll get. If there are serif fonts that are nothing specials, I'll remove them and my choice of font will be used.

Turtle91 · 10-07-2026, 08:08 PM

I second Jon’s point.

Some Fonts are special and are used to help tell the story, or set the mood/atmosphere. That doesn’t happen often, but it’s important when it does. Check what the font is and how the font is being used before removing.

DNSB · 10-07-2026, 09:58 PM

Add me to the check what the fonts are used for before stripping them group.

JSWolf · 10-08-2026, 05:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turtle91

I second Jon’s point.

Some Fonts are special and are used to help tell the story, or set the mood/atmosphere. That doesn’t happen often, but it’s important when it does. Check what the font is and how the font is being used before removing.

A good example of this is The Martian. It uses a monospace font for some of the story and it's important. While the font used is a very poor font, that can be sorted.

Some books use a sans-serif font for text messages, letters, notes, etc. Some use a font to simulate a person's writing. Some use a font for words in a language that's not English.

So blindly ripping out all of the fonts means you could lose the tone/mood of the book.

The main body font is usually one you can remove as it's usually some version of Garamond or Charis SIL.

Gormagon · 10-08-2026, 07:16 AM

Why bother at all? Font files usually don't take up much space and epub files stripped of embedded fonts won't hardly save any space on your Kobo.

JSWolf · 10-08-2026, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gormagon

Why bother at all? Font files usually don't take up much space and epub files stripped of embedded fonts won't hardly save any space on your Kobo.

Because usually the main body font is not a good choice. Adobe Garamond is a commonly embedded font. It's not good for eInk.

Gormagon · 10-08-2026, 07:45 AM

And what's the problem when the font isn't used for reading anyway because enuddleyarbl "let my Kobo's set the font I want to use". The embedded fonts aren't used so let them sit in the epub archive file and don't bother with it. If you have too much time to waste on the other hand...you could do it or you could watch paint dry.

enuddleyarbl · 10-08-2026, 08:37 AM

I've been removing the embedded fonts because I was getting tired of fancy-fonts-for-no-reason making the reading of books more difficult. But, I agree I might have thrown the baby out with the bathwater, here (which is why I'm asking the question on consensus).

Jon's suggestion to initially limit my font removal to any embedded body fonts seems like a good idea. For instance, I've attached a screenshot of part of the first page of one of the books in James Islington's "Hierarchy" series. To me, that text is spindly and too light (it's EBGaramond). So, reading it is difficult for no reason. Plus, the lines seem spaced out even though I can't find anything in the CSS/HTML that would cause that (which I've fixed by re-doing all the CSS/HTML).

Turtle91 · 10-08-2026, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gormagon

Why bother at all? Font files usually don't take up much space and epub files stripped of embedded fonts won't hardly save any space on your Kobo.

Some reasons might include:

- Amazon guideline restricts using a body font
- The included font may not be licensed properly
- The font may have been sub-set incorrectly causing missing symbols
- The font may be inappropriate for your reading device (eink)
- The font may just be too ugly
- The font file size may be too large, ie has 4 bajillion symbols and only used 4

Or, you could just be CDO like me and like to remove any unnecessary cruft from your books!!

John F · 10-08-2026, 10:44 AM

I throw the baby out with the bathwater.

JSWolf · 10-08-2026, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

I've been removing the embedded fonts because I was getting tired of fancy-fonts-for-no-reason making the reading of books more difficult. But, I agree I might have thrown the baby out with the bathwater, here (which is why I'm asking the question on consensus).

Jon's suggestion to initially limit my font removal to any embedded body fonts seems like a good idea. For instance, I've attached a screenshot of part of the first page of one of the books in James Islington's "Hierarchy" series. To me, that text is spindly and too light (it's EBGaramond). So, reading it is difficult for no reason. Plus, the lines seem spaced out even though I can't find anything in the CSS/HTML that would cause that (which I've fixed by re-doing all the CSS/HTML).

Any version of Garamond is not going to be good to read on eInk with. That's why I remove the body font. I've not found any eBook with a body font I want to read with. But some of the other embedded fonts, I do keep because I like them or they serve a purpose.

icearch · 10-08-2026, 09:47 PM

I override all font in reader, I like my books to look what I want.

So I do not favor storytelling using fonts, it would be better done with caption, italic and bold.

As to storage, Chinese fonts are HUGE, source sans can take up to 21MB PER FONT WEIGHT.

So it's better to be removed. But I agree that time is more valuable than storage, so I usually didn't bother.

KevinH · 10-09-2026, 09:24 AM

I remember trying to read the Bernard Cornwell books, many of them used old English/Viking names whose characters simply would not appear without the embedded font. Strange to think people throw them out. Of course the standard fonts in most e-readers supported little unicode back in those days.

enuddleyarbl · 10-09-2026, 10:45 AM

I've actually run into a similar problem once or twice. Things looked fine in Calibre's editor/viewer. But, when I read the book on my Kobo, there was just a blank space where a particular word/name was supposed to be. But, in those cases, I messed around in the editor again until I could get something that showed up in the Kobo.

I've turned off the "Remove Embedded Fonts" option in Modify ePub and have been looking at some of the original books I've purchased that have embedded fonts. So far, the only embedded fonts were used as generic body fonts or in those advertising pages the publishers stick in the books. And, once I removed those pages, I deleted the fonts. I know there are books that use embedded fonts to some real purpose, so I'll keep embedded fonts by default until I can dig through the books and see if they're actually needed. If not, I'll turn the Modify ePub option back on for a run, pull them out and clean up the CSS manually afterward.

10-07-2026, 06:50 PM	#1
enuddleyarbl Guru Posts: 867 Karma: 2111023 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Sage	Embedded Fonts: Keep or Remove? I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I'm wondering if there's any kind of consensus on keeping or removing embedded fonts in fiction books. I've always had Calibre strip out any embedded fonts in fiction epubs (with Modify ePub) and let my Kobo's set the font I want to use. But, I'm wondering if I should leave those fonts in place instead. Last edited by enuddleyarbl; 10-09-2026 at 06:20 AM.

10-08-2026, 08:37 AM	#9
enuddleyarbl Guru Posts: 867 Karma: 2111023 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Sage	I've been removing the embedded fonts because I was getting tired of fancy-fonts-for-no-reason making the reading of books more difficult. But, I agree I might have thrown the baby out with the bathwater, here (which is why I'm asking the question on consensus). Jon's suggestion to initially limit my font removal to any embedded body fonts seems like a good idea. For instance, I've attached a screenshot of part of the first page of one of the books in James Islington's "Hierarchy" series. To me, that text is spindly and too light (it's EBGaramond). So, reading it is difficult for no reason. Plus, the lines seem spaced out even though I can't find anything in the CSS/HTML that would cause that (which I've fixed by re-doing all the CSS/HTML). Attached Thumbnails

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10-07-2026, 08:08 PM	#3
Turtle91 A Hairy Wizard Posts: 3,509 Karma: 21099999 Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Charleston, SC today Device: iPhone 15/11/X/6/iPad 1,2,Air & Air Pro/Surface Pro/Kindle PW & Fire	I second Jon’s point. Some Fonts are special and are used to help tell the story, or set the mood/atmosphere. That doesn’t happen often, but it’s important when it does. Check what the font is and how the font is being used before removing.

10-07-2026, 09:58 PM	#4
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 55,013 Karma: 182340534 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	Add me to the check what the fonts are used for before stripping them group.

10-08-2026, 07:16 AM	#6
Gormagon monstrous mythical beast Posts: 200 Karma: 5078396 Join Date: May 2023 Location: Klopstokia Device: Tab Ultra C, Meebook P78 Pro, Viwoods AIPaper Reader, various NXTPAPER	Why bother at all? Font files usually don't take up much space and epub files stripped of embedded fonts won't hardly save any space on your Kobo.

10-08-2026, 07:45 AM	#8
Gormagon monstrous mythical beast Posts: 200 Karma: 5078396 Join Date: May 2023 Location: Klopstokia Device: Tab Ultra C, Meebook P78 Pro, Viwoods AIPaper Reader, various NXTPAPER	And what's the problem when the font isn't used for reading anyway because enuddleyarbl "let my Kobo's set the font I want to use". The embedded fonts aren't used so let them sit in the epub archive file and don't bother with it. If you have too much time to waste on the other hand...you could do it or you could watch paint dry.

10-08-2026, 10:44 AM	#11
John F Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,339 Karma: 72602129 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kobo Clara 2E	I throw the baby out with the bathwater.

10-08-2026, 09:47 PM	#13
icearch Addict Posts: 226 Karma: 2000 Join Date: Nov 2025 Device: none	I override all font in reader, I like my books to look what I want. So I do not favor storytelling using fonts, it would be better done with caption, italic and bold. As to storage, Chinese fonts are HUGE, source sans can take up to 21MB PER FONT WEIGHT. So it's better to be removed. But I agree that time is more valuable than storage, so I usually didn't bother.

10-09-2026, 09:24 AM	#14
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 10,134 Karma: 7640000 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	I remember trying to read the Bernard Cornwell books, many of them used old English/Viking names whose characters simply would not appear without the embedded font. Strange to think people throw them out. Of course the standard fonts in most e-readers supported little unicode back in those days.

10-09-2026, 10:45 AM	#15
enuddleyarbl Guru Posts: 867 Karma: 2111023 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Sage	I've actually run into a similar problem once or twice. Things looked fine in Calibre's editor/viewer. But, when I read the book on my Kobo, there was just a blank space where a particular word/name was supposed to be. But, in those cases, I messed around in the editor again until I could get something that showed up in the Kobo. I've turned off the "Remove Embedded Fonts" option in Modify ePub and have been looking at some of the original books I've purchased that have embedded fonts. So far, the only embedded fonts were used as generic body fonts or in those advertising pages the publishers stick in the books. And, once I removed those pages, I deleted the fonts. I know there are books that use embedded fonts to some real purpose, so I'll keep embedded fonts by default until I can dig through the books and see if they're actually needed. If not, I'll turn the Modify ePub option back on for a run, pull them out and clean up the CSS manually afterward.