Favorite Custom Installed Font on your Sony Reader

[KNI]

Gosh - I love Times Roman - elegant, clean and easily readable - but it sure doesn't seem to get any respect here.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by JohnnyRocks

No matter how much I test, I keep coming back to Lexia Dama as the most readable font of the above.

Lexia Dama is almost identical to Caecilia, of which the Kindle uses a modified, slightly heavier version.

[JohnnyRocks]

I actually see the Lexia Dama as a slightly heavier version (and I can compoare them side by side, as I own a Kindle 2 and also a Sony 350). I actually prefer the Lexia.

[CraftyDan]

I can't believe I'm saying this -- I checked and double checked -- but after trying a slew of fonts, it just kept coming out the same . . .

I prefer the Arial font.

There I said it. It's like confessing you like Times New Roman -- I feel so unimaginative in my font's style. It's so very bland, but I can't ignore the benefits.

When I load the Arial Rounded MT Bold I can set the zoom to XS and the default CSS to XXS, AND still be able to read it clearly. I can get up to an extra 1/2 page of text on the screen -- I just can't ignore that.

[alism]

You are not the only one I use Arial too. I tried a few though I don't think as many as others here have. The bold Arial is dark crisp and not blocky like other bolds can look. It looks great in any font size and if you want to use XS size it is very easy to read.

[JohnnyRocks]

Dan and Alism, can you share what settings you use in Calibre to make the Arial Fonts readable in XS? Here are some of my settings:

Base Font Size: 11.5
Line Height: 13.0 (tightly packed page without being overly cramped to my eyes)

Here is the CSS code I use in "Extra CSS"

@font-face {
font-family: "LexiaDaMa";
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/LexiaDaMa.otf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "LexiaDaMa";
font-weight: bold;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/LexiaDaMa-Bold.otf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "LexiaDaMa";
font-weight: normal;
font-style: italic;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/LexiaDaMa-Italic.otf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "LexiaDaMa";
font-weight: bold;
font-style: italic;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/LexiaDaMa-BoldItalic.otf);
}

body {
font-family: "LexiaDaMa";
}



Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you could copy and paste some of the CSS code, it would help me out immensely.

[CraftyDan]

JR,

I'm not changing my CSS in Calibre. I've hacked my ROM using Boroda's Russified ROM (1.05k) and changed the default CSS on the reader (under the "epub" directory). It really is a piece of cake.

Few epubs specify a font in their CSS, so the default takes over. Some DO specify the font size(s) . . . I haven't figured how to clean that up in Calibre yet.

As for the CSS code, mine's not much different that yours (or Boroda's default CSS):

Spoiler:

@font-face {
font-family: "Custom", serif, sans-serif;
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/epub/FONT/ArialRndNrw/Serif_Regular.ttf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "Custom", serif, sans-serif;
font-weight: normal;
font-style: italic;
src: url(res:///Data/epub/FONT/ArialRndNrw/Serif_Italic.ttf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "Custom", serif, sans-serif;
font-weight: bold;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/epub/FONT/ArialRndNrw/Serif_Bold.ttf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "Custom", serif, sans-serif;
font-weight: bold;
font-style: italic;
src: url(res:///Data/epub/FONT/ArialRndNrw/Serif_BoldItalic.ttf);
}

body {
font-family: "Custom", serif, sans-serif;
text-align:left;
font-size: xx-small;
line-height: 1.2em;
margin-top: 1em;
margin-left: 0.25em;
margin-right: 0.25em;
padding-right:0.25em;
padding-left:0.25em;
}

Aside from the obvious (different fonts) the differences I see are:

- calling out the "serif" and "sans-serif" values for the font-family
- setting the justification to "left" in the body selector
- specifying the font-size in the body selector
- defining the margin sizes in the body selector

The first and third (and maybe your font file) are probably the source of your headaches.

To test which font I preferred, I used this CSS and swapped out font names in these 4 positions (pointing them toward the "regular" font instead of the appropriate bold/italic). I then pulled up the attached epub.

The epub lists 2 short paragraphs of the Lorem ibsum, repeated for each B/I combo. Using the 4 combinations, I could quickly compare 4 fonts, keep my favorite, compare against the next three, and so on.

For me, once I saw that I could drop Arial down to XS (with an XXS base font) and still read it clearly, it didn't take long for it to trounce the competition.

BTW, I downloaded the Arial MT Rounded Bold font from here. I got the link from over in the Kindle's forum.

[JohnnyRocks]

Wow. This is all Greek to me, to be honest. I think I will just stick with what I have at this point.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by CraftyDan

Few epubs specify a font in their CSS, so the default takes over. Some DO specify the font size(s) . . . I haven't figured how to clean that up in Calibre yet.

The only reason I haven't considered using custom firmware is because I've actually run into quite a few books that call for their own special fonts, which usually brings up something like Times New Roman, so if I have to edit .css files anyway, I didn't see the point of it.

But you should be able to fix those books by editing the .css file through Calibre. Right click the title in the Calibre Library window. Select Tweak ePub, then click on Explode ePub. That will bring up an explorer window with all the various files included in the book. Open the file that ends in .css in whatever editor you prefer (I prefer PSPad, have used it for years and love it, and it's free). Search for any reference to a font type, usually listed as "font-family" and change the font they specify to the font you want instead. It might be listed in quite a few locations within the file, search for them all and replace it. Such as:

In file named stylesheet1.css, find:
font-family: "Times New Roman";

I changed that line to read:
font-family: "LexiaDaMa";

The file might be named a bit differently but it will always end in .css.

Save the file with your changes and close PSPad, then click on "Rebuild ePub" from the Calibre small window still open. And you're done. Upload the book to your Sony reader and your correct font will now show.

[JohnnyRocks]

Is there a way to do what CraftyDan suggested up there, WITHOUT altering the firmware, to test the Arial fonts for readability in bold, and in extra small? What "Base Font Size" would be required, etc, to reach the same result as what he did with altering the firmware?

[alism]

I never set the base font size. I looked at the CSS and I actually use Arial Narrow Bold for the text. 90% of the time I read in small font size but when I was experimenting with different fonts I checked to make sure they where readable in all the sizes. The few times I use XS I find the Arial NB easy to read unlike the other bold fonts I have tried. They usually are ok in S but become to blocky in XS. I think this was the problem with Arial Bold too.

The CSS is pretty much the same as yours:
@font-face {
font-family: "Arial";
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/ARIALNB.ttf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "Arial";
font-weight: bold;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/arialbd.ttf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "Arial";
font-weight: normal;
font-style: italic;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/ARIALNBI.ttf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "Arial";
font-weight: bold;
font-style: italic;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/arialbi.ttf);
}

body {
font-family: "Arial";
}

[CraftyDan]

@ripplinger,

I did it for the always on, always updating clock. The CSS was a just a plus.


@JR,

Ignore the hacking for a moment (it was a minor piece of the puzzle), CSS is not that hard to read or write. W3Schools has a good tutorial on it. I highly recommend it.

now back to the hack -- if you haven't done it, no sweat, you just can't see or modify your device's CSS. The "pepak" hack folded into Boroda's ROM moves the device's CSS file to a user accessible folder. Any ROM that has pepak's hack included will do this (the folder name may be different, but it'll be there).


As to why you're not getting anywhere. From the symptoms you've been batting around, it's most likely you've got a bad font file.

IF your DaMa font is working, AND you've been careful about capitalization when you change out your font and folder names in the CSS, THEN the font file is probably your problem.

I got my font from here.

KEEP IN MIND: if you make any typos or syntax errors in the epub's CSS, the device will revert to the default.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by JohnnyRocks

Is there a way to do what CraftyDan suggested up there, WITHOUT altering the firmware, to test the Arial fonts for readability in bold, and in extra small? What "Base Font Size" would be required, etc, to reach the same result as what he did with altering the firmware?

If you mean to have all books use your font without changing the .css file as you've been doing, no... you need a custom firmware for that. Just change one book using the Arial Bold to test it the same way you've tested other books, you might like it better than the LexiaDaMa. While I usually prefer sans serif fonts on all my PCs and in all programs (I love the cleaner look), for reading on the Sony I found the serif font to be a better choice for me. I read often though on public transportation, where you get jostled around somewhat, so that could have some bearing.

I'll admit I've been tempted to do it also but for the screenshot feature (at least I think Boroda lets you take a screenshot of any page on all installs).

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

If you mean to have all books use your font without changing the .css file as you've been doing, no... you need a custom firmware for that. Just change one book using the Arial Bold to test it the same way you've tested other books, you might like it better than the LexiaDaMa. While I usually prefer sans serif fonts on all my PCs and in all programs (I love the cleaner look), for reading on the Sony I found the serif font to be a better choice for me. I read often though on public transportation, where you get jostled around somewhat, so that could have some bearing.

I'll admit I've been tempted to do it also but for the screenshot feature (at least I think Boroda lets you take a screenshot of any page on all installs).

I agree with this. I took a simple 10 page document that I created in HTML and that contained h1, h2, h3, h4, and p tags. Plus it contained text in normal, bold, normal italic, and bold italic. Plus I added some different sized normal text using font-size: Xem; in the CSS to test various font sizes on the screen. I converted it to several ePubs via calibre with each calling a different font or font group. I then simply opened each file and chose the one that worked best for my eyes and tastes.

[JohnnyRocks]

I'm actually not having any problems at all on my end. Just experimenting. The CSS that I'm using in Calibre is working fine, along with the Lexia Dama that I installed into the fonts folder on my reader.

Ripplinger, what I actually meant was, is there a way to achieve what CraftyDan did JUST by doing what I'm doing now, which is, essentially, converting every single book in Calibre (which is also what you do, I believe, as you are the one that taught me how).

In other words, I am going to try the Arial Rounded MT Bold font (that is the one you are suggesting, right Dan?), and, would like to know what Base Font Size to use, in order to coincide with the font sizes that Dan is getting.