Touch Are the fonts too light? - Page 3

rahulm · 07-01-2011, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem is software as the screen is the same as the screen used for the 650 and the K3. If I didn't know how Charis looks on my 650, I'd have thought it was maybe the default font for ADE on the nook.

Check out the following screen grab from a Sony Reader 950. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...4&d=1308939746

That is using Charis SIL. If anyone with a nook is unsure if you have any eBooks use this font, download one of the samples of any of the new Star Wars eBooks. They use Charis SIL. Then compare the two. I'd like to get opinions from nook STR owners.

To be honest, I'm not sure you should have your GF get a nook. Especially with no word on if B&N is going to fix the font rendering engine.

I just told her to go for it.

Out of all the readers available right now, I think the Nook has the best hardware and best UI, the touch controls just look awesome as well as the menus. I know you said physical page turn buttons aren't very important for you, I'm sort of the opposite, I hate devices that are purely touch (though I do appreciate the merits of touch controls).

So I guess I'll just buy it on faith and hope B&N updates it. The older Nook saw a decent amount of firmware revisions from what I can tell, so that's some good precedence.

tomsem · 07-01-2011, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem is software as the screen is the same as the screen used for the 650 and the K3. If I didn't know how Charis looks on my 650, I'd have thought it was maybe the default font for ADE on the nook.

Check out the following screen grab from a Sony Reader 950. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...4&d=1308939746

That is using Charis SIL. If anyone with a nook is unsure if you have any eBooks use this font, download one of the samples of any of the new Star Wars eBooks. They use Charis SIL. Then compare the two. I'd like to get opinions from nook STR owners.

To be honest, I'm not sure you should have your GF get a nook. Especially with no word on if B&N is going to fix the font rendering engine.

I took your screen grab, chopped it to 600x800, and made it a screensaver image on Nook. It looks perfectly fine, and demonstrates nothing other than than it's not a hardware issue.

I went to get one of the Star Wars samples you suggested, but cultural elitest that I am, I have no idea which are 'new' and which are 'old'. I need a title, please.

JSWolf · 07-01-2011, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

I took your screen grab, chopped it to 600x800, and made it a screensaver image on Nook. It looks perfectly fine, and demonstrates nothing other than than it's not a hardware issue.

I went to get one of the Star Wars samples you suggested, but cultural elitest that I am, I have no idea which are 'new' and which are 'old'. I need a title, please.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/star...ri=star%2bwars

Try that one. Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn.

ST-One · 07-02-2011, 06:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem is software as the screen is the same as the screen used for the 650 and the K3. If I didn't know how Charis looks on my 650, I'd have thought it was maybe the default font for ADE on the nook.

Check out the following screen grab from a Sony Reader 950. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...4&d=1308939746

That is using Charis SIL. If anyone with a nook is unsure if you have any eBooks use this font, download one of the samples of any of the new Star Wars eBooks. They use Charis SIL. Then compare the two. I'd like to get opinions from nook STR owners.

To be honest, I'm not sure you should have your GF get a nook. Especially with no word on if B&N is going to fix the font rendering engine.

Thank you for posting that screen-grab.
Ignoring the minor screen-refresh issues, the font on my Nook (in Zahn's "Allegiance") looks exactly like the font in that screen-grab.

dalamario · 07-02-2011, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I want to know is just what B&N is doing with the font rendering to make it so poor?

What you means as "it so poor"? I do not see poor rendering.
I have taken some pictures of my nook dispaying caecilia font, calibri font and FBReader app. The pictures have shadows and are not 100% on focus, but still the rendering look fine, you consider this so poor?

rahulm · 07-02-2011, 04:41 PM

That looks pretty damn good to me, dalamrio. You've kind of made me feel at ease.

It's not as good as the Kindle 3, of course, but it's got many more fonts so I guess it makes up for it.

JSWolf · 07-02-2011, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dalamario

What you means as "it so poor"? I do not see poor rendering.
I have taken some pictures of my nook dispaying caecilia font, calibri font and FBReader app. The pictures have shadows and are not 100% on focus, but still the rendering look fine, you consider this so poor?

I mentioned a specific font. Not one of the built-in fonts. I mentioned Charis. Yet you give us no screen shots showing Charis. And the fonts you've chosen are built-in fonts. They don't count. Please download a sample of one of the new Star Wars eBooks and you'll see Charis and you'll see it does not render well.

JSWolf · 07-02-2011, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rahulm

That looks pretty damn good to me, dalamrio. You've kind of made me feel at ease.

It's not as good as the Kindle 3, of course, but it's got many more fonts so I guess it makes up for it.

The issue may not be with the built-in fonts, but embedded fonts in ePub. Could be that the fonts were chosen because they look ok enough with the rendering engine. But fonts not either tweaked or picked because they render ok don't count.

Hoyt Clagwell · 07-02-2011, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/star...ri=star%2bwars

Try that one. Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn.

I downloaded the sample and the font looks fine to me.

dalamario · 07-03-2011, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I mentioned a specific font. Not one of the built-in fonts. I mentioned Charis. Yet you give us no screen shots showing Charis. And the fonts you've chosen are built-in fonts. They don't count. Please download a sample of one of the new Star Wars eBooks and you'll see Charis and you'll see it does not render well.

Sorry, my fault, I understood that the poor rendering was generalized.
Still, the calibri font that I taken the picture, it's not built-in and FBReader is not part of original nook touch (mine is rooted).

I downloaded the free sample of the book you was refering for charis font, see the picture and the crop, it still look fine to me as Hoyt Clagwell already wrote.

tomsem · 07-03-2011, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dalamario

Sorry, my fault, I understood that the poor rendering was generalized.
Still, the calibri font that I taken the picture, it's not built-in and FBReader is not part of original nook touch (mine is rooted).

I downloaded the free sample of the book you was refering for charis font, see the picture and the crop, it still look fine to me as Hoyt Clagwell already wrote.

At size 1 and 2 there are definitely some issues, but that's true of all of the builtin fonts as well. So I'm not sure what we've proved here.

dalamario · 07-03-2011, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

At size 1 and 2 there are definitely some issues, but that's true of all of the builtin fonts as well. So I'm not sure what we've proved here.

I taken pictures of the size I normally use to read books.
Size 1 and 2 are too small to read comfortably for me, but I still see good rendering at size 1, the fonts are lighter, but it's normal. See the screenshots, that's how android render charis font at size 1, 2 and 3.

Calibri font is more readable at size 1 or 2, but then depend what font you want to use to read books.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Having a really poor font rendering engine is a major issue. So for right now, the nook is a no-go (IMHO) since it renders very poorly.

My point was only that I do not see what JSWolf wrote.

tomsem · 07-03-2011, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dalamario

I taken pictures of the size I normally use to read books.
Size 1 and 2 are too small to read comfortably for me, but I still see good rendering at size 1, the fonts are lighter, but it's normal. See the screenshots, that's how android render charis font at size 1, 2 and 3.

Calibri font is more readable at size 1 or 2, but then depend what font you want to use to read books.

My point was only that I do not see what JSWolf wrote.

Can you share how you are doing screen capture?

In any case, screen capture would only show what the device thinks it is displaying, but not necessarily how it actually looks. The screen captures you post here look fine, but when I display the same page on my Nook, some of the letters don't look as good ('g's and 'c's for example).

dalamario · 07-03-2011, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

Can you share how you are doing screen capture?

In any case, screen capture would only show what the device thinks it is displaying, but not necessarily how it actually looks. The screen captures you post here look fine, but when I display the same page on my Nook, some of the letters don't look as good ('g's and 'c's for example).

Wee, I know that screenshots are not the same of what we see onscreen, I was only trying to explain that android core was rendering the fonts fine, like the sony 950 screenoshot from JSWolf.

To take screenshots you need a rooted nook and android sdk installed on your pc (connecting the nook with adb and then use DDMS from android sdk) or installing a screenshot app, still with a rooted nook.

JSWolf · 07-03-2011, 05:19 PM

Look at the the two attachments. Same font, one is a nook STR and the other is a 950.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...1&d=1309712007
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...4&d=1308939746

Now the nook has noticeably thinner lines. Now look at the r and notice how the overhang is too thin. The top of the m is thin. One the 950, the font has more uniform strokes. It is the same font, but when actually comparing them on a nook and a 650 directly, they almost look like they could be two different fonts or different font weights.

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07-02-2011, 04:41 PM	#36
rahulm Zealot Posts: 139 Karma: 22164 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: None	That looks pretty damn good to me, dalamrio. You've kind of made me feel at ease. It's not as good as the Kindle 3, of course, but it's got many more fonts so I guess it makes up for it.

07-03-2011, 05:19 PM	#45
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,796 Karma: 146391129 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Look at the the two attachments. Same font, one is a nook STR and the other is a 950. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...1&d=1309712007 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...4&d=1308939746 Now the nook has noticeably thinner lines. Now look at the r and notice how the overhang is too thin. The top of the m is thin. One the 950, the font has more uniform strokes. It is the same font, but when actually comparing them on a nook and a 650 directly, they almost look like they could be two different fonts or different font weights.