PRS+: Enhanced firmware for Sony Reader, Folders, Games & more

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by kartu

Yes I'll attempt to at least add folder support. It will also be integrated into standard UI, as with current PRS+.

I think beyond that, if it was possible to change the "Recently Added" into a "Recently Opened" list, I'd be happy.

I literally only use PRS+ on my 950 for that, custom fonts, and showing the cover on the sleep screen.

[kartu]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Now, finally, for the help...

I know the PRS+ method of having both customised fonts and css on the device will not work but I thought I'd try the old halfway-house method of storing the ttf files on the device and adding the @font-face css to each epub. So far this is not working. It may well be that the old internal memory root location actually being res:///Data is no longer correct. I am wondering whether you know what it has changed to?

According to porkupan it's /mnt/sdcard (yes, internal memory, not SD card) but it doesn't work in epubs.

PS
Update:
/mnt/extsd is micro sd card.
Note that in older models external cards were only mounted when reader was connected to a PC. Not clear how it works now.

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by kartu

Note that in older models external cards were only mounted when reader was connected to a PC. Not clear how it works now.

In PRS-T1 both /mnt/sdcard and /mnt/extsd are mounted while the reader is in operation. When the reader goes into the "storage mode", both are unmounted.

[jackie_w]

So are you saying that, in theory, we ought to be able to store our font files
either

in directory, /fonts in internal mem and reference them as
@font-face {font-family: serif; ... ... src: url(res:///mnt/sdcard/fonts/xxx.ttf);}

or

in directory, /fonts on the external SD card and reference them as
@font-face {font-family: serif; ... ... src: url(res:///mnt/extsd/fonts/xxx.ttf);}

But that in practice it doesn't work? Or have I misunderstood what you've said?

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

So are you saying that, in theory, we ought to be able to store our font files
either

in directory, /fonts in internal mem and reference them as
@font-face {font-family: serif; ... ... src: url(res:///mnt/sdcard/fonts/xxx.ttf);}

or

in directory, /fonts on the external SD card and reference them as
@font-face {font-family: serif; ... ... src: url(res:///mnt/extsd/fonts/xxx.ttf);}

But that in practice it doesn't work? Or have I misunderstood what you've said?

Yes, that appears to be the case. I haven't done a whole lot of testing though.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by porkupan

Yes, that appears to be the case. I haven't done a whole lot of testing though.

I tried both scenarios myself, but no joy I'm afraid

Thanks to both yourself and kartu for the info.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I haven't finished testing yet but the retention of italics seems rather random. There may be a predictable pattern but I haven't found it yet. So far, Bold and BoldItalic have always been lost.
[Edit:]occasionally Bold is retained in headings
[Edit2:]Having done more testing retention of bold and italics seems to be completely random unless you select font=Original

This bit is actually mentioned in the manual under Reading>Reading Books>Appearance. "When you select other than the [Original] font, boldface/italics/italicized boldface may not work correctly."

I'm guessing Sony took some shortcuts and didn't include all the variants for the other fonts, which of course is annoying. On my Nook WiFi, you can, for instance, only get boldface on the Light Classic font, but not on Amasis.

[kartu]

Originally Posted by graycyn

I'm guessing Sony took some shortcuts and didn't include all the variants for the other fonts, which of course is annoying.

No no. There are 2 ways to render "bold" fonts, use glyphs manually prepared by font author, or apply some algorithm to normal fonts. The latter option is always available.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by graycyn

I'm guessing Sony took some shortcuts and didn't include all the variants for the other fonts, which of course is annoying. On my Nook WiFi, you can, for instance, only get boldface on the Light Classic font, but not on Amasis.

Well this is the really strange thing. I think they HAVE included the variants, or at least the italic variant. There are occasions when italics ARE retained with the 3 serifs Amasis etc. And when they are retained they are "proper" italics not the unsatisfactory regular-font-slanted-a-bit. I don't know about the Bold variants as I'm not sure I can tell the difference between 'real bold and/or bolditalic' and 'regular/italic-font-thickened-a-bit'.

Amasis etc also seem to have more glyphs. There are some accented chars which display in the 6 special fonts which don't display when using 'Original'.

So the choice, so far, seems to be:

Original - Italics not very pretty. Text rendered correctly unless you happen to read in a non-latin language.
6 specials - Prettier, but a lottery with bold/italic. May be better for non-latin readers.
Embed your own - Everything displayed correctly as long as you choose the right fonts for your language.

If anyone comes up with some bright ideas I'd love to hear them.

[kartu]

porkupan's progress:



I don't think there will be a need in PRS+ on T1.

[Analogus]

Very promising!
Especially the possibility to chose among several reading applications. I presume it could be possible to use an offline-wikipdia in future.

Having seen that I hope you will not give up developing PRS+ for older ereaders...
I still have hope to be able to use free dictionaries on my PRS350 sometimes in future.

A.

[kartu]

Dictionaries are still in plans, no worries.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by kartu

porkupan's progress:

Fantastic!
I expected that T1 would be rooted eventually, but not so soon.
Porkupan is THE master hacker on Sony readers. I have been using his hacks on my ancient PRS-500.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

So the choice, so far, seems to be:Original - Italics not very pretty. Text rendered correctly unless you happen to read in a non-latin language.
6 specials - Prettier, but a lottery with bold/italic. May be better for non-latin readers.
Embed your own - Everything displayed correctly as long as you choose the right fonts for your language.

If anyone comes up with some bright ideas I'd love to hear them.

Interesting. Well, if the font variants are there, I'm glad of it! I had seen that passage in the manual and wondered! Went through a bit of hassle trying to get my Nook to display a bold font in Amasis, only to later Google it and find out that they hadn't included the variant, so I thought Sony might've done the same thing. But I wonder why it is a lottery then?

[graycyn]

Wow, y'all weren't kidding about the font lottery once you move out of the Original font on the T-1.

I was testing a couple epubs (scanned books) that have both italics and bold and when I changed fonts to try the other serif fonts, I got rather mixed results. The scary part is that I had headings that were styled exactly the same that would appear differently in the same book! I guess if I'm proofreading/testing epubs on this device I'll stick to the Original font.