Aura NEW Kobo Aura Impressions Thread!

[cr3nk]

Originally Posted by Lyn2012

Yes as Samhy said, it's a sideloaded ePub.

Thanks Lyn and samhy.

Have contacted Kobo Support regarding my exchange for my unit with uneven lighting. Sent an email but no response so I took the liberty of calling.

Was asked to do a reset to solve the uneven lighting issues (not surprised by this anymore) but of course, its a hardware issue. Am now waiting for a followu to the replacement procedure.

The following email I got was interesting. I don't mind being called "educated" for being a geek but shouldn't these notes be kept away from the customer? Just saying.

[TheGuyFromNorth]

I also bought an Aura last week, I was a bit dissapointed:

1. A small imperfection between the thin brown exterior frame and the bezel, hardly visible but noticeable at touch.

2. There is a dark band at the top when you turn on the light. I attach an image with 100% light on. The photo it's not very good, in reality the dark band is stronger.

3. The pocket feature works only for a few webpages that I saved (from Chrome). Not all the saved pages are transfered from Pocket to Kobo.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by TheGuyFromNorth

I also bought an Aura last week, I was a bit dissapointed:

2. There is a dark band at the top when you turn on the light. I attach an image with 100% light on. The photo it's not very good, in reality the dark band is stronger.

It's actually the opposite which is happening. The very top next to the frame is whiter (several others have complained about that in various posts), giving an optical illusion of a dark band under it at the top. Cover up that very white strip above the dark band and you'll see what I mean.

[slantybard]

I don't think I would be best at giving a tutorial in customizing fonts. Everything I learned about customizing fonts I got from 2 threads:
1. Kindle custom font thread
2. Kobo modified font thread

I know "Blossom" and "JSWolf" are both active font modifiers and have much better depth on knowledge than I do.

The way I have done it so far on the Kobo is:
1. Choose which font I like (ones that look good on computer often look bad on e-reader). I have always liked caecilia and already own it, so I choose that one.
2. Find a ttf/otf copy of the chosen font family. You need regular, italic, bold, and bold italic. I have been told that TTF fonts render better on the e-ink screen. It's usually easy to change from one to the other in a font program.
3. Because I like a heavier font to make reading easier, I choose to use semi-bold(medium) or bold as my base for regular and then use heavy for my bold fonts.
4. Remember, font renderers find the names confusing and need to be specifically named (there are instructions in this post that tells you what to do about this for kobo readers)
5. Start with the regular font only and make changes to it and upload it to the ereader to test it. Since it's lots of experimentation, working with only regular saves you the trouble on changing all versions of the font each time. Once you are happy with the regular font changes, then you can change them all for the final version.
6. There are several programs to modify fonts. I am not an expert in choosing one. Sorry.
7. I make several weighted versions of the "regular" font to try. Eg: I changed the weight using 10 em, 20 em, 30 em, 40 em, 50 em, 60 em, 70 em, 80 em, 90 em, and 100 em. Then I tested each version on the ereader using an epub that does not have an embedded font and choose the variation I thought looked best at the standard size I read at (in my case 60 em)
8. I then looked at the size and decided that I wanted it to be a bit larger at default. To do this, I made 10 variations of the weighted font that I liked from step 7, starting with a scale of 101% and moving up to 110% (from glyph origin, not the middle of the glyph) and then tested each of these, choosing 105% as the best variation for my Kobo.
9. Finally, increasing weight and scale can cause some of the letters to squish together in certain combos - ie ri, rn, rm, tr, ru. If this bothers you, you can change the "kern" of the combos to separate those letters better (google kerning in whatever font program you want to use).
10. Once I was happy with the base regular font variations, I repeated them with italic, bold, and bold-italic, changed the names to match up properly, then saved as ttf font files. I added these to a "fonts" folder on my kobo as instructed in the kobo fonts thread above. After this, I disconnected and power cycled my kobo.

As an aside, I strip most of the embedded css from the epubs and set up the line height in the kobo_extras.css file as 1.2. This gives me as much screen real estate on the Aura with the footer showing the total number of pages read per book (not chapter) and removing the header. It's too bad I can't take a screenshot right from the kobo. If I get time, I will try a poorly substituted point and shoot photo of how things look on my Aura.

[Ripplinger]

What I've done instead of modifying fonts was to find a bold font I like for my crappy eyesight. I rename the bold font file to the regular font name, I do the same for the italic file. Easy and quick way to get thicker fonts.

I don't care about missing bold letters in novels, bold is hardly ever used in what I read. As long as italics work I'm happy. But if you do still want to see the difference between actual bold letters and the regular font, find a similar font style that's a bit thicker than what you picked out for your regular font and rename that to the font family bold and bold italic.

I've always done this on my Sony 350 readers and on the Kobo Glo, works perfectly and takes just a few minutes instead of getting into modifying fonts.

[TheGuyFromNorth]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

It's actually the opposite which is happening. The very top next to the frame is whiter (several others have complained about that in various posts), giving an optical illusion of a dark band under it at the top. Cover up that very white strip above the dark band and you'll see what I mean.

Thank you Ripllinger,

You're right, it's the contrast between the too bright band at the top and the rest of the screen that makes the impression of a darker band.

As for the minor, hardy visible imperfections I would keep my Kobo, I read that other people already returned 2 or three times theirs because of light issues.

I hope that the Pocket feature will work proper in the future.

[MarciaCat]

Well today I finally received the Aura I won in Kobo's twitter contest; it shipped out via UPS last Wednesday and arrived today (Wednesday) I was expecting to have to sign for it since the tracking info page stated signature needed (as does the package label itself!) but the UPS guy just knocked and left it on the doorstep, I went out and asked about signing for it but he said delivery instructions didn't ask for it which I found strange. Anyway, it arrived safely and is charging right now. I got it set up right away and added a portion of my calibre library to give it a quick tryout. I didn't notice any unevenness of light or dead pixels (yayyy!) nor did I see the tiny diamond pattern documented earlier in this thread but I'll give it a better look when it's all charged up and my right eye stops twitching from problems related to iOS 7 update-related problems on my iPad (can't sign into iMessage or FaceTime- it claims no network connection, but that's a problem for a different forum, alas!)

I found a nice Built NY neoprene sleeve made for Kindle at Tuesday Morning on clearance marked down to $1.99; it's a very good fit and will do nicely until one of those aftermarket case makers who did cases for the Aura HD that sell on eBay and Amazon become available ( does anyone recall how long it was after the HD's release that those cheaper covers for it became available?) I'm thinking of using a couple dots of self-stick Velcro or maybe attaching a button and loop to help keep the case closed and add a bit of stiffening inside depending on how creative/handy I feel tomorrow.

[samhy]

Originally Posted by vice-versa

Last year, for the 2nd birthday of my grandson, we had a family gathering including his great grandmother aged 90.

First I have to say that I pictured you much much younger!
You've had a bad experience indeed
Here, FNAC is usually a good place to shop. The computer section at Boulanger on the other hand...

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

I wonder if they have any iPad minis on display. After all, those are pretty much the same thing as the regular iPad but smaller...

That was my thought too. Why display about ten tablets? They're doing pretty much the same things, give or take, aren't they?

Originally Posted by MarciaCat

I didn't notice any unevenness of light or dead pixels (yayyy!) nor did I see the tiny diamond pattern documented earlier in this thread

Good for you A free device which seems to be working just fine. Those are the best, aren't they?

[vice-versa]

Originally Posted by samhy

First I have to say that I pictured you much much younger!

My grandson's great grandmother was 90 not I, I'm just 46, that makes a (little) difference

Originally Posted by samhy

You've had a bad experience indeed
Here, FNAC is usually a good place to shop. The computer section at Boulanger on the other hand...

I think this particular store is simply a blurr, to small to have a real interest for their big chiefs. It's there to be able to say they are physically present (quite) everywhere.

As for Boulanger... I think you have to go there just when you know exactly beforehand what you want and can't find it anywhere else... (or if they have a good price for something for wich you don't need any advice )

[Lyn2012]

Thank you Slantybard for such detailed instructions re font enhancement. I may give it a try. Also thanks to Ripplinger for a simple work around.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by vice-versa

My grandson's great grandmother was 90 not I, I'm just 46, that makes a (little) difference



I think this particular store is simply a blurr, to small to have a real interest for their big chiefs. It's there to be able to say they are physically present (quite) everywhere.

As for Boulanger... I think you have to go there just when you know exactly beforehand what you want and can't find it anywhere else... (or if they have a good price for something for wich you don't need any advice )

I hate Boulanger, very much the same as Media Markt for me, or Worten in Spain and portugal, advertising the best prices when in fact you almost always can find cheaper elsewhere.

The FNAC, well, I am very attached to it, I guess it is part of our french cultural heritage. They are very good with books in general, and children books in particular, and the sales guys and gals used to know about the books they were selling, they used to be avid readers themselves so we'd have those really good exchange on books. Now of course, my experience was in the Rue de Rennes in Paris, so I guess the service was superb since it was, and still is, their flagship shop (it used to also be a super pick-up spot for us students ). They opened a FNAC next to my parents flat in the west of Paris, and it is brilliant, again with very good employees. The FNAC in Nimes on the other hand is less than stellar.
I have two FNACs here, one in Marbella and the other in Malaga, and the sales personal seems to be as bad as the one in Nimes. Plus they only sell bq readers (rebranded as FNAC ereader) or strange non e.Ink readers. Once in while they'll have an interesting new device, but so out of the normal product line that I may have a look but not more, and anyway the sales person in charge is almost always absolutely clueless about e-readers....

[4ll4n]

Originally Posted by Grady Cole

Hmm... can someone explain (preferably with photos) exactly what stats you get with a side-loaded ePub? Will I get the footer that says "Page 1 of 10" for a chapter?

Can't take photos right now but basically, the stats available for epubs are the standard 'reading life' stats and awards, not the in-book stats (nothing related to chapters for example).
As for the footer, it displays the current page and total page number (not the chapter page number) as in 'Page 75 of 386'.
Also, the current page number refers to the 'reference page' to keep this consistent across devices so most of the time, you can see the same page number at the bottom for several page turns.

Oh and thank you slantybard for your great explanation

[samhy]

Going on with the off topic

Originally Posted by vice-versa

My grandson's great grandmother was 90 not I, I'm just 46, that makes a (little) difference

At the very first, I thought between 20 and 30 (hence the much younger ). Then the grandson came in and I put you in the 50-60 range. So basically, on Internet you never know

Back on topic
One day we'll be able to judge an Aura by ourselves, no one knows when though.

[Grady Cole]

Originally Posted by 4ll4n

Can't take photos right now but basically, the stats available for epubs are the standard 'reading life' stats and awards, not the in-book stats (nothing related to chapters for example).
As for the footer, it displays the current page and total page number (not the chapter page number) as in 'Page 75 of 386'.
Also, the current page number refers to the 'reference page' to keep this consistent across devices so most of the time, you can see the same page number at the bottom for several page turns.

Oh and thank you slantybard for your great explanation

Thanks! One of the "selling features" for me was the pages/chapter thing, so not being able to get it on epubs is a bummer. I think I'll stick with my T1 for now.

[Chocky]

Well, I owned an Aura for about 3 hours today.

Bought one from W H Smiths who unfortunately could not activate it for me as their Desktop needed updating and the connection was so slow I would have waited an hour

Anyway, went to Costa and used their WiFi to activate and then just put in my SD card, all went well and started to fine tune fonts etc.

Screen was great, no pinholes, no light leakage, couldn't see any diamonds.

Then the sun came round to where I was sitting and the top 20mm or so of the screen looked like someone with a greasy thumb had put little curved lines from bottom left to top right all along the top of the screen.

Just looked like it needed a clean.

Took it back, and the only other 2 they had also showed it.

Couldn't see it at all in the shop, only outside, and it was visible even when the screen was held straight on as when reading it.

They said it was a known problem, and I had my money refunded.

Real shame because the Aura itself was fantastic, will just have to wait until they get the problems sorted though.