Firmware 3.8.0 released

[indyglow]

Originally Posted by John F

I upgraded my Aura for the full page reading. Unfortunately, it seems to be too buggy for me to use (I'm going to stick with older firmware on my Glo). On every chapter transition, the page shifts to the right and the right margin gets cropped. I can work around it, but it is a major PITA (switch headers/footers back on, go back a page, go forward a page, switch headers/footers back off).

I have noticed that adding the following line to the CSS file in ePub does seem to resolve the problem of text getting cut-off on my Aura HD. I am on version 3.8.0 (patched), solely use kepubs using Kobo Extended Touch Plugin and does read with "Show Header and Footer" turned off.

body
{
margin-right: 30px;
}

I tried this on few epubs with 30px and the text fits neatly at the centre of the screen of Aura HD. You might have to tweak that number for your device. I also noted that you'll have to remove any "margin-left" line from the body tag of the CSS.

[fx3000se]

Originally Posted by kwiatek

Installed on my Mini - so far so good.

There's one more new thing since 3.5 (at least at Mini) - redesigned screensaver:
- info about % of read book was moved;
- info about time to the end was added.

Mark 4?

[John F]

Originally Posted by indyglow

I have noticed that adding the following line to the CSS file in ePub does seem to resolve the problem of text getting cut-off on my Aura HD. I am on version 3.8.0 (patched), solely use kepubs using Kobo Extended Touch Plugin and does read with "Show Header and Footer" turned off.

body
{
margin-right: 30px;
}

I tried this on few epubs with 30px and the text fits neatly at the centre of the screen of Aura HD. You might have to tweak that number for your device. I also noted that you'll have to remove any "margin-left" line from the body tag of the CSS.

Does it solve the problem of everything shifting to the right?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by fx3000se

Mark 4?

If you mean, should you use the Mark 4 version of the firmware for your Mini, then yes. The Mini is a Mark 4 device, so always use that firmware.

[Anak]

Originally Posted by indyglow

I have noticed that adding the following line to the CSS file in ePub does seem to resolve the problem of text getting cut-off on my Aura HD. I am on version 3.8.0 (patched), solely use kepubs using Kobo Extended Touch Plugin and does read with "Show Header and Footer" turned off.

body
{
margin-right: 30px;
}

I tried this on few epubs with 30px and the text fits neatly at the centre of the screen of Aura HD. You might have to tweak that number for your device. I also noted that you'll have to remove any "margin-left" line from the body tag of the CSS.

Have you tried to enable the Margins fine tuning patch?
Post: Margins fine tuning
On my Glo this section of the patch does exactly the opposite.

[indyglow]

Originally Posted by John F

Does it solve the problem of everything shifting to the right?

Yes it absolutely does.

[indyglow]

Originally Posted by Anak

Have you tried to enable the Margins fine tuning patch?
Post: Margins fine tuning
On my Glo this section of the patch does exactly the opposite.

I don't have "Margin Fine Tuning" patch enabled. My observation is that any epub with margins defined in body tags in css get affected. A couple of books with no body tag in css had no cut off at all.

[alicroche]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I noticed changes in the dictionary calls with 3.8 last night. I'd already noticed a bug with Spanish a few versions back (I reported it in the bug thread) but this is different: Kobo apparently decided to go to a translation dictionary instead of single language for the first pop-up when appropriate, considering the translation dictionaries always turn around English. I know many people prefer it, but with how poor the kobo dual language dictionaries are (possibly apart from the English-French one), I'm afraid it won't be much use to them - Sony dictionaries were much better.

At present, with my language defined as the usual French
Spanish defined books call the French dictionary, unless I switch the parameters language to Spanish - the same books that called the Spanish dictionary a few releases ago
English defined books call the English-French dictionary in the first pop-up, the single language English in the full page called from the pop-up
French, Italian and German books call the single language appropriate dictionary in both pop-up and full page
If I define my language as English
Spanish and English defined books call the English dictionary
French, German and Italian defined books call the French-English/German-English/Italian-English dictionaries respectively in the first pop-up, the single language appropriate ones in the full page called from the pop-up

I understand that most of this corresponds to majority wishes, though I would like an option to choose single language as a first choice - not to speak of decent translation dictionaries - but I DON'T understand why, while implementing all this, kobo didn't solve the reported Spanish bug.

Same problem here with Aura HD and 3.8.0 : I read books in english and french and don't use EN-FR but EN dictionary when reading english. So my only installed dictionaries are english and french ones and the user interface language is french. Now, when I touch a word in an english book, I get a message asking me to download the english dictionary (which is already there). I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the dictionary but to no avail.
I'm very annoyed with this behavior I must say. Did you or anybody here found a way to revert to the previous one ?

[John F]

Originally Posted by indyglow

Yes it absolutely does.

Thanks.

Using Calibre, how can I remove margin-left from the body tag?

[indyglow]

Right click on the book and click on edit in the menu popup which will present you with the epub editor. Make the changes to the css, save and exit. That is all there is to it.

[Anak]

Originally Posted by indyglow

I don't have "Margin Fine Tuning" patch enabled. My observation is that any epub with margins defined in body tags in css get affected. A couple of books with no body tag in css had no cut off at all.

I assume you didn't try the patch?
I use the body tag all the time to define (force) the default values of many selectors, including margin and padding (both set to 0).

I tried it once more:
These values (25) shifts the screen (viewport) to the right:

replace_int = 957626, 0, 25
# Top margin
replace_int = 95762A, 0, 01
</Patch>

These values (01 or 00) postion the viewport to the center:

# Left margin
replace_int = 957626, 0, 01
# Top margin
replace_int = 95762A, 0, 01
</Patch>

If you take a closer look at the initial values of the patch you'll notice that the defaults are 21 (left), and 22 (top). This causes the viewport being off center.

# Initial replaces
replace_bytes = 957626, 19 46, 00 21
replace_bytes = 95762A, 1A 46, 00 22

[John F]

Originally Posted by indyglow

Right click on the book and click on edit in the menu popup which will present you with the epub editor. Make the changes to the css, save and exit. That is all there is to it.

That's easy for you to say.

I currently have ~50 books on the reader, so it would be a little tedious. And than if it gets fixed, I'll need to go back and take the change out?

[Anak]

Originally Posted by John F

That's easy for you to say.

I currently have ~50 books on the reader, so it would be a little tedious. And than if it gets fixed, I'll need to go back and take the change out?

Yes, and that is exactly why it is not a good solution.

Originally Posted by indyglow

A couple of books with no body tag in css had no cut off at all.

That should be obvious because if you define margins in the body tag you're basically saying to partially 'crop' the page, and characters will be 'cut off' if they don't fit on the page at the right page margin. This is a 'hard' margin and that's why characters are cut off.
This will definitely be case when a character whit a negative right sidebearing (RSB) is the last charcter (position) on a line.
Two examples: (1) a character with a negative RSB is the lowercase character f. (2) the lowercase character j has a negative LSB, that character will be cut off if a line starts with this character.

There are a few trick to tackle this.
1. Don't define margins in a body tag if they are not set or equal to zero (0).
2. Use padding selector instead. Consider this selector as a soft margin. Chacters witha negative left or right side bearing will be displayed in 'full' instead of being cut off.

body {margin:15px;padding:0;} (this will cut off characters)
body {margin:0;padding:15px} (this creates a 'soft margin' of 15px and prevents that some characters are cut off)

Or use something like

body{margin:0;padding:0;}
p,div {margin:0;padding-left:15px;padding-right:15px}

(the same but limited to p and div)

Or define a 'wrapper' for the page margins:

body{margin:0;padding:0;}
p,div{margin:0;padding:0;}
.pagemargins {padding-top:20px;padding-left:15px;padding-right:15px}

(CSS)

<body>
<div class="pagemargins">

... original code/markup here
</div>
</body>

Nutshell:
You have the native viewport of the device, everything outside this area will not be printed or visible.
Within the viewport there is a window or screen in which the reading app (epub, kepub engine) prints text and images. This window or screen can be shifted outside the actual viewport of the device, and characters are only partically displayed (cut off) or not at all. That is the problem were discussing here. Is there a way to reposition this window or screen to the correct position to prevent that characters are not visible or cut off.
This window or screen can be reduced in size by using various selectors, @page, margin, padding (and maybe others) to set the actual page size.
There is a distinction between hard and soft margins. Hard margins cut off characters that have either negative left or right sidebearings. To prevent this from happening use 'soft margins' instead of 'hard margins'. Especially and/or limited to, left and right margins.

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by filmo

I don't use the extra social features your complaining about. Many members here who buy lots of books from Kobo want them and it adds to their reading experience.

"Complaining" is a mis-characterisation. I was putting my own interests forward by way of conversation, as others readily do. Did you miss my saying "(Subjective call, I realise.)"? Or "And why does Kobo spin its development wheels on things like that, when there are issues to be addressed and features implemented that directly affect file management and navigation? And, ermm, stability of the device's functions?"?

I'm sure there are people who like to use the features. But I'm also sure there are others who, as a matter of priority, would rather have the actual reader functions stabilised and expanded.

To characterise it as a personal "complaint" is a bit unfair. At least you didn't call me a "hater", I suppose.

[rosalita]

Hello all. I think this is my first time posting here but I read these forums all the time and have gotten lots of great tips and advice here. I have a Kobo Touch from 2011, and I love it. But the latest firmware seems to have played havoc with the ability to change the font size in certain books. Even if I push the slider all the way to the right, the font size stays at the same uncomfortably (for me) small size.

It doesn't happen with all books, and it's possible it's only happening with books that I downloaded via Overdrive from the library and then loaded using ADE. I've read through this whole thread to see if anyone else has experienced this issue, but it doesn't seem to have been raised yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions how to regain the size-changing ability?