Kobo Firmware 3.11.0

[Ebri]

I gave up reading epubs due to slow epub engine, kepub is much faster, especially in caes of highlighting. (Though shows my favourite font bolded.)

[violent23]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Please elaborate All my books are standard epub and they all look exactly as I expect them to look as per their internal css.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What sort of problems are you experiencing with the ADE ePub engine? I've been reading up on Kobo because I plan on ordering an H2O in 2 weeks and I have not read of any real issues.

Okay, here are some of the problems with the .epub engine on Kobo.

Some stock fonts do not display bold nor italics.

Widows and orphans have to be manually set through conversions, hacks on the device or editing each individual .ePubs css. Otherwise the default setting of the firmware will display .ePubs with pages where half the page has no text quite often.

The .ePub engine still ignores embedded fonts from the css.

With widow and orphans on there is still a problem with .ePubs where some pages have room for another line of text but it still gets pushed to the next page. This is not the long paragraph bug but does have something to do with widow and orphans and how they display on the device.

Annotations still have the problem with reopening .ePubs on the main memory messing up the percent read and the chapter the book is in.

And there is still a lot of .epub3 features missing even though they seem to find their way into the .kepub engine just fine. Which was my whole point, Kobo is actively adding features at a much faster pace for the .kepub engine then they are for the .ePub engine. They are actively pushing their own proprietary format while keeping hobbled the other option, all to give themselves an unfair advantage. Most people don't even know that Kobo pushes their own format thinking all Kobos are mainly .ePub devices. Kobo of course does nothing to dispel this myth leaaving their users to figure out on their own that all Kobo's are mainly .kepub devices that read .ePubs as a secondary and widely less developed alternative/option.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by violent23

I already reported it in the bug thread and have corresponded with Kobo about it many many months/FW versions ago

This is with zero patches and is on any full stock Aura device, as that is all I own though this bug may effect other devices.

Stock FW any newer 3.x version. Any .kepub with any stock font set to lowest margin setting (closest to the edge). On the right hand side italics and F's get cut off.

Stock settings and options should not be seeing cut off letters. The fact that problems like this are allowed to exist for so long just illustrates how poor Kobo does their quality control and how unskilled their programmers are. Visual bugs in the firmware should not make it past beta testing let alone be in the final shipped versions time and time again. I mean it's not like Kobo is some small startup with few resources. At this point it is inexcusable the amount of bugs and problems that their firmware has and the fact that they cannot even get their proprietary .kepub engine working correctly let alone the abysmal experience that is the .epub engine (which at this point almost appears to be on purpose in order to push their own format) just shows how little Kobo actually cares about CS or providing an adequate eReader experience for their customers. $160.00 for an eReader that can not display text correctly after numerous updates is a pretty sad state of affairs.

I'm looking right now at a kEpub with default fonts selected, font size roughly 50%, zero line spacing / margins and justification off.

I see a ragged right edge with ZERO character truncation on any characters, italicized or regular.

This is on a Glo with 3.11 firmware.

The book I am using is Under The Influence - How Labatt and its allies brewed up a nation of beer drinkers.

[PeterT]

As far as epub3 support goes you do realize that Kobo ePub support is based on ADOBE's RMSDK engine and until that supports epub3 Kobo's devices will continue to be epub2 readers.

[violent23]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I'm looking right now at a kEpub with default fonts selected, font size roughly 50%, zero line spacing / margins and justification off.

I see a ragged right edge with ZERO character truncation on any characters, italicized or regular.

This is on a Glo with 3.11 firmware.

The book I am using is Under The Influence - How Labatt and its allies brewed up a nation of beer drinkers.

Have you tried it with justification on?

Originally Posted by PeterT

As far as epub3 support goes you do realize that Kobo ePub support is based on ADOBE's RMSDK engine and until that supports epub3 Kobo's devices will continue to be epub2 readers.

Okay, but I am pretty sure Kobo can use any software they want on their devices. Just because they chose to use the RMSDK engine does not mean that is the only option. Point being that they should be striving to offer the best experience available and as of yet their .epub engine choice nor their in house .kepub engine provides an acceptable experience in my eyes when both engines have numerous visual bugs this many years into the development and retail availability of their devices and it's included software.

The sole purpose of an eReader is to display text correctly so one can read it. If an eReader can not perform it's only function of displaying text correctly then I would have to say that the device has failed.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If that is working, and my fiddling today seems to suggest it is, then that is something that could be added to the utilities plugin. I'll need to work out the values for each position in the slider. And decide whether to offer separate sharpness and weight sliders.

And while I was testing this, I added some fonts and didn't restart. The font seems to be working. And the file name doesn't match the name in the font. Looks like Kobo has changed something in the font handling with FW3.11.0.

GeoffR also created a patch for the side-loaded font adjustment. This time it's separate from the usual patch he does since he just finished it, and seems it's unstable if you use Japanese fonts or language. I haven't tried it yet, since I went ahead and added lines for each of my side-loaded fonts while I had the file open.

[PeterT]

Don't you understand.... In order to tie into the STANDARD Adobe DRM infrastructure you HAVE TO USE RMSDK.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by violent23

Have you tried it with justification on?

Yes I have and again with NO issues.

Why on earth do you think I was asking for as much info as you could supply about where you see the problem. The ONLY hope that exists to tracking down an issue is to supply as MUCH data as possible about HOW to reproduce it.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by violent23

Some stock fonts do not display bold nor italics.

Firmware v3.11 does seem to have created a problem with Avenir Next (it was fine in v3.8). Amasis, Caecilia, Georgia, Gill Sans, Kobo Nickel, Malabar, OpenDyslexic all work correctly.

Originally Posted by violent23

Widows and orphans have to be manually set through conversions, hacks on the device or editing each individual .ePubs css. Otherwise the default setting of the firmware will display .ePubs with pages where half the page has no text quite often.

Kobos make no attempt to override whatever widows/orphans are set in each epub's css. In the absence of any epub setting the css standard default of 2 is used, I believe. If you want to force a particular setting and you're a calibre user have you tried this option? A one-off task of creating a simple text file called kobo_extra.css on your Kobo hardly qualifies as hacking (IMHO). Having done it, all your epubs will have their widows/orphans set to exactly the values you've specified during the calibre send-to-device process with no effort from you required. No conversions, no individual editing. However, this wouldn't work if your epubs are DRM-infested.

Originally Posted by violent23

The .ePub engine still ignores embedded fonts from the css.

Works OK for me in v3.11. Are you sure you remembered to select 'Document Default' from the font menu?

Originally Posted by violent23

Annotations still have the problem with reopening .ePubs on the main memory messing up the percent read and the chapter the book is in.

You may well be right about this. I don't use annotations so I wouldn't know.

[violent23]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Don't you understand.... In order to tie into the STANDARD Adobe DRM infrastructure you HAVE TO USE RMSDK.

First I would like to point out that I have bolded the text in your quotes that is coming across rude. If that was not the purpose then I am sorry for bringing it up but on appearance you seem to be aggravated at the fact I am pointing out flaws of Kobo's firmware and Aura device. I am not bringing up these issues to aggravate anyone but to just get them out there and discuss them. There is zero need for the discussion to be heated or for you to be (what appears to be) talking down to me by using rude phrasing and unnecessary capitalized text.

In direct response to your first quote, have you considered that it is not mandatory to use Adobe's DRM infrastructure? If Adobe is unable to offer an acceptable experience with their engine the maybe it is Kobo's job to look to alternatives for providing a better .epub reading experience for it's customers, you know... because Kobo is the one charging consumers for what is to date an inadequate product.

Originally Posted by PeterT

Yes I have and again with NO issues.

Why on earth do you think I was asking for as much info as you could supply about where you see the problem. The ONLY hope that exists to tracking down an issue is to supply as MUCH data as possible about HOW to reproduce it.

Like I said all I have is an Aura and other devices may not experience said bug. All I know is the every retail .kepub I own has cut off F's and italics with every stock font when justified on the lowest margin setting. This is stock firmware with zero patches with directly downloaded eBooks from the Kobo store. I have already provided pictures in the bug thread and others have also confirmed their existence. So I would say you are lucky to not be experiencing them on your device but all the same, the issue should have been addressed months ago or better yet never made it to a stable release let alone stable release after stable release.

[PeterT]

Violent123: What I am trying to explain to you is that in order for Kobo to tie into areas such as the standard Library loan system, most OTHER supplier of ePub format eBooks, they have NO choice BUT to utilize RMSDK.

And as to how to reproduce it, you again don't understand. People need to understand ALL settings and books you are trying to read.

Sorry, but that's it from me. I have attempted to gather as much info as I can to help, but ....

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by violent23

Widows and orphans have to be manually set through conversions, hacks on the device or editing each individual .ePubs css. Otherwise the default setting of the firmware will display .ePubs with pages where half the page has no text quite often.

Ummm... widows/orphans with any definition in the stylesheet/body will cause 2 lines plus a inter-paragraph space at the most. The default for the RMSDK is widows/orphans=2. The half blank page sounds more like the long paragraph bug which was fixed a couple of firmware revisions back. Even reading Tolstoy's The Cossacks no longer triggers that bug.

Originally Posted by violent23

The .ePub engine still ignores embedded fonts from the css.

I have seen this but only on poorly done epubs. Epubs where the @font-face definition is not pointing to the font file. Epubs where all the font/image/text files are stuffed into the root directory of the .zip file. A bit of work with Sigil and the embedded fonts work more or less happily. I've attached a sample of a page from an epub which uses two embedded fonts. My wife reads quite a few ebooks that come with embedded fonts and so far has had no issues other than the size (200K for the ebook, 1.4MB for the fonts).

Originally Posted by violent23

With widow and orphans on there is still a problem with .ePubs where some pages have room for another line of text but it still gets pushed to the next page. This is not the long paragraph bug but does have something to do with widow and orphans and how they display on the device.

Yes, widows and orphans will push lines to the next page. That's the whole raison d'être for the widows/orphans setting.

Originally Posted by violent23

Annotations still have the problem with reopening .ePubs on the main memory messing up the percent read and the chapter the book is in.

You can open and review the annotations without opening the book. If you open the book, it would seem to make sense that the percent read and chapter would show the point where you were in the book.

Originally Posted by violent23

And there is still a lot of .epub3 features missing even though they seem to find their way into the .kepub engine just fine. Which was my whole point, Kobo is actively adding features at a much faster pace for the .kepub engine then they are for the .ePub engine. They are actively pushing their own proprietary format while keeping hobbled the other option, all to give themselves an unfair advantage. Most people don't even know that Kobo pushes their own format thinking all Kobos are mainly .ePub devices. Kobo of course does nothing to dispel this myth leaaving their users to figure out on their own that all Kobo's are mainly .kepub devices that read .ePubs as a secondary and widely less developed alternative/option.

Yawn. The ACCESS NetFront BookReader EPUB3 renderer has been part of Kobo's firmware for quite a while now. And, yes, it is, more or less, epub3. Perhaps an advantage for Kobo in the Japanese market where epub3 is needed to support the complexity of Japanese writing.

The epub renderer is Adobe's RMSDK. The main reason for it's existence is to support Adobe's ADEPT DRM so we can borrow/purchase DRMed epub ebooks. Adobe/Datalogics/whatever have been slowly moving towards epub3 compatibility. The release of RMSDK 11 has taken more steps in that direction through adding chunks of the Readium epub3 technology but RMSDK 11 is not yet available on Kobo's eInk readers. From what I've read, ADE 4.0 which has a similar code base to RMSDK 11 is best described as feature incomplete when it comes to epub3 support.

So I would characterize your belief that Kobo is slighting epub2 as being at best a paranoid fantasy.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Violent123: What I am trying to explain to you is that in order for Kobo to tie into areas such as the standard Library loan system, most OTHER supplier of ePub format eBooks, they have NO choice BUT to utilize RMSDK.

And as to how to reproduce it, you again don't understand. People need to understand ALL settings and books you are trying to read.

Sorry, but that's it from me. I have attempted to gather as much info as I can to help, but ....

Please don't give up. Once i get my H2O, I'll be happy to help with anything I find that's not quite right and I'll even give you as much info as I can.

[violent23]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Violent123: What I am trying to explain to you is that in order for Kobo to tie into areas such as the standard Library loan system, most OTHER supplier of ePub format eBooks, they have NO choice BUT to utilize RMSDK.

And as to how to reproduce it, you again don't understand. People need to understand ALL settings and books you are trying to read.

Sorry, but that's it from me. I have attempted to gather as much info as I can to help, but ....

Firstly they do have a choice, to use it or not. They obviously chose to use it even though it is a detriment to how .ePubs display on their devices and the features the device is able to utilize such as .epub3. You are also failing to account for Kobo's willingness to use a very old version of RMSDK that has many know bugs itself.

As for reproducing it, I need no help here. I know it exists and to date there is no fix for it. The only one who can fix it is Kobo and so far they have chosen to ignore it. No matter what arbitrary info I or anyone else provides you (even though I already gave you everything I know, i.e. stock Aura, stock fonts, stock lowest margin setting, stock justification on, stock retail kobo purchased eBooks downloaded directly to the device) nothing will change. It is the firmware itself and there is frankly nothing you can do for me in this area.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by violent23

In direct response to your first quote, have you considered that it is not mandatory to use Adobe's DRM infrastructure? If Adobe is unable to offer an acceptable experience with their engine the maybe it is Kobo's job to look to alternatives for providing a better .epub reading experience for it's customers, you know... because Kobo is the one charging consumers for what is to date an inadequate product.

How exactly without using Adobe's DRM infrastucture, would you suggest that I borrow a library book? Purchase a DRMed epub? At this point in time, there are no real alternatives. Kobo has implemented their own DRM for use with their kepub ebooks but I doubt that even in their wildest dreams would anyone at Kobo expect the mass of publishers, libraries and ebook vendors to start supporting another proprietary DRM.

As for being an inadequate product? That is your opinion to which you are entitled. Expecting the majority of Kobo owners to agree with you? My opinion is that you are not going to find that agreement.