Kobo Glo HD

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Or perhaps, as I wrote in the post, there are problems with the software?

I might not be able to convince you that I really can't see the difference but I can prove that Kobo's software is buggy.

I took a couple screenshots this morning. The books have all the same settings, same Kobo Nickel font, etc, and yet only the kepub was displayed correctly. The sideloaded ebook was shown with the wrong justification and wrong line spacing.

http://the-digital-reader.com/wp-con...screen_010.png

http://the-digital-reader.com/wp-con...screen_011.png

Since we can clearly show that the formatting is wrong, and since we know that kepubs turn the page faster than sideloaded ebooks, are you really that certain that Kobo didn't also muck up the font rendering on sideloaded ebooks?

I think they got their ebook engine working great in time for launch, and are still working on the one for sideloaded ebooks.

And that's why I recommended waiting for Kobo to fix the software.

Your screenshots should be redone not using Kobo Nickle. Kobo Nickle is a buggered font. So using it for your screen shots is not doing any good. Use Georgia if you really want to show off how things work. Also, don't use Kindle type settings. Try to show the Kobo in it's best light. Your screen shots look like they could be from Kindles. Not all of the built-in fonts are good and Kobo Nickle is one that's not good.

I use plain standard ePub with RMDSK and I have no issues with the formatting. I'm not saying there aren't things wrong with the Kobo firmware, but mosty issues can be overcome like the font issue in your screenshots. Can be overcome by choosing a better font.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Your screenshots should be redone not using Kobo Nickle. Kobo Nickle is a buggered font. So using it for your screen shots is not doing any good. Use Georgia if you really want to show off how things work. Also, don't use Kindle type settings. Try to show the Kobo in it's best light. Your screen shots look like they could be from Kindles.

Those are the settings I like reading with. (Actually, I would like to make the line spacings smaller, but that was the limit.)

And the Nickel is Kobo's own font. Kobo pitches it as having been customized for E-ink screens (this is important, really) so I'm going to use the font that Kobo says is the best.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Those are the settings I like reading with. (Actually, I would like to make the line spacings smaller, but that was the limit.)

And the Nickel is Kobo's own font. Kobo pitches it as having been customized for E-ink screens (this is important, really) so I'm going to use the font that Kobo says is the best.

I can confirm the nickel font line-spacing in a side-loaded epub is way too much. Never mind what Kobo say is the best font, I recommend caecilia. It works better in this case.

Also, you say kepubs are faster than epubs, but still slower than say a PW2. Users here are saying kepubs are faster, but not how much faster. I could test it, but I don't think it's the device for me.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Also, you say kepubs are faster than epubs, but still slower than say a PW2. Users here are saying kepubs are faster, but not how much faster. I could test it, but I don't think it's the device for me.

I have a PW2 and a Kobo H20 and just tested the page turns on both devices turning pages at the same time using the same book file. I'm using kepubs files on my H20. The H20 page turns were ever so slightly slower than the PW2. The difference is slight, only milliseconds, and nothing I would even notice if I didn't do a direct comparison.

Now using epubs files on the H20 it is very noticeably slower. So that's my experience, for what it's worth.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by Rizla

What speeds are other people getting? Please state what you are comparing it to. Perhaps the problem is not common to all Glo HDs?

Here's what I've noticed about the page turns on the Glo HD, but I believe it's more related to firmware 3.15.0 and not a problem with the Glo HD.

When the reader has been sitting a few minutes (as in just enough time after reading the page), there's a slight pause when you turn the page which seems like the reader has to be first "woken up" and then responds to the page turn request. Repeatedly turn pages at that point and you'll see there is no such delay, the pages flip as they should and as quickly as other readers. This same behavior happens on my Kobo Glo with 3.15.0 installed, but it does not happen on the Glo still with 3.12.1. I should add that this same delay on "waking" happens with both epubs and kepubs for me.

I'm going to assume that this is something that can and will be fixed in the next firmware, because it is somewhat annoying.

Comparing Kobo page turns in general to the PW2, the PW2 seems slightly faster, but not enough to give it a preference while reading at all. The PW2 also does this fade out/fade in between the previous and next pages and is very noticeable, which the Kobo does not do, the Kobo gives a clean page transition. That wouldn't be a deal breaker though (if I didn't dislike so much else about the PW2 at least). While it is somewhat distracting to me when changing pages on the PW2, it's certainly no worse than when turning pages while reading a physical book. But I much prefer the clean transition of pages that the Kobo does.

But as I said hopefully this will be fixed in future firmware updates.

As far as Kobo Nickel goes, I agree it's a truly bad bad font to use. I can't imagine anyone liking it and have no idea what they thinking when they designed it. I think they have people who just look at a screen and think "oooh, that's pretty!" without actually taking the time to actually read through the pages using that font.

[Dr. Drib]

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[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

Here's what I've noticed about the page turns on the Glo HD, but I believe it's more related to firmware 3.15.0 and not a problem with the Glo HD.

When the reader has been sitting a few minutes (as in just enough time after reading the page), there's a slight pause when you turn the page which seems like the reader has to be first "woken up" and then responds to the page turn request. Repeatedly turn pages at that point and you'll see there is no such delay, the pages flip as they should and as quickly as other readers. This same behavior happens on my Kobo Glo with 3.15.0 installed, but it does not happen on the Glo still with 3.12.1. I should add that this same delay on "waking" happens with both epubs and kepubs for me.

I'm on 3.14.7, actually.

[Rizla]

I like Nickel but it's a bad font for Nate to use in a test. It doesn't work properly, which seems to be a problem with the Kobo epub renderer. Presumably it works better in a kepub.

I found the delay in page turns occurred consistently on my device. It is slower than turning a page in a paper book. I haven't compared it to a kepub. Anyway, I hope it is only the FW and that they can fix it and that people are happy. But the speed turning pages on epubs, at least on my device, is a show-stopper for me.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I'm on 3.14.7, actually.

I'm on 3.15

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by jiminrussell

H20 on the left, Glo HD on the right: Font size as close to the same as I could get them and light set to 35% on both, same font on both (Charis SIL CompactLarger from JSWolf)
edit: replaced the image with one that has less ambient light.

Bit difficult.. the left one has the same light tone as my Aura HD, the Glo was always more blue ish but it was never a problem for me both, I like the "little yellow" tone of my Aura HD more then the Glo, but it was never a reason for me to get rid of the Glo, both colors are okay to me,I will never use both readers beside each other.
I did had that the Glo sometimes flickers at a certain level,but I just can't find the right value anymore, or it is solved.
For me,personal,it looks like the H2O is a bit sharper but my partner says otherwise..

[Rizla]

Just checked page turns in an epub. You're right. When you haven't turned a page in a while, it takes longer to turn. When you tap the page more quickly (but not too quick), one page after the other, it turns quicker. The problem is, when you read a page, by the time you get to the end, then the page takes longer to turn. So if you actually read the page, there's a bigger lag. Which is really annoying.

Try this: tap the page over and over quickly. This should cause the pages to flip through quickly. Doesn't happen. It sort of blanks out. Something's not right.

Does 3.15 do this on other devices? Do other Kobo devices perform this way? I agree with Nate. It's most likely the FW. Sorry to be a downer.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Rizla

I like Nickel but it's a bad font for Nate to use in a test. It doesn't work properly, which seems to be a problem with the Kobo epub renderer. Presumably it works better in a kepub.

I found the delay in page turns occurred consistently on my device. It is slower than turning a page in a paper book. I haven't compared it to a kepub. Anyway, I hope it is only the FW and that they can fix it and that people are happy. But the speed turning pages on epubs, at least on my device, is a show-stopper for me.

In that case I'l reconsider using the font for comparisons. I honestly thought I was giving Kobo every advantage.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Does 3.15 do this on other devices? Do other Kobo devices perform this way?

My H20 does not behave that way.

[GERGE]

You should test with Malabar, it is the best I think. Well designed and fully featured.

[GERGE]

Kobo's own typeface Kobo Nickel and its default typeface Georgia are quite bad. I am not speaking of taste here, they are factually bad for their purposes.

Kobo Nickel is a mess, it is not even a text type. I would only use it for small amounts of text, most likely to get more attention from the reader. For ads, for text boxes, for names under quotations... But for long texts; nope, not happening.

That Georgia is bad is sad actually. Georgia is an awesome typeface but the Georgia Kobo uses doesn't have kerning pairs and ligatures, but the thing is, it should have had them, Georgia I have is a nicely kerned typeface with ligatures. They probably didn't want to pay for a proper version.

And their other typefaces are badly configured for the kepub engine. While all of them except Georgia have kerning and ligatures, we see them only on epubs. Kepub renderer doesn't support ligatures, but with a simple change to font files, kepub renderer render kernings. I know that they cannot make changes to kepub renderer as it doesn't belong to them, but I honestly don't understand why they don't do that small change to the fonts. In my professional opinion, licensing shouldn't be a problem for what is needed.

Kobo's epub engine RMSDK is very good typographically, and Kobo's TypeGenius and typesetting settings work very well. And apart from Georgia and Kobo Nickel, they all render perfectly good. Try testing epub files with Amasis, Malabar and Gill Sans. These are the best ones.