FXL & page-progression-direction

[PeterT]

From Kobo's documentation at https://github.com/kobolabs/epub-spe...r-than-english

Languages Other Than English
When a user selects an available default font, Kobo reading platforms may not correctly render all glyphs within the script. So Content containing glyphs not present in Kobo’s default apps should be tested across platforms. Creators may want to embed a font that contains the glyphs used in their content to ensure it renders correctly.

Some glyphs do not render on most fonts. In cases where creators are unable to supply embedded fonts they can insert a note into the front matter of their content instructing users to select the font Georgia. It correctly renders the greatest set of scripts.

Kobo is currently working to add built-in fonts to the eInk and Android-reading platforms and render glyphs from all scripts correctly. The Desktop, iOS and Windows 8 platforms already contain built-in fonts that will render glyphs from all scripts.

Kobo has support for right-to-left language formatting in the following areas:

• Kobo supports the OPF spine-level page-progression-direction attribute for right-to-left page flow
• Kobo supports the writing-mode CSS3 property and associated elements for vertical text layouts (LTR or RTL)
• Kobo supports the HTML5 dir attribute
• Kobo supports ruby text*

*This support excludes the Windows 8 platform.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Although the Kindle supports Arabic for KF8-format books, it too has some issues relating to embedded fonts, I believe?

You're right. Unlike the latest Android Kindle app, eInk Kindles don't render embedded Arabic fonts correctly. For more information see this post.

Originally Posted by odedta

I really dislike those command line, but, i'll give it a go.

If you have installed the epubcheck Sigil plugin, you could easily update it to epubcheck 4 by simply replacing the epubcheck3 files with the epubcheck4 files:

1. Download and unzip epubcheck-4.0.0-alpha11-dist.zip.
2. Open Sigil and press F5 (Edit > Preferences).
3. Click Preferences Location.
4. Click/double-click the plugins folder then click/double-click the epubcheck folder.
5. Delete epubcheck.jar and the lib folder.
6. Copy epubcheck.jar and the lib folder folder from epubcheck-4.0.0-alpha11-dist.zip to the epubcheck folder.

The downside is that simply opening an epub3 file with Sigil will change its folder structure and you can't use FlightCrew, but at least you won't have to deal with the command line.

[Jellby]

A possibility not to be discarded is creating a PDF from an ePub, using calibre, the PrincePDF calibre plugin, or maybe some other option. Those will very likely have better RTL support, and one can create a PDF with the desired font size, margins, headers, etc. You lose on-the-fly reflowing, but it may be worth it.

[dgatwood]

FYI, I looked at your EPUB in iBooks, and at least from the perspective of someone who doesn't speak Hebrew, it appears to be rendering it correctly. The pages turn the opposite direction, and the punctuation is all down the left end of every sentence.

With that said, it might also be worth adding:

direction: rtl;

in your CSS. With that said, it seems likely that GitdenReader just doesn't support turning pages in the opposite direction. Is the text at least rendered correctly?

[odedta]

Originally Posted by dgatwood

FYI, I looked at your EPUB in iBooks, and at least from the perspective of someone who doesn't speak Hebrew, it appears to be rendering it correctly. The pages turn the opposite direction, and the punctuation is all down the left end of every sentence.

With that said, it might also be worth adding:

direction: rtl;

in your CSS. With that said, it seems likely that GitdenReader just doesn't support turning pages in the opposite direction. Is the text at least rendered correctly?

Yeah, I don't use `direction: rtl;` because it never gets validated, I use dir="rtl" attribute instead.

I messaged Gitden Reader's tech support and here is their response:

We are so sorry for the inconvenience.

Gitden Reader for Android does not support RTL of fixed layout yet. We are expecting this function to be included in the next main update.

Thank you for your report.

Best regards,
Gitden

So yeah, my code was fine, I checked it on the iPad yesterday to confirm, it is just fine.

Thanks again for your help guys.

[AlPe]

Originally Posted by odedta

I've tried Menstrello before, was horrible.

Please note that FXL support in Menestrello is extremely experimental.

On the other hand, since Menestrello relies directly on the WebKit implementation offered by the underlying OS, RTL support should be fine. Maybe your problem was due to the embedded font(s), which are currently not thoughtfully tested.

BTW, now Menestrello has been open sourced, the project is called Minstrel, see here: http://www.readbeyond.it/minstrel/index.html --- bug reports (via email or GitHub Issues) are welcome, thank you.