Glo Minimum line spacing unadjustable, fix?

leftright · 07-21-2015, 12:13 AM

3.16 patched; Sideloaded epubs;
All books converted in Calibre with CSS filters enabled, remove blank spaces between paragraphs, insert blank line 0.4em
line height 90%, fonts, margins, padding, colour etc. filtered. (see photo).

1. The minimum line spacing is way to large.
2. The line spacing setting in the Glo has no visible effect on the line spacing when adjusted. It only worked once or twice on different books then it failed to work on any book. I experimented with different fonts and spacing on the Glo extensively.

Can someone explain to me;

How to decrease the default minimum line height in my Glo ?.

How do I get the Glo's line spacing slider to work on all books ?.

Thanks.

Edit: I have this issue irrespective of firmware version loaded.

Ripplinger · 07-21-2015, 01:26 AM

If you patched with GeoffR's patch from this thread, are you sure you enabled the line spacing section? With the patch, you should be able to adjust the line spacing from the Kobo font menu quite small. There's 2 included, I use the one `My 15 line spacing values` (don't use both the 15 and the 10).

leftright · 07-21-2015, 02:24 AM

I used metazoa patches

Ripplinger · 07-21-2015, 02:46 AM

It's the same patch, I only gave you the link to the patch for 3.16.0 instead of the main thread. If you look in the main thread here, the 6th post down will show you examples of how tight the line spacing will be with the line spacing patch enabled. The screenshots that GeoffR posted are just as tight as the line spacing on my reader shows with the patch.

dickloraine · 07-21-2015, 03:31 AM

Try to remove the line-height instead. If a line-height is set in the css for a class, the kobo render does not overwrite it.

leftright · 07-21-2015, 04:49 AM

I set all line height options to zero, and converted one book, Line slider does nothing.

I've opened several other books, changed font type, fiddled with line spacing, returned to the original problem child and the line slider is ineffective on all books

GeoffR · 07-21-2015, 05:02 AM

As others have said, you will need to remove the line-height style from some parts of the CSS to fix it. (And although it is not common, some books might also have a font: style, shorthand for font-family/font-size/line-height, that will need to be changed.)

The way I see it there seem to be two causes of the problem:

1. Calibre 'flattens' the CSS when you do a conversion, even just an EPUB --> EPUB conversion, which destroys some of the structure of the original stylesheet. Even if the book worked perfectly before the conversion it might not work properly after the conversion, because the CSS structure is different.

2. The publisher needs the power to override the user-selected line spacing in some special cases in order to get the proper layout, such as when the opening paragraph starts with an oversized capital letter. But unfortunately some publishers abuse this power by forcing a fixed line spacing to be used for the whole book.

To fix the problems:

1.A quick and dirty fix is to strip all line-height styles from the stylesheet, but beware that this will spoil the layout of some books. One way to do this is by adding line-height to Filter Style information --> Other CSS Properties when converting with Calibre.

Click image for larger version

Name: calibre-convert.png
Views: 287
Size: 8.0 KB
ID: 140417

2. A slow but clean fix is to edit the stylesheet by hand and remove the line-height styles only from the classes used for paragraphs in the the main body of text. If the book was created/converted with Calibre you might also need to remove line-height from the .calibre class usually used for <body>. This fix is usually quite easy if you are editing the original epub, but it will be a lot more work if the book has had its stylesheet 'flattened' by Calibre.

(Similar causes and fixes apply when the use of text-align prevents the justification button working.)

Ripplinger · 07-21-2015, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeoffR

2. A slow but clean fix is to edit the stylesheet by hand and remove the line-height styles only from the classes used for paragraphs in the the main body of text. If the book was created/converted with Calibre you might also need to remove the line height from the .calibre class usually used for <body>. This fix is usually quite easy if you are editing the original epub, but it will be a lot more work if the book has had its stylesheet 'flattened' by Calibre.

This is the best way. I tried quite a few books and found one of mine where the line spacing adjustment did nothing. And it's exactly as already stated by others, the line-height style in my case was set to 150% in the stylesheet.css. I opened the book in Sigil and once I removed those few lines from the stylesheet, the line spacing worked perfectly and was adjustable from the reader as it should work.

The fix really isn't that difficult, there's usually just 2 or 3 styles that pertain to the main body of text, and those are the only ones you need to remove the line-height styles from.

leftright · 07-21-2015, 05:43 AM

The quick and ditry fix has solved the line spacing issue, the line space slider now functions.

Many thanks.

Calenorn · 07-21-2015, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dickloraine

Try to remove the line-height instead. If a line-height is set in the css for a class, the kobo render does not overwrite it.

UGH! Do Kobo readers STILL do that?!?!?

This was a problem with my Mini. Why on earth does Kobo firmware work like that? Scrubbing line-height commands from the css in EVERY book is a major pain! (And not even possible with library books.)

GeoffR · 07-21-2015, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calenorn

UThis was a problem with my Mini. Why on earth does Kobo firmware work like that? Scrubbing line-height commands from the css in EVERY book is a major pain! (And not even possible with library books.)

They do it like that because there is no way to do it that works well for all books.

The firmware can choose to honour the publisher's use of line-height, or not:

1. If the publisher's use of line-height is honoured then well-crafted ebooks will display correctly and line spacing will be adjustable by the user where appropriate, but badly-crafted ebooks will not allow the user to adjust the line spacing.

2. If the publisher's use of line-height is not honoured, then well-crafted ebooks will not display correctly, but the user will be able to adjust the line spacing in badly-crafted ebooks.

So the way it is now the problems only happen to badly-crafted ebooks. If they changed it then problems would happen with well-crafted ebooks. In other words, doing it differently would punish good publishers to fix the problems created by bad publishers.

Calenorn · 07-21-2015, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeoffR

2. If the publisher's use of line-height is not honoured, then well-crafted ebooks will not display correctly, but the user will be able to adjust the line spacing in badly-crafted ebooks.

I don't know. Think about the many ways people read ebooks. Readers, phones, PC screens. Is there really any hope that the original file crafter can manage to make the book display 'correctly' in every application? Not to mention future innovations.

No, to me a book that insists on denying me control over how it looks on my device is 'badly-crafted' by definition.

GeoffR · 07-21-2015, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calenorn

I don't know. Think about the many ways people read ebooks. Readers, phones, PC screens. Is there really any hope that the original file crafter can manage to make the book display 'correctly' in every application? Not to mention future innovations.

No, to me a book that insists on denying me control over how it looks on my device is 'badly-crafted' by definition.

I might not have been quite clear: by honouring the line-height used by the publisher, well-crafted ebooks will BOTH display correctly AND allow you to adjust the line spacing. If the firmware was changed to disregard the publisher's use of line-height, some well-crafted books would no longer display correctly, although the line spacing would remain adjustable.

To give a simple example: The publisher might need to use the line-height style to make the opening line of a paragraph with a raise-cap use the same line spacing as the rest of the lines in the paragraph, i.e. to make it display at the spacing YOU THE READER selected. If the firmware was changed so it did not honour the publisher's use of line-height then the line would display at a DIFFERENT spacing than you the reader selected.

Calenorn · 07-21-2015, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I might not have been quite clear: by honouring the line-height used by the publisher, well-crafted ebooks will BOTH display correctly AND allow you to adjust the line spacing. If the firmware was changed to disregard the publisher's use of line-height, some well-crafted books would no longer display correctly, although the line spacing would remain adjustable.

To give a simple example: The publisher might need to use the line-height style to make the opening line of a paragraph with a raise-cap use the same line spacing as the rest of the lines in the paragraph, i.e. to make it display at the spacing YOU THE READER selected. If the firmware was changed so it did not honour the publisher's use of line-height then the line would display at a DIFFERENT spacing than you the reader selected.

Thanks, I see what you are saying.

Still, I can load an epub file that uses line-height commands in its css on a NOOK, and the line spacing can be changed. Granted, B&N's line spacing options aren't as flexible as Kobo's. Even so, it seems like there must be a way for the Kobo firmware to be a bit more forgiving.

GeoffR · 07-21-2015, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calenorn

Thanks, I see what you are saying.

Still, I can load an epub file that uses line-height commands in its css on a NOOK, and the line spacing can be changed. Granted, B&N's line spacing options aren't as flexible as Kobo's. Even so, it seems like there must be a way for the Kobo firmware to be a bit more forgiving.

I don't know anything about Nooks so this has to be speculation, but if they are overriding the publisher's line-height then there will be some books from publisher X that won't display certain features correctly on a Nook but will on a Kobo, and there will be other books by publisher Y where the line spacing can be adjusted on a Nook but not on a Kobo.

It is a compromise, there can be no perfect solution as long as there are publishers who continue to produce crappy ebooks, but the difference is that publisher Y can always fix their ebook so that the line spacing is adjustable on the Kobo (by setting the default line-height in body and letting the paragraph syles inherit), whereas there may be nothing publisher X can do to get their book to display correctly on a Nook if they have features that depend on line-height being honoured.

07-21-2015, 12:13 AM	#1
leftright Addict Posts: 224 Karma: 55704 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Glo	Minimum line spacing unadjustable, fix? 3.16 patched; Sideloaded epubs; All books converted in Calibre with CSS filters enabled, remove blank spaces between paragraphs, insert blank line 0.4em line height 90%, fonts, margins, padding, colour etc. filtered. (see photo). 1. The minimum line spacing is way to large. 2. The line spacing setting in the Glo has no visible effect on the line spacing when adjusted. It only worked once or twice on different books then it failed to work on any book. I experimented with different fonts and spacing on the Glo extensively. Can someone explain to me; How to decrease the default minimum line height in my Glo ?. How do I get the Glo's line spacing slider to work on all books ?. Thanks. Edit: I have this issue irrespective of firmware version loaded. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by leftright; 07-21-2015 at 02:26 AM.

07-21-2015, 02:24 AM	#3
leftright Addict Posts: 224 Karma: 55704 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Glo	I used metazoa patches Last edited by leftright; 07-21-2015 at 02:54 AM.

07-21-2015, 05:02 AM	#7
GeoffR Wizard Posts: 3,821 Karma: 19162882 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Te Riu-a-Māui Device: Kobo Glo	As others have said, you will need to remove the line-height style from some parts of the CSS to fix it. (And although it is not common, some books might also have a font: style, shorthand for font-family/font-size/line-height, that will need to be changed.) The way I see it there seem to be two causes of the problem: 1. Calibre 'flattens' the CSS when you do a conversion, even just an EPUB --> EPUB conversion, which destroys some of the structure of the original stylesheet. Even if the book worked perfectly before the conversion it might not work properly after the conversion, because the CSS structure is different. 2. The publisher needs the power to override the user-selected line spacing in some special cases in order to get the proper layout, such as when the opening paragraph starts with an oversized capital letter. But unfortunately some publishers abuse this power by forcing a fixed line spacing to be used for the whole book. To fix the problems: 1.A quick and dirty fix is to strip all line-height styles from the stylesheet, but beware that this will spoil the layout of some books. One way to do this is by adding line-height to Filter Style information --> Other CSS Properties when converting with Calibre. 2. A slow but clean fix is to edit the stylesheet by hand and remove the line-height styles only from the classes used for paragraphs in the the main body of text. If the book was created/converted with Calibre you might also need to remove line-height from the .calibre class usually used for <body>. This fix is usually quite easy if you are editing the original epub, but it will be a lot more work if the book has had its stylesheet 'flattened' by Calibre. (Similar causes and fixes apply when the use of text-align prevents the justification button working.) Last edited by GeoffR; 07-21-2015 at 05:39 AM. Reason: added screenshot

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Glo changing line spacing doesnt work, how to fix (with calibre)	irow	Kobo Reader	21	01-01-2022 10:10 AM
Line Spacing	Francois Driesen	Calibre	2	08-22-2014 02:21 PM
want to fix Cryoburn (Lois M Bujold) character spacing	jlocicero	ePub	16	05-03-2013 02:09 PM
Minimum Line Height being ignored for MOBI	yanathin	Conversion	2	10-05-2012 03:24 PM
PRS-350 Minimum line spacing?	barium	Sony Reader	8	05-26-2011 04:15 PM

07-21-2015, 01:26 AM	#2
Ripplinger 350 Hoarder Posts: 3,574 Karma: 8281267 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Midwest USA Device: Sony PRS-350, Kobo Glo & Glo HD, PW2	If you patched with GeoffR's patch from this thread, are you sure you enabled the line spacing section? With the patch, you should be able to adjust the line spacing from the Kobo font menu quite small. There's 2 included, I use the one `My 15 line spacing values` (don't use both the 15 and the 10).

07-21-2015, 02:46 AM	#4
Ripplinger 350 Hoarder Posts: 3,574 Karma: 8281267 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Midwest USA Device: Sony PRS-350, Kobo Glo & Glo HD, PW2	It's the same patch, I only gave you the link to the patch for 3.16.0 instead of the main thread. If you look in the main thread here, the 6th post down will show you examples of how tight the line spacing will be with the line spacing patch enabled. The screenshots that GeoffR posted are just as tight as the line spacing on my reader shows with the patch.

07-21-2015, 03:31 AM	#5
dickloraine Guru Posts: 631 Karma: 7544528 Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Berlin Device: PRS 350, Kobo Aura	Try to remove the line-height instead. If a line-height is set in the css for a class, the kobo render does not overwrite it.

07-21-2015, 04:49 AM	#6
leftright Addict Posts: 224 Karma: 55704 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Glo	I set all line height options to zero, and converted one book, Line slider does nothing. I've opened several other books, changed font type, fiddled with line spacing, returned to the original problem child and the line slider is ineffective on all books

07-21-2015, 05:43 AM	#9
leftright Addict Posts: 224 Karma: 55704 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Glo	The quick and ditry fix has solved the line spacing issue, the line space slider now functions. Many thanks.