Summary of Modified Fonts

[Diruuo]

Hmm so I went ahead and applied only that patch (advanced font controls) to find out rather disappointedly that the Literata fonts are of the newer OTF type and thus the advanced settings don't change anything within my sideloaded epubs. I assume there's no workaround? I also am unable to find TTF versions of Literata although I believe most of the benefits of using a custom font like that are lost when switching to TTF.

[doubleshuffle]

I think the advanced font control works only for ttf fonts on epubs. I don't know about Literata, but I've converted quite a few fonts from otf to ttf and think they work perfectly fine on my Aura HD.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Diruuo

Hmm so I went ahead and applied only that patch (advanced font controls) to find out rather disappointedly that the Literata fonts are of the newer OTF type and thus the advanced settings don't change anything within my sideloaded epubs. I assume there's no workaround? I also am unable to find TTF versions of Literata although I believe most of the benefits of using a custom font like that are lost when switching to TTF.

I haven't tried Literata, but I don't think there is any disadvantage to using TTF, and there are two advantages:

1. In ePubs, the patch to enable TypeGenius for sideloaded fonts only works with TTF fonts.

2. in KePubs, kerning only works with TTF fonts that have 'old style' kerning tables.

If you use a program like fontforge to convert to TTF, enable 'old style' kerning tables, and remove hinting then you should have the ideal font format for Kobo e-ink devices.

[Diruuo]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I haven't tried Literata, but I don't think there is any disadvantage to using TTF, and there are two advantages:

1. In ePubs, the patch to enable TypeGenius for sideloaded fonts only works with TTF fonts.

2. in KePubs, kerning only works with TTF fonts that have 'old style' kerning tables.

If you use a program like fontforge to convert to TTF, enable 'old style' kerning tables, and remove hinting then you should have the ideal font format for Kobo e-ink devices.

Once I gain access to a computer again I'll give it a try and convert the OTF Literata font to TTF with your recommended settings. In my eyes there are two options, convert all my epubs to kepub or change the font to TTF. I'm not sure if the advantages of kepub are worth converting most of my library but I might give it a try, after all it gives access to the statistics, faster page turns (although epub is plenty fast) and the advanced font settings.

Anyway, thank you for the input yet again. You guys have been very patient with me and have always answered my questions thoroughly.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I haven't tried Literata, but I don't think there is any disadvantage to using TTF, and there are two advantages:

1. In ePubs, the patch to enable TypeGenius for sideloaded fonts only works with TTF fonts.

2. in KePubs, kerning only works with TTF fonts that have 'old style' kerning tables.

If you use a program like fontforge to convert to TTF, enable 'old style' kerning tables, and remove hinting then you should have the ideal font format for Kobo e-ink devices.

As far as hinting goes, I find hinting works just fine with ePub (RMDSK). I have hinting on the font I use most and I have no issues with it.

[GERGE]

If you are going to play with FontForge you should also add weight with it. That works better.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by GERGE

If you are going to play with FontForge you should also add weight with it. That works better.

Why add weight using FontForge when you can use the advanced font control of the Kobo firmware to do it?

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why add weight using FontForge when you can use the advanced font control of the Kobo firmware to do it?

From a few pages back in this thread:

Originally Posted by GERGE

Add weight with FontForge if the change is big, font control of Kobo performs badly with big changes. 22em is somewhat big but not so much that font controls won't work. So you should try both FontForge and font control. With FontForge, first only add weight and test the typeface. If some details are badly rendered or distorted, then use Change Glyph first, then add 16em or something similar.

I don't know specifics of why, but I trust GERGE when he makes this statement.

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I don't know specifics of why, but I trust GERGE when he makes this statement.

Fine. But the thing with a forum like this is that there are people who can get very passionate and geeky about certain things.

(I, for instance, can't put a book on my reader without checking and correcting its style sheet in Sigil, although for most people most books would look perfectly fine without any modification.)

And I do love fonts and have a lot of sideloaded fonts on my reader, but I have never bothered with modifying their weight because advanced font control does a perfectly adequate job for my needs. So fiddle away in FontForge if you must, but don't assume everybody must.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Fine. But the thing with a forum like this is that there are people who can get very passionate and geeky about certain things.

(I, for instance, can't put a book on my reader without checking and correcting its style sheet in Sigil, although for most people most books would look perfectly fine without any modification.)

Where did I question the right of people to get geeky or passionate about certain things? Wolf asked a question, I provided him an answer noting that I did not know the particulars of how font control underperforms at larger weight shifts than fontforges change glyph option.

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Where did I question the right of people to get geeky or passionate about certain things? Wolf asked a question, I provided him an answer noting that I did not know the particulars of how font control underperforms at larger weight shifts than fontforges change glyph option.

I'm afraid you completely misunderstood my reply.

[ericvb69]

Any chance we get a Kobo-compatible version of Bookerly ??

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I don't know specifics of why, but I trust GERGE when he makes this statement.

My suggestion is to try the advanced font control before modifying the font. Once you modify the font, it stays modified. So if you find say you wanted to drop the weight, you cannot really as the weight you've added via FontForge is permanent. If you find you don't like the result with advanced font control, then try modifying. Some fonts don't work adding weight because of the way they are designed. I forget the name, but the last font I tried that failed, the way the font was designed didn't work upping the weight. It distorted the font and the only way to get it to work would be to edit most of the font. Not worth the effort.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ericvb69

Any chance we get a Kobo-compatible version of Bookerly ??

If you have Linux, using freely available tools (Kindletool can be found on MR) , you can pull out Bookerly from the Kindle PW2 firmware. Bookerly works on a Kobo. The only problem is it is too light and will need the advanced font control to add weight.

[sherman]

So, I've been playing around with the latest version of Alegreya that was recently uploaded (https://github.com/huertatipografica/Alegreya-libre). The new version now contains both Kerning and ligatures.

I was getting fustrated, because the newer version just wasn't being displayed by Nickel or ACCESS properly, compared to the previous version. RMSDK didn't care.

Today, I found out what the problem seems to be. It seems that Nickel and ACCESS do not like having the PANOSE information set in the font file. I set all values to 0 (any), and now there is no wackiness in either the interface (Nickel) or when reading KEPUB's.


So, it seems fonts destined for Kobo Readers should not have any PANOSE information set.