Kobo Bug thread

[Muttly]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Are you sure the epubs are correctly formatted? This sounds much more like a problem with the book formatting than with the reader's software.

Well, they are formatted well enough for Kindles to display correctly!

I'd be interested in the logic behind your statement.

The .epub file clearly cannot know where any reader using it will display page breaks, so it's hard to see how it can be formatted in such a way that would cause the Kobo to get it wrong.

Remember that the heading concerned is NOT embedded in the file text. The Kobo should render a page and then insert it between the header and footer that IT generates.

It seems to have correctly calculated the vertical page size, but then rendered it at the top of the screen, rather than underneath the heading, which explains the overlarge gap before the footer.

[doubleshuffle]

Could you post a screenshot please?

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Muttly

I then loaded some .epub books and although the MOBI bugs didn't appear, a new one did: the book title is missing and the text starts at the very beginning of the screen, with a huge gap between the last line of text and the page numbers at the bottom of the screen.

This is not a bug. The Kobo uses 2 different renderers for standard epubs and Kobo-style epubs, i.e. kepubs.

By default kepubs have a header (containing book title) and a footer (book progress).

Standard epubs have a footer (Page x of y or a %) but no header. By default there is no whitespace to distance the text from the top bezel. There are various ways to force some whitespace if you want it but no way to show the book title in the header.

If you enable the undocumented 'full screen mode', you have an option to remove both header and footer. This works for both epub and kepub.

ETA: The gap at the bottom of the page in standard epubs is due to 2 different things.

Firstly Kobo, by default, set a very large footer margin. Firmware patches to reduce the size exist for those with the technical confidence to apply them.

Secondly, the standard epub renderer (Adobe) assumes widows/orphans settings of 2 lines unless your books specify otherwise. This can result in some pages having large gaps at the bottom. There are various ways to force widows/orphans to 1 line either by firmware patches or via enabling an option in the calibre Kobo driver, assuming you're a calibre user and your books do not have DRM.

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

This is not a bug. The Kobo uses 2 different renderers for standard epubs and Kobo-style epubs, i.e. kepubs.

By default kepubs have a header (containing book title) and a footer (book progress).

Standard epubs have a footer (Page x of y or a %) but no header. By default there is no whitespace to distance the text from the bezel. There are various ways to force some whitespace if you want it but no way to show the book title in the header.

If you enable the undocumented 'full screen mode', you have an option to remove both header and footer. This works for both epub and kepub.

Thanks. I really wasn't getting what Muttly was saying. They were missing the header. Of course.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Are you sure the epubs are correctly formatted? This sounds much more like a problem with the book formatting than with the reader's software.

That, or Dastardly got to the files...

[Muttly]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

This is not a bug. The Kobo uses 2 different renderers for standard epubs and Kobo-style epubs, i.e. kepubs.

By default kepubs have a header (containing book title) and a footer (book progress).

Standard epubs have a footer (Page x of y or a %) but no header. By default there is no whitespace to distance the text from the top bezel. There are various ways to force some whitespace if you want it but no way to show the book title in the header.

If you enable the undocumented 'full screen mode', you have an option to remove both header and footer. This works for both epub and kepub.

ETA: The gap at the bottom of the page in standard epubs is due to 2 different things.

Firstly Kobo, by default, set a very large footer margin. Firmware patches to reduce the size exist for those with the technical confidence to apply them.

Secondly, the standard epub renderer (Adobe) assumes widows/orphans settings of 2 lines unless your books specify otherwise. This can result in some pages having large gaps at the bottom. There are various ways to force widows/orphans to 1 line either by firmware patches or via enabling an option in the calibre Kobo driver, assuming you're a calibre user and your books do not have DRM.

Thanks for the reply.

I have converted some epubs to kepubs with Calibre but my problem, now, is that the Aura One does not recognise them.

If I change the kepub extension to epub it recognises the book, but, of course, the missing header problem remains.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Muttly

I have converted some epubs to kepubs with Calibre but my problem, now, is that the Aura One does not recognise them.

If I change the kepub extension to epub it recognises the book, but, of course, the missing header problem remains.

How are you transferring the kepubs to the Kobo? It sounds as if you might be drag-dropping them. That won't work.

If you've done an epub-to-kepub conversion in calibre the file in the calibre library has a .kepub extension. You need to use the calibre send-to-device option to transfer the kepub. Calibre will automatically correctly rename the file extension from .kepub to .kepub.epub for the Kobo copy.

If you decide you like kepubs you might also like to try using the calibre KoboTouchExtended plugin. This has an option to automatically format-shift your calibre standard epubs to .kepub.epub during calibre send-to-device. This has the benefit of not cluttering up your calibre library with the extra .kepub formats for each book.

[Muttly]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

How are you transferring the kepubs to the Kobo? It sounds as if you might be drag-dropping them. That won't work.

Why on earth not?

Are they intentionally making it difficult?

If you've done an epub-to-kepub conversion in calibre the file in the calibre library has a .kepub extension. You need to use the calibre send-to-device option to transfer the kepub. Calibre will automatically correctly rename the file extension from .kepub to .kepub.epub for the Kobo copy.

My problem here is that Calibre does not see the Aura One. It's there in Windows File Manager, but the relevant buttons are not present and trying to use 'Send to Device' via right click does not show the Kobo.

[doubleshuffle]

You could also check the extension and change it to .kepub.epub manually if necessary. Then drag-dropping should work.

[Muttly]

OK

Working now. (Needed to update Calibre, even though I'd done so quite recently - but the the Aura One is a new device ) )

Thanks so much to those who responded, for the help - and so fast!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Muttly

Well, they are formatted well enough for Kindles to display correctly!

I'd be interested in the logic behind your statement.

The .epub file clearly cannot know where any reader using it will display page breaks, so it's hard to see how it can be formatted in such a way that would cause the Kobo to get it wrong.

Remember that the heading concerned is NOT embedded in the file text. The Kobo should render a page and then insert it between the header and footer that IT generates.

It seems to have correctly calculated the vertical page size, but then rendered it at the top of the screen, rather than underneath the heading, which explains the overlarge gap before the footer.

Try checking into such items as widows and orphans (control how paragraphs are split between pages) -- these should have been left behind in hard copy but were carried forward into epubs, check into the top/left/right/bottom margin settings. Ebooks that specify over-large page margins (one horrible example on my Kobo Glo had .87" left/right margins on a devices with a 3.6" screen width) are not that uncommon.

Also, remember that Kobo follows the embedded styles rather than replacing them with a builtin generic stylesheet. If the publisher takes care to produce a decent product, the ebook can look great. If the publisher does not seem to know or care about what the ebook actually looks on screen -- such things as defining image size in pixels that look ridiculously small on a higher definition screen instead of using percentages or other relative measurements so the displayed image size is very close to the same whether you have a 600x800 or a 1404×1872 display, fonts that are defined in pixels or other absolute measurement, specifying line spacing that looks close to double spacing, etc., the ebook looks like crap.

[Muttly]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Try checking into such items as widows and orphans (control how paragraphs are split between pages) -- these should have been left behind in hard copy but were carried forward into epubs, check into the top/left/right/bottom margin settings. Ebooks that specify over-large page margins (one horrible example on my Kobo Glo had .87" left/right margins on a devices with a 3.6" screen width) are not that uncommon.

Also, remember that Kobo follows the embedded styles rather than replacing them with a builtin generic stylesheet. If the publisher takes care to produce a decent product, the ebook can look great. If the publisher does not seem to know or care about what the ebook actually looks on screen -- such things as defining image size in pixels that look ridiculously small on a higher definition screen instead of using percentages or other relative measurements so the displayed image size is very close to the same whether you have a 600x800 or a 1404×1872 display, fonts that are defined in pixels or other absolute measurement, specifying line spacing that looks close to double spacing, etc., the ebook looks like crap.

Yes, I've seen some horrific examples of books that have had incorrect parameters set. In some cases it looks as if the publisher has lost any computer readable text they had and have scanned the book from hard copy. (i.e. books bought from Amazon actually look worse than those from Project Guttenberg - where at least they proof read the scanned text. This is mainly hyphenation artefacts and such dross.)

The pixel sized images you mention are extremely common.

It's fortunate that Calibre can be used to 'repair' some of the worst instances.

[Muttly]

Somewhat embarrassing that I seem to be the only one reporting bugs (even if the last wasn't actually a bug) with the Aura One, but I have another couple that have come up.

Firstly, it seems to have lost the dictionary. If I try to look up a word it says there is no English dictionary linked, but when I go to the settings page it's quite clearly there. (This is a development - it was working when I first got it and I have made no changes to the dictionary settings.)

Secondly, it seems to have 'lost' a font. I loaded Bookerly, and used it quite happily to read a couple of books, then, when I started the next, the whole thing displayed in bold. I assumed it was a problem with the book, and soldiered on, but when I finished it, I discovered that all books displayed in bold only, and had to change typeface to get a normal weight.

One third thing: Is the appallingly inaccurate touch sensing something everyone is experiencing? If so, is it likely to be a firmware problem or are all Kobos like this - i.e. too low a sensor resolution to implement accurate input?

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Muttly

One third thing: Is the appallingly inaccurate touch sensing something everyone is experiencing? If so, is it likely to be a firmware problem or are all Kobos like this - i.e. too low a sensor resolution to implement accurate input?

It's a EPUB reader software thing on Kobos. The KEPUB reader is far more accurate.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Muttly

Firstly, it seems to have lost the dictionary. If I try to look up a word it says there is no English dictionary linked, but when I go to the settings page it's quite clearly there. (This is a development - it was working when I first got it and I have made no changes to the dictionary settings.)

Secondly, it seems to have 'lost' a font. I loaded Bookerly, and used it quite happily to read a couple of books, then, when I started the next, the whole thing displayed in bold. I assumed it was a problem with the book, and soldiered on, but when I finished it, I discovered that all books displayed in bold only, and had to change typeface to get a normal weight.

Have you restarted the device since these problems occurred? There is a fair chance that something in the background has crashed or hung and is preventing the rendering or dictionary lookup.