Aura H2O How to make it so that epubs look the same in both Calibre and on the H2O?

[sk2003]

***FIXED***

Hi guys. Trying to load up some books on my H2O only to realize that the H2O isn't displaying fonts properly! Especially larger than average fancy letters, you know, the type that begin chapters.

Calibre displays the giant letter at the beginning perfectly, while the H2O puts a space between the letter and the rest of the world. Please see the attached images.

I tried ticking embedded fonts in Look & Feel, and output as a kepub (which I had to rename .kepub.epub in order for the H2O to see it). I also ticked Remove spacing between paragraphs (indent size 1.5 em and line size 0.5 em), made the output profile Kobo Reader and the input profile default. Finally, I disabled inserting page breaks by using a /.

I'm converting from standard epub to kepub in Calibre.

What do I need to do in order to remove the space between the S and the rest of the world on the H2O, and make it one word like it is on Calibre?

Also, is there a point in using kepub over epub? The kepub version of the book is 4kb larger than the epub version...

If this is in the wrong sub-forum, I apologize.

EDIT: I fixed my problem!! The issue was the profile I was using, not the file format. Kepub is fine. Using the Kobo Reader profile is a bad idea if your e-reader's screen is 1440p. I used the Kindle Voyage profile and now the 'S' is displaying properly, just like it does in Calibre! Huzzah!

[GeoffR]

It is hard to say for sure without seeing the converted book's html and stylesheet, but my guess is that the problem is caused by Calibre adding the 1.5em indent to the first paragraph during the conversion.

To compare like with like, try converting epub to epub with the same settings and view the converted book with Calibre, that way you will be able to tell if it is really a difference between the H2O and Calibre viewer, or a problem with the conversion.

My experience is that there are many, many things that go wrong during Calibre conversions, so it is best to avoid converting if at all possible. You can use the KoboTouchExtended driver to send the original epub to the device as a KePub instead of converting to KePub within Calibre, as that will avoid the Calibre conversion process.

If you must convert then you will probably need to go through the book and manually edit it to fix up all the problems that the conversion causes.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by sk2003

EDIT: I fixed my problem!! The issue was the profile I was using, not the file format. Kepub is fine. Using the Kobo Reader profile is a bad idea if your e-reader's screen is 1440p. I used the Kindle Voyage profile and now the 'S' is displaying properly, just like it does in Calibre! Huzzah!

Yes that is a common problem. The Kobo Reader profile is only for the very early model Kobos. All current devices should use the Tablet profile.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Yes that is a common problem. The Kobo Reader profile is only for the very early model Kobos. All current devices should use the Tablet profile.

Not just current devices.I think ALL devices should use the tablet profile.

[sk2003]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

It is hard to say for sure without seeing the converted book's html and stylesheet, but my guess is that the problem is caused by Calibre adding the 1.5em indent to the first paragraph during the conversion.

To compare like with like, try converting epub to epub with the same settings and view the converted book with Calibre, that way you will be able to tell if it is really a difference between the H2O and Calibre viewer, or a problem with the conversion.

My experience is that there are many, many things that go wrong during Calibre conversions, so it is best to avoid converting if at all possible. You can use the KoboTouchExtended driver to send the original epub to the device as a KePub instead of converting to KePub within Calibre, as that will avoid the Calibre conversion process.

If you must convert then you will probably need to go through the book and manually edit it to fix up all the problems that the conversion causes.

Hey, thanks for the help. I wish I could open kepub.epubs in koreader. koreader keeps closing on me when I try to open them. Does koreader support those types of files? They open in nickel.

Maybe I'm converting them wrong. I convert them from epub to kepubs in Calibre, but neither nickel nor koreader can see kepubs. So I have to add .epub after the filename for them to see the files.

As for Kobo Touch Extended Driver, I'm grateful that it exists, but I'd rather not directly sync my Kobo with Calibre. I'm afraid Calibre will mess the device's internals up, and I've seen reports of people getting errors on their Kobos when they sync with Calibre (something about aggressive mounting). Does Kobo Touch Extended Driver fix this?

Thanks!

EDIT: After converting them to kepub from epub again in Calibre and renaming them .kepub.epub, many of the books open but some don't. They also don't open as epubs. Too bad I don't have the original epubs for them anymore.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by sk2003

Hey, thanks for the help. I wish I could open kepub.epubs in koreader. koreader keeps closing on me when I try to open them. Does koreader support those types of files? They open in nickel.

Maybe I'm converting them wrong. I convert them from epub to kepubs in Calibre, but neither nickel nor koreader can see kepubs. So I have to add .epub after the filename for them to see the files.

As for Kobo Touch Extended Driver, I'm grateful that it exists, but I'd rather not directly sync my Kobo with Calibre. I'm afraid Calibre will mess the device's internals up, and I've seen reports of people getting errors on their Kobos when they sync with Calibre (something about aggressive mounting). Does Kobo Touch Extended Driver fix this?

Thanks!

I don't know if it fixes it, but I think I have been using Calibre and Kobo devices for more than three years without problems.

[sk2003]

So I tried Kobo Touch Extended Driver and it made no difference. I converted the original epubs of my books to kepubs in Calibre, and drag and dropped them to the Kobo. Within the Kobo I massed changed the extensions to .kepub.epub. And now the massive gap between S and the rest of the word has returned, but at least S renders like it does in Calibre (super big, crosses into the line below it). In koreader, the S disappears entirely.

I give up. I'm never going to be able to convert my books so the embedded fonts show properly.

Also, some of the authors show up as [Last name, first name] while others show up as [First name last name]. It's driving me crazy.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by sk2003

I'm afraid Calibre will mess the device's internals up, and I've seen reports of people getting errors on their Kobos when they sync with Calibre (something about aggressive mounting).

For a great number of these cases KSM (up to version 07) was responsible (and for the remaining cases fmon). This should not be happening with KSM 08.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by sk2003

So I tried Kobo Touch Extended Driver and it made no difference. I converted the original epubs of my books to kepubs in Calibre, and drag and dropped them to the Kobo. Within the Kobo I massed changed the extensions to .kepub.epub.

That is not going to work. And I have absolutely no idea what you thought was happening.

The KoboTouchExtended driver adds function to the built-in KoboTouch driver. It acts on books as they are sent to the device modifying the HTML code inside the books as needed and putting them on the device with the appropriate filename. If you are converting to kepub inside calibre, the extended driver is not involved. When you use calibre to send the books to the device, either driver will do the same. It will put the files on the device with the correct filenames.

And now the massive gap between S and the rest of the word has returned, but at least S renders like it does in Calibre (super big, crosses into the line below it). In koreader, the S disappears entirely.

I give up. I'm never going to be able to convert my books so the embedded fonts show properly.

What you are describing is a problem with the way the different renderers handle the code in the books. Unfortunately, they interpret the specs in different ways. And have different bugs. The epub renderer is based on Adobe RMSDK and renders the epubs very similar to ADE if you want to compare. The kepub renderer is different. The calibre viewer is different again. It works well, but is very forgiving of errors. Neither of the Kobo renderers are.

From the screenshots, what you want is doable. Attached is a screenshot from the book I have just finished (Please Don't Tell my Parents I'm a Supervillain by Richard Roberts. A fun read and I recommend it.) That's more complicated than what you have. That is a screenshot of the epub, but the kepub version is the same.

To fix this, I think we need to see the code in the book. Posting just the code from the page might be enough with the CSS. But, it would be better to see the complete book. If this is a book that is freely downloadable, post a link. Or if has no copyright it can be posted here. You can also use the ScambleEbook plugin, but that might mess up what we want to see. If you can't post it, then PM me to work out how to do it.

Also, some of the authors show up as [Last name, first name] while others show up as [First name last name]. It's driving me crazy.

Where are they showing up like this? And what do they show up in calibre as?

[jackie_w]

Regarding the space between the dropcap 'S' and the rest of the first word, it's clear to me that GeoffR identified the problem correctly.

The OP said he used these conversion options

I also ticked Remove spacing between paragraphs (indent size 1.5 em and line size 0.5 em)

Just my opinion but these are terrible conversion options if you hope to retain style formating after a conversion. To the best of my understanding:

• it will force an indent of 1.5em on every paragraph. To look right dropcaps require the paragraph to have a text-indent of zero. It's obvious the source book has a zero indent for the dropcap paragraph but the converted book hasn't.
• remove spacing between paragraphs stands a good chance of removing every scenebreak in the book for some books.
• forcing a line-height of 0.5em is asking for trouble as lines of text are likely to overlap. The fact that the kepub in the photo doesn't show may be due to the agressive nature of the kepub renderer in enforcing the line spacing set in the Kobo font menu. Other epub reading apps are likely to show exactly what was specified and be unreadable.
• the original complaint was that the H2O is not displaying fonts correctly. I see no evidence of that. The capital 'S' dropcap itself looks the same in the before/after shots. What reason is there to believe embedded fonts are involved at all?

Finally, my biggest confusion is why is conversion to kepub required at all if the OP wants to read the book in KOReader? Surely the original standard epub would be the most sensible format to transfer to the Kobo, thus avoiding any destruction of styling.

[sk2003]

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I'm pretty sure I've resolved my issues once and for all.

The naming issue: that's my fault entirely, and has nothing to do with the Kobo. It's to do with Calibre metadata. I resolved the issue by renaming my Calibre folders.

As for the kepub.epub and epubs not showing dropcase letters properly fiasco: the issue was the conversion options I was selecting. Now I know not to remove spacing or embed fonts.

I now know that the whole kepub.epub thing is only done in order to make nickel treat epub files as kepubs (whether they're the same format in the end, I don't know). I like seeing the amount of page numbers remaining in a chapter, rather than the entire page count, so I like renaming the extensions to .kepub.epub.

Also, using .kepub.epub with the book I posted in the OP (Blood Meridian) fixes the font problem. See my attached images. epub.jpg shows the .epub version of the ebook, and kepub.jpg shows the .kepub.epub. I have to keep the file as a .kepub.epub to keep the dropcase formatting.

koreader.jpg shows how the .kepub.epub doesn't render in koreader. The .epub displays with question marks, just like the .kepub.epub.

If there is a way to convert the original epub so the dropcase letters render on the Kobo and koreader, please let me know.

Anyway, the steps I took to convert the epub are pretty convoluted and I kind of forgot them (whoops). Involved a few conversions and the Modify ePub plugin. I didn't check the remove spacing or embed fonts boxes.

Originally Posted by davidfor

What you are describing is a problem with the way the different renderers handle the code in the books. Unfortunately, they interpret the specs in different ways. And have different bugs. The epub renderer is based on Adobe RMSDK and renders the epubs very similar to ADE if you want to compare. The kepub renderer is different. The calibre viewer is different again. It works well, but is very forgiving of errors. Neither of the Kobo renderers are.

From the screenshots, what you want is doable. Attached is a screenshot from the book I have just finished (Please Don't Tell my Parents I'm a Supervillain by Richard Roberts. A fun read and I recommend it.) That's more complicated than what you have. That is a screenshot of the epub, but the kepub version is the same.

To fix this, I think we need to see the code in the book. Posting just the code from the page might be enough with the CSS. But, it would be better to see the complete book. If this is a book that is freely downloadable, post a link. Or if has no copyright it can be posted here. You can also use the ScambleEbook plugin, but that might mess up what we want to see. If you can't post it, then PM me to work out how to do it.


Where are they showing up like this? And what do they show up in calibre as?

Thanks for the in-depth answer as always. I'm a complete noob at this. I've never read an epub before, seriously. This is my first foray into epub files and e-readers. I'm a PDF person; if I ever have to read anything it's usually on a computer as a PDF file. I don't mind sharing the file, but I'm pretty sure the forum bans you from sharing stuff that isn't in the public domain (the book was released in 1985).

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Regarding the space between the dropcap 'S' and the rest of the first word, it's clear to me that GeoffR identified the problem correctly.

The OP said he used these conversion options


Just my opinion but these are terrible conversion options if you hope to retain style formating after a conversion. To the best of my understanding:

• it will force an indent of 1.5em on every paragraph. To look right dropcaps require the paragraph to have a text-indent of zero. It's obvious the source book has a zero indent for the dropcap paragraph but the converted book hasn't.
• remove spacing between paragraphs stands a good chance of removing every scenebreak in the book for some books.
• forcing a line-height of 0.5em is asking for trouble as lines of text are likely to overlap. The fact that the kepub in the photo doesn't show may be due to the agressive nature of the kepub renderer in enforcing the line spacing set in the Kobo font menu. Other epub reading apps are likely to show exactly what was specified and be unreadable.
• the original complaint was that the H2O is not displaying fonts correctly. I see no evidence of that. The capital 'S' dropcap itself looks the same in the before/after shots. What reason is there to believe embedded fonts are involved at all?

Finally, my biggest confusion is why is conversion to kepub required at all if the OP wants to read the book in KOReader? Surely the original standard epub would be the most sensible format to transfer to the Kobo, thus avoiding any destruction of styling.

Thanks for the info. I won't be using those options again! The problem was the space between the S and the rest of the word on the Kobo. Yes, it did render correctly (and I was very thankful for that). I don't know if it was/is an embedded fonts issue or not.

EDIT: Hmm... kepub.jpg won't upload with proper rotation. It shows as rotated on my desktop.

[GeoffR]

I don't know about the problem with KoReader, but the reason the font size on the dropcap is different in the Kobo ePub and KePub reader is probably because the book specifies the font-size in px or an absolute unit such as pt. This doesn't work the way you might expect in the ePub reader, and I think the only way to solve it is to edit the stylesheet so that all font sizes are in font-relative units such as em or %, which should work the same on all devices.

Edit: That doesn't just apply to dropcaps, but to all font sizes and other sizes in the book. It is impossible to get anything looking the same on devices with different screen sizes, resolutions and pixel densities if sizes are specified in pixels or absolute lengths. This is a common problem with older ebooks where the publisher seems to have assumed that ereaders would never change, and a lot of books appear to have been designed on the assumption that all devices have a 800x600 6 inch screen.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by sk2003

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I'm pretty sure I've resolved my issues once and for all.

The naming issue: that's my fault entirely, and has nothing to do with the Kobo. It's to do with Calibre metadata. I resolved the issue by renaming my Calibre folders.

Are you renaming calibre folders? If you are renaming folders inside the calibre library, you will break things. And the Kobo devices don't care about the file name. They read the metadata from the the file. If you have the metadata correct and send the book to the device, the metadata will be updated. Calibre doesn't automatically update the metadata in the book when you make a change. It does this when you use send to device or save to disk. Or during a conversion, Polish books or embed metadata.

As for the kepub.epub and epubs not showing dropcase letters properly fiasco: the issue was the conversion options I was selecting. Now I know not to remove spacing or embed fonts.

I now know that the whole kepub.epub thing is only done in order to make nickel treat epub files as kepubs (whether they're the same format in the end, I don't know). I like seeing the amount of page numbers remaining in a chapter, rather than the entire page count, so I like renaming the extensions to .kepub.epub.

If you just rename the epub, the bookmarking and reading position doesn't work properly. The extended driver or conversion to kepub adds the code to the book to solve this.

Thanks for the in-depth answer as always. I'm a complete noob at this. I've never read an epub before, seriously. This is my first foray into epub files and e-readers. I'm a PDF person; if I ever have to read anything it's usually on a computer as a PDF file. I don't mind sharing the file, but I'm pretty sure the forum bans you from sharing stuff that isn't in the public domain (the book was released in 1985).

For books covered by copyright, then we can arrange something PM to get to look at it. Or a sample might do. Posting the code from the start of the chapter plus the stylesheet might give enough to see.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by sk2003

As for Kobo Touch Extended Driver, I'm grateful that it exists, but I'd rather not directly sync my Kobo with Calibre. I'm afraid Calibre will mess the device's internals up, and I've seen reports of people getting errors on their Kobos when they sync with Calibre (something about aggressive mounting). Does Kobo Touch Extended Driver fix this?

Calibre does not do any "aggressive mounting". Calibre does not cause a problem with a Kobo Readers. You can possibly have a problem if you do not properly eject the Kobo from the computer. But that's it. If Calibre caused problems, it would either be fixed or there would be many people posting about problems.

So no, Calibre does not mess up Kobo Readers. That's just ridiculous to even think so. I have an H2O that I've had for just over 2 years and I've not had any problem using it with Calibre.

[sk2003]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you just rename the epub, the bookmarking and reading position doesn't work properly. The extended driver or conversion to kepub adds the code to the book to solve this.

Can you expand on this please? Just tried bookmarking a page in a kepub.epub (a renamed epub file) in nickel's reader and rebooted, and it kept the reading position in addition to retaining my bookmark. I don't sync my device with Calibre, I simply drag and drop my books from my Calibre library to my device and rename the extensions after they've been transferred to the device (sometimes before transferring them). All Kobo drivers are disabled in Calibre, so it doesn't detect my device either. I'm on firmware 13.19.5671.