Fractional Page Numbering

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by jhowell

No. Here is the error it produces:

Internal Warning 10016: "Page Number encountered with invalid label while processing logical page number. Source : 3a"
Internal Warning 10021: "Skipping page number information in YJ."


(Note: YJ refers to Yellow Jersey, Amazon's internal code name for KFX.)

Thanks! I really appreciate it.

I have checked that and "A1" and kindlegen accepted both, as did kindleunpack on the result and my PW3 (the only test I made) displayed them just fine and goto page worked for both as well.

I would not have been the least bit surprised if a keyboard locked to numerals came up. Fortunately that was not the case. I would still find fractional page useful for display only, but it is nice to have the icing on the cake of goto.

Bummer about kfxgen, but if the concept ever catches on I am sure amazon can make it work.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Can you point me to a screenshot or a photo that does a good job of showing that?

It was introduced in the latest Kobo firmware as an option.

It displays the % location throughout the entire book.

Here it is on my Forma, it's a very thin (few pixels?) line at the very bottom of the device:



Very unobtrusive. The thin line also doesn't change how much text fits on the screen one bit.

The latest firmware also introduced a couple other options for Header+Footer Chapter/Book locations:

• Chapter Progress
  
  • Page number
    
  • Percent Read
    
  • Time remaining
    
  • Off
• Book Progress
  
  • Page number
    
  • Percent Read
    
  • Time remaining
    
  • Off

So they could display a "100 of 500" or "20%":



(I tested them for a few days, wasn't a fan... but I keep those options disabled anyway so I could shove more lines of text on the screen. )

My Enhancement Opinion: I wish that they would let you independently adjust what you want displayed in the Header or Footer.

Currently, Chapter Progress automatically goes in the Header and Book Progress automatically goes in the Footer.

Also, I have no need for even showing a "Book/Chapter Title", so I wish that could be unchecked so I could just see a very unobtrusive "5 of 20" or "20% Read" instead of "Full Book Title · 20% Read". Reading Non-Fiction books, some of those titles become enormous.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

My Enhancement Opinion: I wish that they would let you independently adjust what you want displayed in the Header or Footer.

Currently, Chapter Progress automatically goes in the Header and Book Progress automatically goes in the Footer.

Also, I have no need for even showing a "Book/Chapter Title", so I wish that could be unchecked so I could just see a very unobtrusive "5 of 20" or "20% Read" instead of "Full Book Title · 20% Read". Reading Non-Fiction books, some of those titles become enormous.

Off-topic for this thread but ...
If you ever decide to get into Kobo patching there is a patch which will do this for you. (Full disclosure - it's not one that I use myself.) This Kobo header/footer stuff is so new that it wouldn't be a complete surprise if Kobo aren't finished tinkering yet.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

It was introduced in the latest Kobo firmware as an option.

It displays the % location throughout the entire book.

Here it is on my Forma, it's a very thin (few pixels?) line at the very bottom of the device:

Attachment 174964

Very unobtrusive. The thin line also doesn't change how much text fits on the screen one bit.

Thanks. It gets most of the job done with essentially no cost in screen real estate and I think hardly anyone would find it obtrusive. I think they should consider adding chapter indicators (darker or lighter). Maybe some would find that distracting (but I would hope not).

As to how thick/thin it is, that is what screenshots are for. I did some searching and apparently screenshots on kobos is a bit fiddly and the capability comes and goes with firmware updates.

It's interesting that features usually show up on kobo before kindle, but in this case kindle had a more fully featured version 10 years before and dropped it 6 years before it even appeared on kobo.

[j.p.s]

I have edited post #2 to describe using asciidoc to add page numbers and fractional page numbers to a book quickly. There is no inherent connection between fractional page numbers and asciidoc.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by jhowell

No. Here is the error it produces:

Internal Warning 10016: "Page Number encountered with invalid label while processing logical page number. Source : 3a"
Internal Warning 10021: "Skipping page number information in YJ."

(Note: YJ refers to Yellow Jersey, Amazon's internal code name for KFX.)

Thanks for testing.

So non-integer non-roman-numeral pages is something that could (theoretically) work in MOBI/KF8, but definitely not KFX?

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I have checked that and "A1" and kindlegen accepted both, as did kindleunpack on the result and my PW3 (the only test I made) displayed them just fine and goto page worked for both as well.

Mind attaching some test files in these cases?

It makes testing by other users much easier when you can just download/convert/fiddle directly instead of nebulously trying to recreate exactly what we're all discussing.

Originally Posted by j.p.s

As to how thick/thin it is, that is what screenshots are for. I did some searching and apparently screenshots on kobos is a bit fiddly and the capability comes and goes with firmware updates.

No idea. Didn't even know Kobos had direct screenshot functionality.

Originally Posted by j.p.s

It's interesting that features usually show up on kobo before kindle, but in this case kindle had a more fully featured version 10 years before and dropped it 6 years before it even appeared on kobo.

Well, while it didn't have the Progress Bar, it had all your usual headers/footer text, which I was perfectly satisfied with (until I was able to get 2/3 more lines of extra screen real estate! )

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Off-topic for this thread but ...
If you ever decide to get into Kobo patching there is a patch which will do this for you. [...]

Thanks. I haven't really poked around the Kobo subforums/subreddit since I purchased mine.

(I already spend enough reading/responding on MobileRead as it is... and I only visit these technical sections.)

And if I got sucked into the firmware patching... well, there wouldn't be enough time for anything else!

[Quoth]

I had the power button on my original H2O to do screenshots as I have a sleep cover. Configuration file entry, but it doesn't work now. Not a patch, just text edit in the settings file.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

(I already spend enough reading/responding on MobileRead as it is... and I only visit these technical sections.)

mobileread has quite a few technical forums, but this, MobileRead Forums > E-Book General > General Discussions, is not one of them. I deliberately started this thread here to discuss the idea of fractional page numbers and to show that serendipitous support already exists.

If this idea is ever ready to be developed I intend to start a thread in Workshop, EPUB format, or Kindle formats as appropriate.

If there is ever a tool to automatically fractionalize pagination of a kindle format book the Kindle forum itself would be the place for it.

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Mind attaching some test files in these cases?

It makes testing by other users much easier when you can just download/convert/fiddle directly instead of nebulously trying to recreate exactly what we're all discussing.

I do mind. The matter of support for 3a, 3b, 3c, and A1, A2, A3 is an entirely separate topic for a different thread that would best be in the Workshop forum. So, the penalty for noticing and reporting something that is only of peripheral interest to me but that you have expressed interest is to have to meticulously document it at the necessary cost of not doing something else that actually matters to me?

page-map page entries have an element named "name" whose value is a character string whose value is what is rendered on screen. Many EPUB interpreters, including various reading devices and kindlegen seem to accept a broad range, kfxgen apparently does not.

For me, this thread is already a diversion of a diversion. I am not a professional, or even amateur, ebook producer and have only got into various tools for the usual format conversion reasons. I have only gone further in order to be able to fix egregious errors.

While looking into fixing badly broken pagination on kindle books I came across a post on EPUB pagination and also learned that kindlegen can generate an apnx file from a paginated EPUB. When I noticed the on screen page display is designated by a string the idea of fractional page numbers popped into my mind.

[j.p.s]

I've added the iriver story HD to the list of devices that are known to display fractional page numbers in post #1 in this thread. The story HD, like the other EPUB readers in the list, displays page numbers in a small thin font along the right edge of the display. The 7" story HD uses an even smaller font than the 5" Pocketbook 360 to display pages.