Oasis, mobi, custom fonts oddities

[Derell Licht]

Before I get into details, let me note that I am using Windows 7 64bit,
so I am using Calibre 64bit V3.48, which is the last which supports Windows 7.

I recently got the new Oasis 10th gen, which is *very* beautiful. I installed a few custom TrueType fonts in the fonts directory, and they work great with azw3 and mobi books from Amazon.

However, I have many epub books from external sources, and have been using Calibre to convert them to mobi and transfer to my Oasis. Sadly, most of those .mobi files do *not* support custom fonts.

I also tried converting one of the files to azw3 ... this was an adventure!
If I convert from .epub to .azw3 directly, I cannot change fonts at all...
However, if I convert epub -> mobi, then mobi -> azw3, custom fonts *do* work. Line spacing is a little irregular for some reason, but I can live with it.

What I'm hoping to find, though, is some way to either make the .mobi files work (with custom fonts) as they do when I get them from Amazon.

So does anyone have any insights into how I might address this issue?

[hobnail]

Unless you're an author or publisher selling books on amazon, mobi is an old and less capable format and best avoided. So azw3 is what you want to convert those epubs to. My experience is that if the book specifies fonts in its CSS then you won't be able to change them on the fly with your ereader (Oasis).

For example, using a recent book uploaded to the library here, pulpmeister's Carnacki the Ghostfinder - William Hope Hodgson.epub, in its CSS there are lines

font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";

Just delete the entire line and after you've deleted them and saved the epub then convert it to azw3 and it should then let you change the font in your ereader.

[hobnail]

Some books may also contain stuff like the following in their CSS; you can also delete it:

@font-face {
  font-family: "LinLibertineG30";
  src: url(../Fonts/LinLibertineG30-Regular.ttf);
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: normal;
}

The above was taken from La Leçon d'amour dans un parc.epub uploaded by roger64.

After you delete the @font-face stuff you can then delete the font files that are in the Fonts folder inside the epub.

You'll still need to delete the font-family lines as well.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by hobnail

Some books may also contain stuff like the following in their CSS; you can also delete it:

@font-face {
  font-family: "LinLibertineG30";
  src: url(../Fonts/LinLibertineG30-Regular.ttf);
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: normal;
}

The above was taken from La Leçon d'amour dans un parc.epub uploaded by roger64.

After you delete the @font-face stuff you can then delete the font files that are in the Fonts folder inside the epub.

Don't forget to also remove the font-family stuff from the CSS as well.

[hobnail]

Thanks, fixed it.

[Derell Licht]

Originally Posted by hobnail

Unless you're an author or publisher selling books on amazon, mobi is an old and less capable format and best avoided. So azw3 is what you want to convert those epubs to. My experience is that if the book specifies fonts in its CSS then you won't be able to change them on the fly with your ereader (Oasis).

Well, okay, I understand this, thank you.
I'm still uncertain why it worked when I did the convertion in two steps:
epub -> mobi -> azw3
but did *not* work at all when I converted directly:
epub -> azw3
??

In any case, I will experiment with your suggestions about removing specific font information from the css files, and see how that alters the process.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Derell Licht

Well, okay, I understand this, thank you.
I'm still uncertain why it worked when I did the convertion in two steps:
epub -> mobi -> azw3
but did *not* work at all when I converted directly:
epub -> azw3
??

In any case, I will experiment with your suggestions about removing specific font information from the css files, and see how that alters the process.

That's because the ePub probably has embedded fonts and converting to Mobi got rid of the embedded fonts since Mobi doesn't support embedded fonts.

[theducks]

Jon is correct.
That conversion sequence removed/sidestepped anything Mobi could not do. FOR GOOD. (Up format, Conversion does not put much, if any, into a book. It only makes what IS there, compatible)
Do visit the Wiki here ar MR and you can read a bit about each format you want to use (before you do damage that might not be undone if you have no prior backup)

[uggla]

I found one solution, you can use Epubee manager instead of Calibre for conver to mobi. The result mobi file have 2 o 3 times more than size but support all custom fonts installed in kindle and you can send it by mail.

Uggla.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by uggla

I found one solution, you can use Epubee manager instead of Calibre for conver to mobi. The result mobi file have 2 o 3 times more than size but support all custom fonts installed in kindle and you can send it by mail.

Uggla.

That's because Epubee is converting to a dual-format Mobi and any Kindle that can handle KF8 is using the K8 part of the file. It is not doing anything special.