Kindle owners should have a Kobo

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by davidfor

To me the problem with hyphenation in ebooks is how often it happens and that it happens in strange places. For paperbooks, good layout means there are relatively few split words. That's because, at least traditionally, someone inspects and tweaks it. In ebooks, it is automated and if the algorithm isn't right, words are split in the wrong place, and spacing can get too wide. A better hyphenation dictionary can help, and the algorithm does seem to have improved while I have been using ereaders, but I still prefer ragged-right on my ereaders.

I've yet to find an incorrect hyphen with RMSDK. I know that pBooks layout can be manually adjusted. There are tricks one can do to get things to layout as wanted. eBooks have no such tricks. But, with eBooks, there are some choices. There's left justify and on Kobo, that also means no hyphenation. There's full justify with and without hyphenation. Given those choices, I find left justify looks ugly and full justify looks best but needs hyphens or there will be too many gaps.

As for paragraph spaces, I never read books that had such wide gaps between paragraphs and when they exist in eBooks, I find that to be very sloppy coding. It can actually take me out of the story. I like the formatting to fade into the background so when I am reading, I don't pay attention to how the eBook is laid out. I don't care for paragraph titles that waste a lot of space, but I can deal with it such that I'm not taken out of the story. There is other sloppy formatting that can take me out of the story that I fix.

What I want to know is how do we go from indents, no paragraphs spacing, full justify with hyphens to a completely different format when we've been reading one way and not having any complaints about it?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Reading ePubs on my Nook, I rarely notice hyphenation. Not because it doesn't happen, but because it does a good enough job that the hyphenation isn't usually noticeable (words aren't split in distracting ways).

It's worse reading kepubs on my Kobo with Wolf's hyphenation dictionary. But I don't mean to insult that dictionary, because Kobo without it is worse. It rarely hyphenates words, causing weird spacing issues.

The problem is that the hyphenation dictionary has the left and right hyphenation settings set to 5. That means you need long words that can be hyphened to actually get hyphens. That's how the dictionary comes set. This to me is a major issue. I set the hyphenation dictionary I posted to left/right of 2.

Try the following...

Add to the body style of CSS...

    -webkit-hyphens: auto;
    -moz-hyphens: auto;
    hyphens: auto;

    -webkit-hyphenate-after: 3;
    -webkit-hyphenate-before: 3;
    hyphenate-after: 3;
    hyphenate-before: 3;

And see if that fixes the hyphenation. If that doesn't, you can edit the hyphenation dictionary I posted and change my before and after setting of 2 to 3 and see how that works.

[JSWolf]

Some are saying you don't have to do anything special on a Kindle to get features such as image zoom. While that's true, you do have to do something to get kerning and hyphenation. You have to use KFX just as you have to use KePub on a Kobo to get certain features. So in this case, Kindle is no better then Kobo.

Amazon could have made it so everything is done with KF8 and had no need for KFX. But KFX is there for Kindle to be able to add DRM to DRM-free eBooks. So in this case, KFX is much worse then KePub.

[skimminstones]

Had a kindle for a long time, last year i bought a kobo Libra H20 to try something new. Im going to go back to Kindle i think. The Kobo has an annoying bug that every now and then it freezes up and restarts, losing my last read position. Its a nice device but is unusable like that. The Kindle never had an issue once, plus im now an amazon prime subscriber so makes sense to use their Prime reading function too.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by skimminstones

Had a kindle for a long time, last year i bought a kobo Libra H20 to try something new. Im going to go back to Kindle i think. The Kobo has an annoying bug that every now and then it freezes up and restarts, losing my last read position. Its a nice device but is unusable like that. The Kindle never had an issue once, plus im now an amazon prime subscriber so makes sense to use their Prime reading function too.

That's weird. My Kobo has never frozen in the 8 or so months I've had it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by skimminstones

Had a kindle for a long time, last year i bought a kobo Libra H20 to try something new. Im going to go back to Kindle i think. The Kobo has an annoying bug that every now and then it freezes up and restarts, losing my last read position. Its a nice device but is unusable like that. The Kindle never had an issue once, plus im now an amazon prime subscriber so makes sense to use their Prime reading function too.

You may have something wrong with your Kobo. Freezing and restarting is no a bug in the firmware.

[crane3]

There definitely are firmware bugs. I did have some small problems with the settings but 2 huge firmware problems did happen.

1) I had done a "factory reset"
2) Downloaded my books from Calibre, Saw that the 'collections' column was populated.
3) Closed the cover to put the Kobo Aura One LE to sleep.
4) Days later, picked up the Kobo Aura One LE to add more books.
5) The 'Collection' column showed zero (0) books; no books available.
6) Was told by more knowledgeable people on the forum that my 'database' was corrupted!!!!
7) My conclusion is that the firmware did something while in sleep mode.

2nd big problem.
1) picked up the KAO1 for charging in prep for doctor's visit next day
2) got msg about new firmware & so did the OTA new firmware while charging
3) at the Dr's office, opened the KAO1, which was in nickle mode, the KAO1 insist on connecting to a website that began with 's' as far as I can remember. Shutdown the KAO1 2 or 3 times & waited the 30+ sec in hope that the crap would disappear.
4) no good, but was able to select koreader after another shutdown & was able to read while waiting for the doctor.

As an aside, read that it was no problem in doing a search for a book to read in koreader; narrow minded. I prefer my books listing to be by date installed, preferably Calibre date which would place my chosen book as 1 of the 5 or 10 on the list and can be selected easily without doing any search.

edit: the KOA1 LE is now shelved & got an Kindle Oasis 2 and happy with it.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Some are saying you don't have to do anything special on a Kindle to get features such as image zoom. While that's true, you do have to do something to get kerning and hyphenation. You have to use KFX just as you have to use KePub on a Kobo to get certain features. So in this case, Kindle is no better then Kobo.

Hey, I kinda said exactly the same thing in post #92.

Amazon could have made it so everything is done with KF8 and had no need for KFX. But KFX is there for Kindle to be able to add DRM to DRM-free eBooks. So in this case, KFX is much worse then KePub.

I don't think KFX exists to add DRM to DRM-free books. KFX exists so that Kindle finally has typography matching what ePubs had been doing for years.

The way that it interferes with books intended t be DRM-free was likely never even considered.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And see if that fixes the hyphenation. If that doesn't, you can edit the hyphenation dictionary I posted and change my before and after setting of 2 to 3 and see how that works.

I don't want to have to edit the CSS for every book I've put on my reader.

How difficult is it for me to edit the dictionary? Could you post some baby-steps instructions if it's not too involved?

At any rate, your hyphenation dictionary is better for me than the out of the box one which essentially never hyphenates words.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by crane3

There definitely are firmware bugs. I did have some small problems with the settings but 2 huge firmware problems did happen.

1) I had done a "factory reset"
2) Downloaded my books from Calibre, Saw that the 'collections' column was populated.
3) Closed the cover to put the Kobo Aura One LE to sleep.
4) Days later, picked up the Kobo Aura One LE to add more books.
5) The 'Collection' column showed zero (0) books; no books available.
6) Was told by more knowledgeable people on the forum that my 'database' was corrupted!!!!
7) My conclusion is that the firmware did something while in sleep mode.

2nd big problem.
1) picked up the KAO1 for charging in prep for doctor's visit next day
2) got msg about new firmware & so did the OTA new firmware while charging
3) at the Dr's office, opened the KAO1, which was in nickle mode, the KAO1 insist on connecting to a website that began with 's' as far as I can remember. Shutdown the KAO1 2 or 3 times & waited the 30+ sec in hope that the crap would disappear.
4) no good, but was able to select koreader after another shutdown & was able to read while waiting for the doctor.

As an aside, read that it was no problem in doing a search for a book to read in koreader; narrow minded. I prefer my books listing to be by date installed, preferably Calibre date which would place my chosen book as 1 of the 5 or 10 on the list and can be selected easily without doing any search.

edit: the KOA1 LE is now shelved & got an Kindle Oasis 2 and happy with it.

Issue 1 number 7 is wrong. It's not a firmware bug. The problem is that the database was corrupt before putting the KA1 (it is not KAO1) to sleep. It's possible you might have unplugged from USB before the KA1 was ready to be unplugged. A database error doesn't happen because of any firmware bug.

As for the second issue, I've never had such a problem or every read of such. But now with the 4.21 firmware and the latest Calibre, you'll have a ery good reading experience. Even better then with the Kindle.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I don't think KFX exists to add DRM to DRM-free books. KFX exists so that Kindle finally has typography matching what ePubs had been doing for years.

The way that it interferes with books intended to be DRM-free was likely never even considered.

I disagree. The typesetting that KFX does could have been added into the KF8 renderer. Adobe added the same typesetting into ADE and it works with the same ePub that you had before Adobe added typesetting. Amazon could have done the same thing. I disagree that KFX having DRM was an unintended issue. It was done on purpose since Amazon knew that KF8's DRM was already broken.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I don't want to have to edit the CSS for every book I've put on my reader.

How difficult is it for me to edit the dictionary? Could you post some baby-steps instructions if it's not too involved?

At any rate, your hyphenation dictionary is better for me than the out of the box one which essentially never hyphenates words.

The one I posted is from Libre Office and I did edit the values so it actually works. The other day I edited the Adobe hyphenation dictionary and changed the values from 5/5 to 2/2 and it works much better. I have no idea which of the two dictionaries work better. But at least with the one I posted, it works out of the boxx and is ready to be installed.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I disagree. The typesetting that KFX does could have been added into the KF8 renderer. Adobe added the same typesetting into ADE and it works with the same ePub that you had before Adobe added typesetting. Amazon could have done the same thing.

You don't work for Amazon and don't program Kindles. So you can't say that for certain.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The one I posted is from Libre Office and I did edit the values so it actually works. The other day I edited the Adobe hyphenation dictionary and changed the values from 5/5 to 2/2 and it works much better. I have no idea which of the two dictionaries work better. But at least with the one I posted, it works out of the boxx and is ready to be installed.

Right, right. The question is how to edit your dictionary to change from 2/2 to 3/3. Can you post instructions on how to do that? I've never messed with dictionary files, aside from adding yours through the download here.

You said you edited with Libre Office, so I guess my Microsoft office will work. Do I use Word? Excel? Once I open with whatever, where do I look? You know, simple instructions (if it is a simple process, otherwise I'll just leave it as it).

[crane3]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Issue 1 number 7 is wrong. It's not a firmware bug. The problem is that the database was corrupt before putting the KA1 (it is not KAO1) to sleep. It's possible you might have unplugged from USB before the KA1 was ready to be unplugged. A database error doesn't happen because of any firmware bug.

As for the second issue, I've never had such a problem or every read of such. But now with the 4.21 firmware and the latest Calibre, you'll have a ery good reading experience. Even better then with the Kindle.

1) Typical fanboy answer; never admit the device/software is in error or has a bug. The user is the device/software is perfect; that is how so many nasty jokes about users were made.

2) Wrong. My Kindle still works better than the Kobo Aura One LE for me.