TOC Page Numbers?

[93terp]

Curious as to why the TOC in my kepubs (converted from epub during Calibre sideload) does not have page numbers for each chapter? Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere along the way or is there a patch I need to enable?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by 93terp

Curious as to why the TOC in my kepubs (converted from epub during Calibre sideload) does not have page numbers for each chapter? Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere along the way or is there a patch I need to enable?

You cannot have page numbers in the ToC for KePub as the page numbers are 1 screen = 1 page and what page the chapters start on can easily change with a settings change sich as changing the font size.

If you were talking about ePub, there you have stable page numbers and you could add in the page numbers to the ToC (by hand only).

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by 93terp

Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere along the way or is there a patch I need to enable?

You're not missing an existing setting/patch.

I know such a feature is technically feasible because I like messin' around and cobbled something together last year using my own copy of KoboTouchExtended calibre driver to update the TOC on-the-fly during send-to-device.

For my own experiments, when deciding what page number each chapter started at, I used the ADE page numbers for epubs and for kepubs the old Kobo concept of (x words = 1 page), where I get to choose x.

Given the sound & fury unleashed every time the question of the 'right way to do page numbers' comes up, it's not surprising no-one has come up with a communal offering. It's all so much easier when your user base of one always agrees with you.

Here's a couple of screenshots of a typical kepub as proof of concept. Start "page" of chapter shown in TOC and book heading. Total "pages" (using x words/page) shown in brackets in book footer.

Even I'm not sure how worthwhile this is but it was a fun project which kept me amused whilst the aforementioned arguments were raging.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

You're not missing an existing setting/patch.

I know such a feature is technically feasible because I like messin' around and cobbled something together last year using my own copy of KoboTouchExtended calibre driver to update the TOC on-the-fly during send-to-device.

For my own experiments, when deciding what page number each chapter started at, I used the ADE page numbers for epubs and for kepubs the old Kobo concept of (x words = 1 page), where I get to choose x.

Given the sound & fury unleashed every time the question of the 'right way to do page numbers' comes up, it's not surprising no-one has come up with a communal offering. It's all so much easier when your user base of one always agrees with you.

Here's a couple of screenshots of a typical kepub as proof of concept. Start "page" of chapter shown in TOC and book heading. Total "pages" (using x words/page) shown in brackets in book footer.

Even I'm not sure how worthwhile this is but it was a fun project which kept me amused whilst the aforementioned arguments were raging.

How did you get the line height as close as you did in KePub? I find I need a larger line height or I get part of the top line of the next page poking through.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How did you get the line height as close as you did in KePub? I find I need a larger line height or I get part of the top line of the next page poking through.

I don't think I've employed any tricks with line-height - other than enabling the kobopatch 'My 24 line spacing values' - which I'm guessing you've also done.

The font in that screenshot is MinionPro with readingLineHeight=0.9 in the standard Kobo .conf file. When using MinionPro the lines of "little ant footprints" at page top/bottom don't kick in until I reduce it down to readingLineHeight<=0.84.

I suppose it's possible MinionPro and CharEink behave slightly differently because of their different internal font metrics?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I don't think I've employed any tricks with line-height - other than enabling the kobopatch 'My 24 line spacing values' - which I'm guessing you've also done.

The font in that screenshot is MinionPro with readingLineHeight=0.9 in the standard Kobo .conf file. When using MinionPro the lines of "little ant footprints" at page top/bottom don't kick in until I reduce it down to readingLineHeight<=0.84.

I suppose it's possible MinionPro and CharEink behave slightly differently because of their different internal font metrics?

Thanks. I'll give Minion pro a go. I have it and shall install it and see what happens with KePub.

[93terp]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

You're not missing an existing setting/patch.

I know such a feature is technically feasible because I like messin' around and cobbled something together last year using my own copy of KoboTouchExtended calibre driver to update the TOC on-the-fly during send-to-device.

For my own experiments, when deciding what page number each chapter started at, I used the ADE page numbers for epubs and for kepubs the old Kobo concept of (x words = 1 page), where I get to choose x.

Given the sound & fury unleashed every time the question of the 'right way to do page numbers' comes up, it's not surprising no-one has come up with a communal offering. It's all so much easier when your user base of one always agrees with you.

Here's a couple of screenshots of a typical kepub as proof of concept. Start "page" of chapter shown in TOC and book heading. Total "pages" (using x words/page) shown in brackets in book footer.

Even I'm not sure how worthwhile this is but it was a fun project which kept me amused whilst the aforementioned arguments were raging.

Thanks jackie_w. I noticed on the screen pic of the book page that the clock and battery charge % are in the bottom right of the page. What cool little trick enabled that?

[93terp]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Thanks. I'll give Minion pro a go. I have it and shall install it and see what happens with KePub.

any feedback/observations on this one?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by 93terp

any feedback/observations on this one?

I'll post about it after I try it later on today.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by 93terp

Thanks jackie_w. I noticed on the screen pic of the book page that the clock and battery charge % are in the bottom right of the page. What cool little trick enabled that?

That's frostschutz's MiniClock hack which is indeed a cool little trick. That link will take you to where MiniClock was first introduced, but use the download attachment from NiLuJe's updated package in a much later post in the same thread. The update has some extra options for the miniclock.cfg config file.

[93terp]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

That's frostschutz's MiniClock hack which is indeed a cool little trick. That link will take you to where MiniClock was first introduced, but use the download attachment from NiLuJe's updated package in a much later post in the same thread. The update has some extra options for the miniclock.cfg config file.

Thanks. I take it that's in the "hack" realm and not a patch?

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

When using MinionPro the lines of "little ant footprints" at page top/bottom don't kick in until I reduce it down to readingLineHeight<=0.84.

I suppose it's possible MinionPro and CharEink behave slightly differently because of their different internal font metrics?

(bad form, but quoting myself ...)

I did a test with ChareInk after making that post. The problem with too-small kepub line spacing kicked in at 0.84 for ChareInk, too for me. So there was no difference, i.e. at 0.86 I didn't have the "clipped characters" problem with either in kepubs.

However, setting both to 0.86 does look quite different. I have found that my perception of what constitutes "just right" for line spacing does vary by font. Personally I don't really like line spacing to be very close but I do think the Kobo default minimum is too big. We'll never see widespread consensus on something like this.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by 93terp

Thanks. I take it that's in the "hack" realm and not a patch?

Yes, it's a hack, but it's as simple to install as copying a special KoboRoot.tgz file to the .kobo directory then allowing the device to reboot, i.e. just the same as installing a kobopatch update.

Once you've done that you do have to spend a little bit of time editing the miniclock.cfg config file so that the time/battery text displays in the right place on your device's screen in your chosen font/size. Nothing that requires technical expertise, as such.

There's also a MiniClock-related kobopatch you can enable if you want the buttons on your LibraH2O/Forma device to trigger the update of the MiniClock display in the same way touching the screen does.

[93terp]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'll post about it after I try it later on today.

[93terp]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Yes, it's a hack, but it's as simple to install as copying a special KoboRoot.tgz file to the .kobo directory then allowing the device to reboot, i.e. just the same as installing a kobopatch update.

Once you've done that you do have to spend a little bit of time editing the miniclock.cfg config file so that the time/battery text displays in the right place on your device's screen in your chosen font/size. Nothing that requires technical expertise, as such.

There's also a MiniClock-related kobopatch you can enable if you want the buttons on your LibraH2O/Forma device to trigger the update of the MiniClock display in the same way touching the screen does.

Thanks, I'll cautiously give it a try!