converticus repairus!

[luisdent]

i bought the harry potter collection, which came straight from pottermore as a free, open epub. however, my kobo doesn't work well with epubs if you want to change fonts and typography settings. this isn't new, fonts are bold, line spacing is janky, etc.

but in the past i could easily convert to kepub and use the nice format options then. i converted the harry potter collection to kepub (all newest calibre and plug-ins and kobo firmware) but it simply doesn't show up on my kobo at all after placing it on the device. every other newly converted kepub shows up fine, and i can read this ebook in the viewer app in windows.

is there something in the conversion or perhaps the original epub that would be causing a problem? I've tried conversion with every setting that strips formatting, clears excess junk, etc. i realize it could be the reader, but i can convert anything else even after trying this one and it shows up fine.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by luisdent

i bought the harry potter collection, which came straight from pottermore as a free, open epub. however, my kobo doesn't work well with epubs if you want to change fonts and typography settings. this isn't new, fonts are bold, line spacing is janky, etc.

That is incorrect. The Kobo devices do an excellent job of displaying epubs and changing the font sizes and other settings. Unless the person who created the book did stupid things. The ePub renderer, courtesy of the Adobe RMSDK, respects the styles in the book a bit more than most other renderers. This means that if the book creator hard-codes some settings, they cannot be overridden. Or results in worse looking books. The kepub renderer will override different things, and generally, I find doing this results in a worse result.

but in the past i could easily convert to kepub and use the nice format options then. i converted the harry potter collection to kepub (all newest calibre and plug-ins and kobo firmware) but it simply doesn't show up on my kobo at all after placing it on the device. every other newly converted kepub shows up fine, and i can read this ebook in the viewer app in windows.

is there something in the conversion or perhaps the original epub that would be causing a problem? I've tried conversion with every setting that strips formatting, clears excess junk, etc. i realize it could be the reader, but i can convert anything else even after trying this one and it shows up fine.

Of course errors in the original epub will cause problems. What and when depends on exactly what you are doing. But, the first thing to do is to check the book is actually on the device. If something went wrong and it didn't actually put the book on the device, then the device can't read it. Did the conversion work and produce a kepub in the library? Were there any errors from the driver when you sent the kepub to the device?

If you are actually using the KoboTouchExtended driver to transform the epub to kepub during the send-to-device, rather than doing a conversions, there are options in the driver for what to do if there are errors in the book. This can be to fail quietly and not send the book.

[JSWolf]

Part of the problem could be the CSS. I had a look at the CSS for the first Harry Potter eBook and it's got a line-height of 1.4 in the body style and there are a few places that specify a font-family of Times New Roman including p. So removing the font-family and the line height might fix the problems.

But the CSS is valid and does not cause any formatting issue with ADE 2.0.1.

[luisdent]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That is incorrect. The Kobo devices do an excellent job of displaying epubs and changing the font sizes and other settings. Unless the person who created the book did stupid things. The ePub renderer, courtesy of the Adobe RMSDK, respects the styles in the book a bit more than most other renderers. This means that if the book creator hard-codes some settings, they cannot be overridden. Or results in worse looking books. The kepub renderer will override different things, and generally, I find doing this results in a worse result.


Of course errors in the original epub will cause problems. What and when depends on exactly what you are doing. But, the first thing to do is to check the book is actually on the device. If something went wrong and it didn't actually put the book on the device, then the device can't read it. Did the conversion work and produce a kepub in the library? Were there any errors from the driver when you sent the kepub to the device?

If you are actually using the KoboTouchExtended driver to transform the epub to kepub during the send-to-device, rather than doing a conversions, there are options in the driver for what to do if there are errors in the book. This can be to fail quietly and not send the book.

my experience has been horribly the opposite. while everything generally works great i haven't had a single epub work eith extra typography settings. i procure books from gutenberg, feedbooks, and many other well known sites and even some sitez that specifically focus on clean proper ebook formatting.

if i use the stock fonts everything is fine. if i use sideloaded fonts i haven't seen even one epub work properly. for instance, if i load alegreya font on an epub it is bold. always. convert to kepub and it works as expected. if i use bitter font and adjust line hight, the line height jumps 10 times the normal amount at each setting step. and the margins similarly act all wonky.

bookmarks have issues as well and sometimes dissapear and act funny. with kepub I've never had an issue. and in every case converting to kepub has been the best solution. and thus my problem. harry potter converts fine, but my kobo doesn't find it or even acknowledge it exists. and i can't seem to figure out why.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by luisdent

my experience has been horribly the opposite. while everything generally works great i haven't had a single epub work eith extra typography settings. i procure books from gutenberg, feedbooks, and many other well known sites and even some sitez that specifically focus on clean proper ebook formatting.

if i use the stock fonts everything is fine. if i use sideloaded fonts i haven't seen even one epub work properly. for instance, if i load alegreya font on an epub it is bold. always. convert to kepub and it works as expected. if i use bitter font and adjust line hight, the line height jumps 10 times the normal amount at each setting step. and the margins similarly act all wonky.

That suggests you are loading the fonts incorrectly. I don't tend to use sideloaded fonts as they don't look any better to me. But, I grabbed the Alegraya and Bitter fonts from the first links that google showed me. Testing with these, I do not see any issues with changing the fonts or line heights with several books. And no issues with text being the wrong weight.

Alternatively, those sites are not producing books as clean as you think. From my experience, PG books are terrible and I would be planning to edit them before putting one on my devices. I would need to see a book to what could be causing the problem.

bookmarks have issues as well and sometimes dissapear and act funny. with kepub I've never had an issue.

There were issues in older firmware with how bookmarks for epubs were handled and this could lead to some loss of detail. But, I didn't lose any bookmarks.

and in every case converting to kepub has been the best solution. and thus my problem.

If you are actually converting to kepub, then what you are actually doing is an epub-to-epub conversion followed by adding the kepub specific spans and things. There is a good chance that the epub-to-epub conversion is solving a lot of the problems.

harry potter converts fine, but my kobo doesn't find it or even acknowledge it exists. and i can't seem to figure out why.

Have you checked what I asked?

[JSWolf]

What version firmware are you running? Also, did you create a directory in the root called fonts and put the font files in there?

Also, try an eBook from the MR library and see what happens. If it doesn't work, then someone can have a look and see what might be happening.

[luisdent]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That suggests you are loading the fonts incorrectly. I don't tend to use sideloaded fonts as they don't look any better to me. But, I grabbed the Alegraya and Bitter fonts from the first links that google showed me. Testing with these, I do not see any issues with changing the fonts or line heights with several books. And no issues with text being the wrong weight.

Alternatively, those sites are not producing books as clean as you think. From my experience, PG books are terrible and I would be planning to edit them before putting one on my devices. I would need to see a book to what could be causing the problem.

There were issues in older firmware with how bookmarks for epubs were handled and this could lead to some loss of detail. But, I didn't lose any bookmarks.

If you are actually converting to kepub, then what you are actually doing is an epub-to-epub conversion followed by adding the kepub specific spans and things. There is a good chance that the epub-to-epub conversion is solving a lot of the problems.


Have you checked what I asked?

i drop fonts in the font folder per kobo instructions. not sure how that could be wrong?

what were you asking me to check? i can't send to device with my kobo.the kobo utilities say the database version is too new so device management funtions don't work. i copy books into my reader directly to the folder. all of my kobo and calibre stuff is fully up to date, so again not sure what else to do?

[luisdent]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What version firmware are you running? Also, did you create a directory in the root called fonts and put the font files in there?

Also, try an eBook from the MR library and see what happens. If it doesn't work, then someone can have a look and see what might be happening.

yes. that's the only method I'm aware of. and it works, just poorly with epub standard. if othes aren't experiencing this, i can only assume it's a difference in device, kobo bug, or ebook issue. but again, I've used ebooks from many sources such as https://standardebooks.org/

if i use their kepub it works, epub no. for the record i had a kindle oasis with all of these books and it had zero issue.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by luisdent

i drop fonts in the font folder per kobo instructions. not sure how that could be wrong?

what were you asking me to check? i can't send to device with my kobo.the kobo utilities say the database version is too new so device management funtions don't work. i copy books into my reader directly to the folder. all of my kobo and calibre stuff is fully up to date, so again not sure what else to do?

Read the rest of that message. Then tick.
Folk here will be quick to point out when there are other issues with the update-driver.

font file names a CAsE sensitive. make sure your CSS matches your device.

[luisdent]

Originally Posted by theducks

Read the rest of that message. Then tick.
Folk here will be quick to point out when there are other issues with the update-driver.

font file names a CAsE sensitive. make sure your CSS matches your device.

I'm not sure what you mean, i downloaded and installed the fonts from the official google fonts. i never renamed them. and the font names don't all need to be in the epub, that's the point of the device being able to pick whichever font it wants right? so where would the font have to be case sensitivly correct?

also, I've reread your messages 3 times. i don't know what you're referring to that i haven't already addressed? if you qoute your point i can try to address it again...

[Sirtel]

For the record, I read epubs almost exclusively and have no issues with any settings, custom fonts included. But then, I edit the formatting of all my ebooks to match my preferences and patch my Kobo quite heavily. I've also had to rename some of my custom fonts with FontForge, else they didn't work properly (merely renaming the font file doesn't help). So yes, epubs on a Kobo can be finicky. Still, if you have issues with ALL your epubs and ALL your custom fonts, then someting's wrong with either your device or your fonts, or both.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by luisdent

I'm not sure what you mean, i downloaded and installed the fonts from the official google fonts. i never renamed them. and the font names don't all need to be in the epub, that's the point of the device being able to pick whichever font it wants right? so where would the font have to be case sensitivly correct?

also, I've reread your messages 3 times. i don't know what you're referring to that i haven't already addressed? if you qoute your point i can try to address it again...

The message about unsupported FW. All that means in this case is the driver needs updating to recognize the new FW number, the Kobo database has not really changed in recent times.

Your book calls for Obscura.TTF, but your device has obscura.ttf <brap, fail>
We are mainly talking FILE NAME as used, Internal font (Family) name IS an issue on some devices, but I have not run into that with my Aura 2

[luisdent]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

For the record, I read epubs almost exclusively and have no issues with any settings, custom fonts included. But then, I edit the formatting of all my ebooks to match my preferences and patch my Kobo quite heavily. I've also had to rename some of my custom fonts with FontForge, else they didn't work properly (merely renaming the font file doesn't help). So yes, epubs on a Kobo can be finicky. Still, if you have issues with ALL your epubs and ALL your custom fonts, then someting's wrong with either your device or your fonts, or both.

i agree, however ironically this has got sort of off topic. harry potter doesn't show up on my device. all other kepub do. the epub shows up. i get what you're saying about the database version, but i have verified the newest calibre is on my computer. i have verified the plugins and kobo utilities are up to date. i even reinstalled them all to be sure. it still gives me an error when i connect my kobo saying the database isn't supported or something similar.

I'm not sure what obscura is. i assume it is the publisher font, but it also seems irrelevant, as i have many custom fonts, none of which will be listed in any epub file normally. the kobo is supposed to use those and override the epub font. are you saying i need to manually list every custom font, case sensitive, in every epub file before putting them on my kobo? seems to defeat the purpose of custom fonts, and kepub doesn't have the issue. :-o

so back to my main point, how do i get the potter kepub to show up? kepub gives more functionality than epub with chapter progress and such, and has been working great for me. but i don't know how to tell if this is a book conversion issue or something else? the book is visible in the file structure in the root with the other books. I've tried renaming it, converting it with all sort of options to strip things and add things and in between. but it never shows up. the reader doesn't even look like it detects it. but if i then convert a different epub that other book will show up...?

[DNSB]

What operating system and version of calibre are you running? Using 5.11 under Windows, Linux and MacOS Big Sur, I do not get an unsupported firmware error with the latest firmware installed on any of my Kobo readers.

This suggests that you are not running the latest version of calibre.

As for the custom fonts, if the CSS for an epub lists a font or type of font, i.e, font-family: Georgia, serif;, since the Georgia font is present, it will be used.

For font names, there have been many discussions over the years. The internal font name must match the font file name, the correct -Regular, -Italic, -BoldItalic or -Bold (-R, -I, -Z and -B also work) must be appended to the font-file name, etc.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by luisdent

are you saying i need to manually list every custom font, case sensitive, in every epub file before putting them on my kobo? seems to defeat the purpose of custom fonts, and kepub doesn't have the issue. :-o

No, that's not necessary.