Best reader(s), personal experience

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I like both, but the fonts on the HD 3 stand out more. (It may not be something you particularly like, but I like contrast.) I didn't realize how pronounced this was until I compared the HD3 and the Clara (side by side, same book, same font, same basic lighting). The Clara definitely renders fonts differently (duller). This is the Constantia font (probably too dark for many) but the Clara seems to "lighten" it, the HD 3 seems to keep it "as is."

I couldn't use any sideloaded font on my Kobos without patching, which enables the weight slider for them. They're all far too faded without it.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I couldn't use any sideloaded font on my Kobos without patching, which enables the weight slider for them. They're all far too faded without it.

Just discovered that I can't change my fonts in ePubs at all on that Clara. So the pictures are not correct. Now I've got to figure out how to get my fonts working again. (This is what I mean by "tweaking" Kobos.)

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Just discovered that I can't change my fonts in ePubs at all on that Clara. So the pictures are not correct. Now I've got to figure out how to get my fonts working again. (This is what I mean by "tweaking" Kobos.)

Did the Clara have the 4.31 update? That has a bug with fonts. Better to downgrade until Kobo has released a fix.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Did the Clara have the 4.31 update? That has a bug with fonts. Better to downgrade until Kobo has released a fix.

It didn't but I upgraded to it. Maybe there was a problem with 4.30.x as well. Now when I change to Constantia it says "Constantia" but displays the Publisher's font. At least now, it appears, the built-in fonts are working correctly. If I have to reset to downgrade I don't want to do it. I'll just wait until the next firmware update comes out.

EDIT: Fonts work on some books, so I don't know what's going on. The font issue seems intermittent (which makes it really "fun" to track down).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by rcentros

EDIT: Fonts work on some books, so I don't know what's going on. The font issue seems intermittent (which makes it really "fun" to track down).

AFAIK it's epubs having the font issue, not kepubs (I haven't updated my Kobos, so I go by what others reported).

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

AFAIK it's epubs having the font issue, not kepubs (I haven't updated my Kobos, so I go by what others reported).

I meant some ePubs work and other ePubs don't. I'm beginning to think Kobo treats ePubs as second class citizens. If KePubs had "real" page numbers I would probably just use them. (But even then I wouldn't want to convert all my ePubs to KePubs for the Kobo.)

[rcentros]

This looks like it might be a Calibre 5.3x issue. I've always embedded Constantia in my converted books. It always worked fine (even with Sony eReaders). Now it doesn't. What's weird is that, in Calibre's built-in eBook reader, Constantia shows as the default font. When I transfer the same book to an eReader (any eReader) I somehow lose Constantia? Never ran into this before. I even tried converting a Kindle book I converted a couple years ago. The original conversion works as expected. The new one does not.

This was my brain's fault. It's been so long since I've done any converting in Calibre that I forgot that you have to clear text properties (at least sometimes) when embedding a new font into the book. Also, the reason the Calibre eReader properly displayed the Constantia font is because I set up to use Constantia. (I forget about that also.) So I batted 0-2 on this.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I meant some ePubs work and other ePubs don't. I'm beginning to think Kobo treats ePubs as second class citizens. If KePubs had "real" page numbers I would probably just use them. (But even then I wouldn't want to convert all my ePubs to KePubs for the Kobo.)

They clearly do. The ePub side is missing numerous features, I don't think it supports any or very little ePub 3 features so no right to left, mathML etc. I don't think they've really changed anything for years. You also don't need to convert all your ePubs to kepubs if you install the Kobo Touch Extended plug in for Calibre. It will auto convert them to kepubs when you transfer them with Calibre. That way the ones in your library are always ePubs.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

They clearly do. The ePub side is missing numerous features, I don't think it supports any or very little ePub 3 features so no right to left, mathML etc. I don't think they've really changed anything for years.

Of course they treat the kepub renderer better. I mean, they have this store that they want to sell books from, so they need to make sure they work. Why is anyone surprised about that? Isn't that the sane behaviour of any company?

But, they don't ignore ePubs. There have been plenty of changes and fixes in the ePub renderer over the years. But, they have a simple problem. They don't control it. For ePubs, they use the Adobe RMSDK. They need to use that to support books with Adobe DRM. And because they use this, they get whatever features it support. They also get any bugs in it. And the lack of some features the kepub renderer has is because the Adobe RMSDK doesn't support them and hence Kobo can't support them.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

They clearly do. The ePub side is missing numerous features, I don't think it supports any or very little ePub 3 features so no right to left, mathML etc. I don't think they've really changed anything for years. You also don't need to convert all your ePubs to kepubs if you install the Kobo Touch Extended plug in for Calibre. It will auto convert them to kepubs when you transfer them with Calibre. That way the ones in your library are always ePubs.

I'll look into that, but I really don't like KePubs because of the page-per-screen numbering system. In this case, however, the font issue was my fault. I had forgotten how to operate the "convert option" in Calibre. I think I'm still missing some of the steps I used to know to make my pages look a little nicer.

[Sirtel]

I don't use page numbers at all anymore, only the progress bar. I have the page numbers in Calibre and add them to the synopsis when I send books to my Kobo, so I have an idea how long they are. But I don't need the numbers constantly displayed while reading.

That said, I still use mostly epubs on the Libra 2, as they just look nicer on a smaller screen. I use only kepubs (via the extended driver) on my Sage.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Of course they treat the kepub renderer better. I mean, they have this store that they want to sell books from, so they need to make sure they work. Why is anyone surprised about that? Isn't that the sane behaviour of any company?

But, they don't ignore ePubs. There have been plenty of changes and fixes in the ePub renderer over the years. But, they have a simple problem. They don't control it. For ePubs, they use the Adobe RMSDK. They need to use that to support books with Adobe DRM. And because they use this, they get whatever features it support. They also get any bugs in it. And the lack of some features the kepub renderer has is because the Adobe RMSDK doesn't support them and hence Kobo can't support them.

Right except it's pretty clear at this point the RMSDK used in Adobe's Digital Editions on PC/mobile are significantly different from what they have on Kobo. E.g. those support MathML. I'm sure Adobe would be happy license it out for some chunk of change.

[Quoth]

There also plenty of Android Apps that are atrocious whereas every epub eink I've tested and some old dedicated LCD ereaders beats KF7 mobi. Even the oldest RMSDK is better than old Kindles and I'm no fan of Adobe. I think a lot of their SW is atrocious, apart from the pricing.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I don't use page numbers at all anymore, only the progress bar. I have the page numbers in Calibre and add them to the synopsis when I send books to my Kobo, so I have an idea how long they are. But I don't need the numbers constantly displayed while reading.

I only use the progress bar when I'm reading as well. In the PocketBook I don't have any footer or header at all. But if I'm leaving the house I like to pick up a "road warrior" eReader and it's nice to say, "I'm at page 212" and then, when I pick up the other eReader I can go immediately to that page and continue reading. (Works with the Nook, EzReader, Tolino, PocketBook and Sonys.) That's another thing that bothers me a bit about Kobos, no way to go to a specific page number (even when using ePubs). Can you imagine how much fun it is to go to page 81 of a 2,300 page book using the slider? I kept hopping over it by about 100 pages. In this particular book the Table of Contents works by sections not chapters -- so the next section after page 43 is 281.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I only use the progress bar when I'm reading as well. In the PocketBook I don't have any footer or header at all. But if I'm leaving the house I like to pick up a "road warrior" eReader and it's nice to say, "I'm at page 212" and then, when I pick up the other eReader I can go immediately to that page and continue reading. (Works with the Nook, EzReader, Tolino, PocketBook and Sonys.) That's another thing that bothers me a bit about Kobos, no way to go to a specific page number (even when using ePubs). Can you imagine how much fun it is to go to page 81 of a 2,300 page book using the slider? I kept hopping over it by about 100 pages. In this particular book the Table of Contents works by sections not chapters -- so the next section after page 43 is 281.

Yeah. I often read the same book on different readers as well. So far I've managed to get by with the help of the TOC, but I guess I should start to use the trick a poster here talked about, namely remember a specific phrase on the page. That should work on any ereader. But unfortunately I still constantly forget to do so.