New to Kobo: How to start?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

-- Images can be zoomed in kepubs, but not in epubs. Nothing can be done about that, as far as I know.

That would maybe need a change to ADE.
BUT!
I've discovered recently that if the CSS for an image has the height & width in pt (not tried em) rather than px, then with real epub on Kobo using the font size slider in Aa menu will vary the size of the image too.

I'm not sure if this is "newish". If the image is either px or a mix of % and auto, in the CSS, then the image doesn't resize. Which is as expected.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Yes, the footnote popup window is only available for KEPUB, as is the ability to rapidly turn pages. With EPUB, you're stuck with 1 tap/click = 1 page turned.

That is not what I was referring to. I meant that with EPubs, it could be difficult to actually get a footnote to activate, due to the small tap sensitive area.

[Quoth]

I'd edit the HTML to include the previous word if there were a load of footnotes and it was a problem. However few of the books I read have any footnotes.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I'd edit the HTML to include the previous word if there were a load of footnotes and it was a problem. However few of the books I read have any footnotes.

I'd use kepub. I tend to just want to read and not edit html.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

I'd use kepub. I tend to just want to read and not edit html.

Mostly I don't edit. I convert Gutenberg to epub with more conversion filters than converting books from Amazon. If an ebook really needed editing it still would need editing for kepub. The footnotes is an edge case for fiction (I have all of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams on paper !)

I used kepub at first, but the epub is more similar to all of:
Wordprocessor files.
Print versions (as long as they are simple).
An epub on all other ereader makes and apps that respect CSS.
Amazon Kindle azw3. Not kfx/mobi/azw.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by John F

I'd use kepub. I tend to just want to read and not edit html.

I completely agree. I respect those who tinker, but when it comes to my Kobo, I accept a lot of things by default because I just want to relax and read. Of course, some people find tinkering relaxing! To each their own.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Cootey

I completely agree. I respect those who tinker, but when it comes to my Kobo, I accept a lot of things by default because I just want to relax and read. Of course, some people find tinkering relaxing! To each their own.

As for me, sometimes I'm in the mood for tinkering and sometimes for relaxing/reading. I edit all my books before loading them on my Kobos, so when I want to relax and read, I can do just that. Tinkering has already been done.

Mostly I edit because when I'm in the mood for reading, I absolutely do not want to fiddle with the device settings and feel irritated because I can't get the formatting to look the way I want. Much better to do the editing when I'm in the mood for it. Of course, most people probably aren't as fussy about formatting as I am.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Mostly I edit because when I'm in the mood for reading, I absolutely do not want to fiddle with the device settings and feel irritated because I can't get the formatting to look the way I want. Much better to do the editing when I'm in the mood for it. Of course, most people probably aren't as fussy about formatting as I am.

Much the same here. I would rather spend the minutes required to clean up an ebook to match my preferences than to tweak with the settings while reading. One recent example being a book from BookBale where the paragraph formatting used a line height of 1.6 and a blank line between each paragraph while also using indents. Took about 2 minutes to remove the line height and the gap between paragraphs and made my reading experience more pleasant.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Much the same here. I would rather spend the minutes required to clean up an ebook to match my preferences than to tweak with the settings while reading. One recent example being a book from BookBale where the paragraph formatting used a line height of 1.6 and a blank line between each paragraph while also using indents. Took about 2 minutes to remove the line height and the gap between paragraphs and made my reading experience more pleasant.

I've seen a lot of books recently with the 1.6 line height for every paragraph class. Seems to be the default in some program the book creators used, and of course no one bothered to change that. Who writes these stupid programs, I wonder?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I've seen a lot of books recently with the 1.6 line height for every paragraph class. Seems to be the default in some program the book creators used, and of course no one bothered to change that. Who writes these stupid programs, I wonder?

People who have never read an ebook? At times, that seems the only possible reason for some of the formatting I've seen.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Mostly I don't edit. I convert Gutenberg to epub with more conversion filters than converting books from Amazon. If an ebook really needed editing it still would need editing for kepub. The footnotes is an edge case for fiction (I have all of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams on paper !)

I used kepub at first, but the epub is more similar to all of:
Wordprocessor files.
Print versions (as long as they are simple).
An epub on all other ereader makes and apps that respect CSS.
Amazon Kindle azw3. Not kfx/mobi/azw.

Do you have automated checks for footnotes?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

Do you have automated checks for footnotes?

No.
I'd not even expect them, or much care about them in fiction where they'd rarely be more than a reference to an earlier book in the series, mainly to sell earlier books in the series.

I do automatically remove line-height and white-space from all titles by conversion when Add to Calibre. The PD titles additionally get “Smarten punctuation”, Fully justify (magically doesn't mess headings) and ‘Replace paragraph spacing with indent 1.3em’. Gutenberg uses Paragraph spacing. Sometimes they also use nested blockquotes instead of a single <p class="special margin">. I guess replacing tabs?

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

No.
I'd not even expect them, or much care about them in fiction where they'd rarely be more than a reference to an earlier book in the series, mainly to sell earlier books in the series.

...

I agree I don't see footnotes often, but when they are there, I appreciate that they are easy to click on when they are kepub. I don't want to start reading, only to realize I have to go back and edit some HTML to get acceptable footnote behaviour.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

I agree I don't see footnotes often, but when they are there, I appreciate that they are easy to click on when they are kepub. I don't want to start reading, only to realize I have to go back and edit some HTML to get acceptable footnote behaviour.

Yes, that's annoying.

Some publishers seem to have worse formatting (a place full of random flightless birds comes to mind), so if I buy one of their books off Kobo or Amazon etc, I might open it in the Calibre viewer and flick through 1st chapter just in case.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Yes, that's annoying.

Some publishers seem to have worse formatting (a place full of random flightless birds comes to mind), so if I buy one of their books off Kobo or Amazon etc, I might open it in the Calibre viewer and flick through 1st chapter just in case.

Personally, I don't track which publishers have good/bad formatting. I just run everything through calibre and read the kepub, and 99% of the times it looks good to me.