Issues with Embedding Fonts

Ryinth · 01-26-2025, 02:53 AM

My new book has a great deal of texted conversations, and I want to use a couple of special characters at the start of each message to designate that (incoming, outgoing, message not sent, etc).

I started with what I thought were basic unicode characters (insert -> symbol on Google docs), but they just appear as ?? in most readers.

I then used the Calibre editor and insert special character, thinking that might actually embed them, but equally they were either ?? or fully absent.

I figured that if I embed a font that would help, so found a free-for-commercial font which would have suitable characters for what I need and...well the above happened.

Text properly shows up on the "texted" lines, where it starts with two glyphs from the custom font, but paragraphs that were otherwise entirely default text have converted entirely to the custom font?

I feel like I'm missing something obvious? How do I force the rest of the text back to default? (This is my first choice).

I then tried to embed two fonts, one for the "normal" text and one for the special characters.

This shows properly on Calibre book view, and Pocketbook and Adobe Digital Editions, but ReadEra seems to only show one of the two custom fonts (the "normal" one, not the "special" one).

I'd appreciate any help.

Quoth · 01-26-2025, 02:09 PM

Use a regular character as you can't guarantee the font for your special characters will be used.

HOWEVER
In your font embedding attempt in odt/docx you need a character style that overrides the paragraph style. This becomes a span in the HTML. Or code manually
<p class="indented"><span="special-f">¬</span>rest of text</p>

Then the css for "indented" and "special-f" have two suitable font families, with fallback. But it will fail unless users pick "Publisher" etc on ereader, and some apps and formats simply won't use embedded fonts.

JSWolf · 01-26-2025, 03:19 PM

Make this character into a graphic and use that. You cannot guarantee that font will be used when embedded.

Quoth · 01-26-2025, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Make this character into a graphic and use that. You cannot guarantee that font will be used when embedded.

But that usually won't scale with the font. I tried it with some Chinese and it was rubbish.

JSWolf · 01-26-2025, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

But that usually won't scale with the font. I tried it with some Chinese and it was rubbish.

The character could be converted to SVG. That will scale well.

Quoth · 01-27-2025, 04:01 AM

But svg isn't supported everywhere!

JSWolf · 01-27-2025, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

But svg isn't supported everywhere!

It is in KF8/KFX and ePub. If it's not, that's the fault of the software being used.

01-26-2025, 02:53 AM	#1
Ryinth Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2019 Device: Kindle App	Issues with Embedding Fonts My new book has a great deal of texted conversations, and I want to use a couple of special characters at the start of each message to designate that (incoming, outgoing, message not sent, etc). I started with what I thought were basic unicode characters (insert -> symbol on Google docs), but they just appear as ?? in most readers. I then used the Calibre editor and insert special character, thinking that might actually embed them, but equally they were either ?? or fully absent. I figured that if I embed a font that would help, so found a free-for-commercial font which would have suitable characters for what I need and...well the above happened. Text properly shows up on the "texted" lines, where it starts with two glyphs from the custom font, but paragraphs that were otherwise entirely default text have converted entirely to the custom font? I feel like I'm missing something obvious? How do I force the rest of the text back to default? (This is my first choice). I then tried to embed two fonts, one for the "normal" text and one for the special characters. This shows properly on Calibre book view, and Pocketbook and Adobe Digital Editions, but ReadEra seems to only show one of the two custom fonts (the "normal" one, not the "special" one). I'd appreciate any help. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by pdurrant; 01-26-2025 at 02:57 PM. Reason: attached image

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01-26-2025, 02:09 PM	#2
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,159 Karma: 105212035 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	Use a regular character as you can't guarantee the font for your special characters will be used. HOWEVER In your font embedding attempt in odt/docx you need a character style that overrides the paragraph style. This becomes a span in the HTML. Or code manually <p class="indented"><span="special-f">¬</span>rest of text</p> Then the css for "indented" and "special-f" have two suitable font families, with fallback. But it will fail unless users pick "Publisher" etc on ereader, and some apps and formats simply won't use embedded fonts.

01-26-2025, 03:19 PM	#3
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,796 Karma: 146391129 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Make this character into a graphic and use that. You cannot guarantee that font will be used when embedded.

01-27-2025, 04:01 AM	#6
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,159 Karma: 105212035 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	But svg isn't supported everywhere!