Kobalt: an alternative reader app for Kobo devices

[MrSilverstrike]

Originally Posted by Apollyon202

Kobalt is really gentle on the battery. Probably placebo, but it feels like I get more battery life with it than I had on Nickel.

It's standby, yeah. I've measured it with ~120 hour autonomous tests around beta 2, and tests showed about the same drain as Nickel on firmware 4.x, and better than Nickel on firmware 6.x.

With the latest update it could be even better since I did some background optimizations. Haven't actually measured it for beta 6 or 7.

[PeterT]

Thanks for the addition of About to the library menu. Makes it far easier to validate that the APK install has happened.

[Sirtel]

Installed Beta 7 on my Libra 2. All seems to work perfectly.

[Dal Bhat]

New in Beta 7: when opening the book, the cover image flashes rapidly 3 or 4 times while loading. In Beta 6 it was static. Don't care much for the flashing. This on a Clara BW.

[neclepsio]

Originally Posted by neclepsio

I cannot build for Kobo qt5 and found no instruction. After downloading the docker container, as per console message, I get: "CMake Error: Could not read presets from /work/platforms/kobo: File not found"

For anyone having this error (I am using Fedora), you have to add the ":z" near the end of platforms/kobo/build.sh:

"$engine" run [...] \
--volume "$root:/work:z" \
--volume "$cache:/dependency-cache:z" \

[AnnaPavlv]

Hello. I really like your application and trying to improve and modernize it. But it seems to me with each update becomes a little but worse due to the addition of new features (some generally useless at the development stage and debunced in particular KoSync) I stopped at 4 beta and consider it the best.

[Acopdegarrotix]

Long tables are not split up nicely. The last row is partially shown and repeated at the very top of the next screen, overriding its top margin setting.

OTOH, the table line spacing issue has indeed been fixed


Now, a question, if I may. My request to improve the flow of text around images has been on your tracker as a work in progress for a while, but I see is no longer there. Is it not doable, perhaps?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by AnnaPavlv

Hello. I really like your application and trying to improve and modernize it. But it seems to me with each update becomes a little but worse due to the addition of new features (some generally useless at the development stage and debunced in particular KoSync) I stopped at 4 beta and consider it the best.

Well, people who want those new features have a different opinion. I definitely like Beta 7 better than I liked Beta 4.

[howyoudoin]

I don’t find any depreciations in the latest version compared to previous ones.

[Dal Bhat]

Originally Posted by Dal Bhat

New in Beta 7: when opening the book, the cover image flashes rapidly 3 or 4 times while loading. In Beta 6 it was static. Don't care much for the flashing. This on a Clara BW.

I thought it might have been due to using landscape mode, but no. Does it in portrait, too.

[dhampny]

When I sync reading progress to a secondary reader, the text lines in the box where I choose what position I wish to resume at ("Keep this position" or "Use synced position) are cut in half. That is, the top line is missing its upper half and the bottom line is missing its lower half. It's legible, but just.

[Lys]

Hi! I tried to install the latest beta 7 on my KLC (running 4.4623852 firmware), but Kobalt seems to have not loaded correctly.
I have no option in "More > Settings > Reading settings" menu, and all my files open with Nickel (despite having the option to open them to Kobalt if I long-press on them, but even if I do, they fall-back to Nickel).

I tried to uninstall it and install it again, but no luck. I'm running a bunch of mods (nickelmenu, nickelseries, your other mods, screensaver, nickelhardcover, koreader...) can be there something that is causing a conflict with Kobalt?

Thanks!

[rantanplan]

Can you make the kosync a little bit more robust with an option like "load at the beginning of sentence" and "load at the beginning of paragraph"?

[fogice]

Is anyone having issues with Vertical Justification?

I have an open discussion going with Nico at github issue 56. He can't reproduce my spacing issue, even after I sent him a representative book from my collection. But I get it on every book.

Sometimes, the vertical justification doesn't reach the bottom of the page. It happens more often on pages where there are graphics on the page (such as a *** separator image), and on the first pages of chapters, but sometimes it happens in the middle of a chapter. I've examined the text, I see nothing out of the ordinary in those parts.

It is easier to see if you turn on 2 column landscape mode, and if you turn on widow/orphan protection, but it happens without those on as well.

I've tested with kepubs sent by Calibre, and epubs directly handpasted into the filesystem.

I even did a clean reinstall of Kobalt beta 7 and changed a bare minimum of settings (Widows/orphans: avoid; Expand line spacing: all suitable pages; Orientation: allow both; Two columns in landscape : on) and I continue to reproduce the issue.

So, I ask again: does anyone else see this? Or is my Libra 2 cursed, and do I need to reformat it as well? This is a standout feature of Kobalt, one I've been hoping for for years, and I want it to work perfectly.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by fogice

Is anyone having issues with Vertical Justification?

I have an open discussion going with Nico at github issue 56. He can't reproduce my spacing issue, even after I sent him a representative book from my collection. But I get it on every book.

Sometimes, the vertical justification doesn't reach the bottom of the page. It happens more often on pages where there are graphics on the page (such as a *** separator image), and on the first pages of chapters, but sometimes it happens in the middle of a chapter. I've examined the text, I see nothing out of the ordinary in those parts.

It is easier to see if you turn on 2 column landscape mode, and if you turn on widow/orphan protection, but it happens without those on as well.

I've tested with kepubs sent by Calibre, and epubs directly handpasted into the filesystem.

I even did a clean reinstall of Kobalt beta 7 and changed a bare minimum of settings (Widows/orphans: avoid; Expand line spacing: all suitable pages; Orientation: allow both; Two columns in landscape : on) and I continue to reproduce the issue.

So, I ask again: does anyone else see this? Or is my Libra 2 cursed, and do I need to reformat it as well? This is a standout feature of Kobalt, one I've been hoping for for years, and I want it to work perfectly.

That looks like an issue with widows and orphans. Edit your eBook and if you have a body style in CSS, replace it with the following and if not, just add this to the CSS. I'd like to know if this solves the problem.

CSS

body {
  widows: 1;
  orphans: 1;
  margin-top: 0;
  margin-right: 0;
  margin-bottom: 0;
  margin-left: 0;
  text-align: justify;
}