Kobalt: an alternative reader app for Kobo devices

[MrSilverstrike]

Originally Posted by fogice

I had a hang about an hour ago. I've attached the most recent log.

And I'll check out that book, thanks. Footnotes are a pain in the butt.

The hang seems to coincide with a sync and a dialog (wifi?) and a fix is already done for beta 9. Thanks for the log.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MrSilverstrike

That almost sounds like a hang. Any crash logs by any chance in the .adds/kobalt/diagnostics folder?

Here you go.

[JSWolf]

@MrSilverstrike please implement ADE page numbers. It's so really annoying/frustrating to change setting(s) and have the page be significantly different. If you do this, then you can get very near or at the page we were on. Not some unknown number of pages away. Going from font size 8 to 8.5 really moves the page I was on way too far away to page back until I find were I was. And having to remember some text and then search for it should not have to be done. If I was on page 149 and changed the font size, you could go to page 149 when returned to the book. I would either be right were I wanted or one screen back. That would be excellent. I know some people like 1 page = 1 screen, but it's not working.

Using AI, my choice of font would be 8,75. That's why using .25 increments instead of .5 would work much better. Another option is also to let us type in the font size we want.

Also, as for the slider for going to pages, please also allow us to type in a page number. That way if you are moving around in the book, we can get back easily enough knowing the page number.

[JSWolf]

I just found out what's wrong with the line height. It starts off at 100%. That's way too large as a starting point. It needs to start off at a much lower value. 100% is started at the font's default line height.

Can we please have a lower starting point for line height. 90% might be good starting point. Also, could you let is type in a line height that we want?

[Falkor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I found a rendering bug in beta 8. The following code should produce a 2px high black line but it's not black. It's a grayish color. And it's thicker then it should be.

hr {
  margin-top: 0.9em;
  margin-right: 40%;
  margin-bottom: 0.9em;
  margin-left: 40%;
  border-top: 2px solid;
}

Not a bug in Kobalt, hr has a 3D appearance by default. Calibre renders it similarly. Try this:

hr {
  margin-top: 0.9em;
  margin-right: 40%;
  margin-bottom: 0.9em;
  margin-left: 40%;
  border:none;
  height: 2px;
  background-color: #000;
}

[Falkor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I just found out what's wrong with the line height. It starts off at 100%. That's way too large as a starting point. It needs to start off at a much lower value. 100% is started at the font's defualt line height.

Can we please have a much lower starting point for line height. 65% or 70% might be good starting point. Also, could you let is type in a line height that we want?

Why shouldn't 100% be the starting point? That's really narrow.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

Why shouldn't 100% be the starting point? That's really narrow.

100% is the fonts line space. So if you have a font that has a wide line space, you end up with that wide space. There's no way to reduce the line space. I can easily see some wanting to reduce the line space. In the Kobo patch My 24 line spacing values the line spacing starts at a smaller value then one. I believe it starts at 0.7.

I use a line space of (in Kobalt terms) of 0.95. Which is 0.73 in RMSDK and KePub.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

Not a bug in Kobalt, hr has a 3D appearance by default. Calibre renders it similarly. Try this:

hr {
  margin-top: 0.9em;
  margin-right: 40%;
  margin-bottom: 0.9em;
  margin-left: 40%;
  border:none;
  height: 2px;
  background-color: #000;
}

Sorry, but that's wrong. In KePub, the line is still a solid black line. It's just a tad thicker then in RMSDK.

Calibre's viewer also renders the line as a black line. Thorium Reader also renders it as a black line.

[Uncle Robin]

Posting this here from github because I haven't seen it mentioned here. THANK YOU for keeping this as an option!

Well, I do think the fast mode will become the default, but you will absolutely be able to select the "full book pagination" mode in Settings!

[Dal Bhat]

Mr. Silverstrike, could you explain how to return to the place of reading after highlighting a word, searching for it from the dictionary definition page, and then opening one of the search results? At the list of search results, there is a back arrow. But if I open one of the results, how do I get back to my reading position?

This might best be conveyed with another YouTube tutorial you do, which are very good!

[Falkor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sorry, but that's wrong. In KePub, the line is still a solid black line. It's just a tad thicker then in RMSDK.

Calibre's viewer also renders the line as a black line. Thorium Reader also renders it as a black line.

They don't. Zoom in.

[Falkor]

Also, legacy RMSDK on a Kobo does not actually render it as a black line either. It's pretty dark and The 3d effect is just too subtle to see at this size.
Also included: samples of a current ADE, TENG and Apple Books. Everything single renderer I tried uses a 3D effect for your CSS statement.

setting the border to none and height to 2px gives a solid black line.

[JSWolf]

But there's no way I would ever zoom in like that. It's what the lines look like at normal reading size.

[Falkor]

if you want a solid black line that looks the same everywhere (except for Kobalt, apparently, because there's a bug here, indeed :-D), no border and a background color is the way to go.
Appearance of an unstyled hr or with border top varies a lot.