The Grand Experiment!

[pepak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You embed the font in the ePub by either having the fonts in the ePub fule itself or in fonts off of the root and have the CSS point to it to use. You do not have to customize any part of the 505 to do this.

On the other hand, you have to modify each and every EPUB separately.

So if you want to change the font of an LRF, you have two choices, change the system font (long arduous process)

Not that long, nor arduous.

Now the ePub with an embedded font is just fine. And you can get true italics, true bold, and anything else you can do with a font

Like small-caps? ;-)

[pepak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

However, if you are using Reader Library or Calibre to move LRF to a 505, then opening the LRF (the first time) will be slow as the 505 has to paginate it. Then if you want to change the text size from there, it's again the need for pagination. Change the text size yet again and another pagination is in order.

Yes, that is true. But it is also true that this pagination will happen only once for each font size, and only if you didn't use Sony eBook Library to upload the book in the first place. With ADE's implementation of EPUB, slowdowns happen in every single instance when you move between chapters, because ADE does not cache the calculated data and computes it anew every single time. Which is especially annoying if your books happen to have a lot of footnotes, because every single footnote means two chapter-switches (to the footnote and back).

Personally, my biggest problem with EPUB isn't its speed, or its justification (both of which annoy me) but its stability - 505's version of ADE is just too unstable to use, I get reboots a number of times per book compared to a reboot every ten or twenty books I get with LRF. And that's even after I learned to avoid constructs which crash ADE every single time (just try to use "*" selector in CSS to see what I mean...).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pepak

On the other hand, you have to modify each and every EPUB separately.

This is true. But sometimes it's just as easy as a cut/paste to the CSS and it's done.

Not that long, nor arduous.

Actually, I can (if I desire) also hack the 505 to allow me to be able to change the default ADE fonts.

Like small-caps? ;-)

That or a script font for handwriting instead of needing a graphic.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pepak

Yes, that is true. But it is also true that this pagination will happen only once for each font size, and only if you didn't use Sony eBook Library to upload the book in the first place. With ADE's implementation of EPUB, slowdowns happen in every single instance when you move between chapters, because ADE does not cache the calculated data and computes it anew every single time. Which is especially annoying if your books happen to have a lot of footnotes, because every single footnote means two chapter-switches (to the footnote and back).

Yes, footnotes can take some time to get to. But going back is simple and quick.

Personally, my biggest problem with EPUB isn't its speed, or its justification (both of which annoy me) but its stability - 505's version of ADE is just too unstable to use, I get reboots a number of times per book compared to a reboot every ten or twenty books I get with LRF. And that's even after I learned to avoid constructs which crash ADE every single time (just try to use "*" selector in CSS to see what I mean...).

Well, the books I read in ePub seems to be fine. I don't get reboots. The last time I had an ePub cause a reboot was when Calibre botched the conversion from BMP to JPG. Resaving the JPG solved the problem. I find the 505's ADE to be quite stable. More stable then some given the reports I read here.

[pepak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Actually, I can (if I desire) also hack the 505 to allow me to be able to change the default ADE fonts.

I know - it was me who created the hack.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by pepak

,,,
Personally, my biggest problem with EPUB isn't its speed, or its justification (both of which annoy me) but its stability - 505's version of ADE is just too unstable to use, I get reboots a number of times per book compared to a reboot every ten or twenty books I get with LRF. And that's even after I learned to avoid constructs which crash ADE every single time (just try to use "*" selector in CSS to see what I mean...).

It has happened to me once in 3 months through probably 100 or more books.

[astra]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

1. I disagree

2. This is true. But there is always hope that Sony will update ADE in the 500, 505, 300, 700, & 600 since ADE in the 900 is of newer design.

Actually, going to the external ToC is quite fast. The original problem was something created by Calibre whihc as now been fixed. However, if you are using Reader Library or Calibre to move LRF to a 505, then opening the LRF (the first time) will be slow as the 505 has to paginate it. Then if you want to change the text size from there, it's again the need for pagination. Change the text size yet again and another pagination is in order.

According to others, using Reader Library causes the pagination already done with LRF to be lost. So it will once again be slow as it repaginates all over again.

Now, if you use eBook Library to manage content, then the pagination will be done for you and stay done. But then you lose access to the Sony eBookstore.

This is yet one more thing. Because embedding a font in ePub is easy to do, it gives me a better reading experience as I can use the font of my choice (usually Fontin). And because Fontin is an easier to read font, I can get more text per page with ePub then LRF.

I use Sony eBook Library only.
Thus:
Pagination LRF files makes them very fast.
Built-in fonts are absolutely fine for me.
So far, the edges are ragged. We have no idea if it ever change.

All of this means that unless you have time and wish and knowledge to tweak every single book you read, by changing fonts, digging into HTML codding for CSS etc., epub is no rival to LRF.
When a new hardback edition is delivered to me by Amazon, I don't spend another 1-2-3 hours on editing it. I have already spent a certain amount of time of my life to earn money to purchase the book. Why should I spend the same time of my life to earn the money to purchase ebook and then to spend even more on editing it if I can relax and enjoy reading or watching TV or doing zillion of other things? While editing one book might sound like not too much of time investment, if you count all time you spent in the last 3 years the number is going to be quite intimidating.

[daffy4u]

Just finished Already Dead in ePub using the font hack the Zelda linked me to (loved this book and would love another one with the lead character).

I loved the flexibility of being able to read it with the fontin font. One thing I noticed was that occasionally I would still have slow page turns. For maybe 10 pages in a row several times through out the book, I would see "formatting" during a page turn. I could see the new page under the "formatting" symbol but it still made the page turn 2 seconds or so long (about as slow as the embedded font LRF version of the book). The book was in the main memory. I removed the SD card with other books (only 2 books in the main memory) but I would still get the "formatting" symbol. I'm not sure what to do about this.

I used PRSPlus to make one other change. Now while reading the book I can press the center of the joypad to page forward. I did this because I received my M-Edge cover for the 505 and the corner strap was kind of in my way, even though the cover doesn't actually block any keys. I like this much better than the tiny buttons or the right arrow on the joypad. I still prefer the page buttons on the K2. They are in a more comfortable position for my thumbs and I don't have to press as hard to turn a page.

[daffy4u]

Question: When I press and hold the little forward button, it skips pages. Does anyone know how many pages it skips and does the number depend on how long you press the button?

I'm looking in the user guide but can't find the info. I'm guessing this is an undocumented Easter Egg feature.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Question: When I press and hold the little forward button, it skips pages. Does anyone know how many pages it skips and does the number depend on how long you press the button?

I'm looking in the user guide but can't find the info. I'm guessing this is an undocumented Easter Egg feature.

It's either 5 or 10 pages. I can't remember which.

BOb

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

It's either 5 or 10 pages. I can't remember which.

BOb

I believe it's 10 pages.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Question: When I press and hold the little forward button, it skips pages. Does anyone know how many pages it skips and does the number depend on how long you press the button?

I'm looking in the user guide but can't find the info. I'm guessing this is an undocumented Easter Egg feature.

I believe it is 10.

It's in the manual.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I believe it is 10.

It's in the manual.

Thanks, I finally found it. I searched with "skip", "fan", "bypass" and a couple other I don't remember. Finally just searching for "pages" led me to "jump 10 pages".

[daffy4u]

I finally figured out how make the font substitution work with PRSPlus so that I don't have to go through Calibre to embed the font.

Per the PRSPlus site.

(path to custom css is: internal memory /database/system/PRSPlus/epub/style.css)

I already had my fontin css file saved as a txt file. I just renamed a copy as "style.css" and droped it in the PRSPlus/epub/ folder. I already had a fonts folder per Zelada's instructions. I then downloaded a book from Feedbooks and moved it directly onto the 505 without every opening Calibre. It worked!

Now does anyone know how I would add the border parameter to my css file?

@font-face {
  font-family: "Fontin";
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: normal;
  src: url(res:///Data/fonts/Fontin-Regular.ttf);
}

@font-face {
  font-family: "Fontin";
  font-weight: bold;
  font-style: normal;
  src: url(res:///Data/fonts/Fontin-Bold.ttf);
}

@font-face {
  font-family: "Fontin";
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: italic;
  src: url(res:///Data/fonts/Fontin-Italic.ttf);
}

@font-face {
  font-family: "Fontin Sans";
  font-weight: bold;
  font-style: italic;
  src: url(res:///Data/fonts/Fontin_Sans_BI.otf);
}

body {
  font-family: "Fontin", serif;
}

[gregcd]

Hi daffy
thats a nice screen capture there, howd you do it?