Next Firmware Update - Page margins and full justification

[RedRoverJ]

I use Calibre exclusively for organizing my eBook library. It is nothing to convert within Calibre to correct margins, spacing, etc. However, for someone who does not normally use Calibre it would seem more work.

[clintbradford]

JBlyth - Would you please privately (or here, I guess) send me a message: It seems that Australia is "ahead of the game" when it comes to some eReader devices. Could you just give me a little background of what the past year has been like for eReader consumers in your fine country? Just for my personal enrichment ... THANK YOU!

[JBlyth]

Originally Posted by clintbradford

JBlyth - Would you please privately (or here, I guess) send me a message: It seems that Australia is "ahead of the game" when it comes to some eReader devices. Could you just give me a little background of what the past year has been like for eReader consumers in your fine country? Just for my personal enrichment ... THANK YOU!

Hi Clint,

I must admit that my experience with eReaders only started at the beginning of June when the KOBO was released (and very quickly sold out) in Australia.

I had been watching the options for some time as I always get done for excess baggage weight (too many books) when I go to Japan each year for 8 weeks from August.

I almost bought a Kindle, but I didn't want to be tied to any particular book store, and the KOBO was much better priced in OZ- at the beginning of June anyway.

The KOBO suits me to perfection for what I need, which is basically to be able to easily read books from many different sources. The new firmware has improved things markedly, and I use CALIBRE to get the formatting as I like it, and also to convert from different formats on occasion. They make a perfect combination.

PM if I can help in any way!

Cheers
John in Sunny Carnarvon - Western Australia

[dwprice]

Ragged right margins are easier to read.

It would be great to collect all feature requests together so we can help the developers focus on the ones with the most negative impact on KOBO use based on typical use cases.

[Thrasher]

Originally Posted by Stinger

That IS, however, how most treebook novels are formatted. Some people are just used to it.

Yes, you're right, haha. Only shows that I don't read tree books all that much.

[Mememememe]

I have the same problem with gigantic margins on many ePub files I've used through ADE. I can't fix these in Calibre because I have no idea how to remove DRM. It's a shame, because this would be an easy solution to the big formatting problem: the space between paragraphs, and the lack of a first-line indent.


RE: justification -- Physical books have justified text because it's a more elegant and readable way of designing a book. It simply LOOKS better, but also the eye is thrown by ragged-right text (even if we're not conscious of this happening).

But on a small screen like an eInk screen, justification has the exact opposite effect. It looks worse and is less readable because of the gaping holes and rivers created in the text.

[dantaipan]

Since margins can be set in several ways, I don't see any easy fix for Kobo here. For me (until they make it illegal to break a lock in Canada) I prefer to be able to edit the margins as I wish.

[Stinger]

Originally Posted by dantaipan

Since margins can be set in several ways, I don't see any easy fix for Kobo here.

True... BUT! They just fixed the font resizing issue, which was also caused by what you mentioned above. So it shouldn't be too too difficult to modify those algorithms to work with indents instead of text size.

[pleochroic]

Originally Posted by artificial

I would prefer that margins are left the way they are. I'm a graphic designer, and the idea of text going right to the edge of the screen makes me shudder. The same goes for fully justified text on such as small screen.

i'm with you on full justification being shudder-inducing on a small screen (and especially on one with less resolution than a dead tree book).

but i find that the margin i am used to is provided by the beige kobo's bezel, since its color is so close to the e-ink colour. and i find myself reformatting books in calibre all the time now, to minimize the margins on the actual screen. this is probably quite different for the black kobo.

i am not sure how much configurability we can expect from a bare bones reader, but it sure doesn't hurt to consider it while brainstorming -- when in doubt, make it configurable.

[JBlyth]

Bump!

[marleyfan]

Originally Posted by RedRoverJ

I use Calibre exclusively for organizing my eBook library. It is nothing to convert within Calibre to correct margins, spacing, etc. However, for someone who does not normally use Calibre it would seem more work.

I tried to use Calibre to adjust the margins in a book I'm reading. After conversion I saw absolutely no difference in the margin. However the book went from taking almost 2 minutes to load down to about 10 seconds. I'm not sure why this happened.

[JBlyth]

Originally Posted by marleyfan

I tried to use Calibre to adjust the margins in a book I'm reading. After conversion I saw absolutely no difference in the margin. However the book went from taking almost 2 minutes to load down to about 10 seconds. I'm not sure why this happened.

Hi Marleyfan,

From an earlier post of mine.....

Personally, I use CALIBRE to reformat all my books, but I think many users would not wish to go down the remove DRM, remove a file or two (page-template.xpgt seems to be the current "large margin" culprit) from the EPUB itself, and then run through the CALIBRE convert process with margins set to zero etc.

It seems different EPUBs set their margins in different ways, but in many the page-template.xpgt seems to be the main culprit....

John in Sunny Carnarvon - Western Australia

[tpw]

Originally Posted by JBlyth

Hi Marleyfan,

From an earlier post of mine.....

Personally, I use CALIBRE to reformat all my books, but I think many users would not wish to go down the remove DRM, remove a file or two (page-template.xpgt seems to be the current "large margin" culprit) from the EPUB itself, and then run through the CALIBRE convert process with margins set to zero etc.

It seems different EPUBs set their margins in different ways, but in many the page-template.xpgt seems to be the main culprit....

John in Sunny Carnarvon - Western Australia

Thanks John, removing that pesky file fixed one of my books which Calibre was unable to remove the huge margins from.

[marleyfan]

Originally Posted by tpw

Thanks John, removing that pesky file fixed one of my books which Calibre was unable to remove the huge margins from.

Can you explain to me how to remove the file. I don't even see such a file. I seem to only have 2 files for the book. One is the cover picture and the other is the .epub file. Do I have to dig into the .epub file to fine the .xpgt file. If so....how do I do that? Thanks

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by JBlyth

Here is a rather poor image to show the effect of reducing the margins to a minimum and fully justifying the text.

See how much more text is available on the left image, when compared to the standard ADE format? I think it is more readable too!

John in Sunny Carnarvon - Western Australia

There is NO standard ADE format. The format you get from ePub via ADE is how the CSS specifies it to be. I change my ePub to specify no margins and if the publishes changes the base font size, I change it so it's left at the default. Also, any extraneous paragraph spaces are removed. And lastly, I set paragraph indents to be 1.1em.

Given the two screens, I prefer the one on the left based on the better formatting. It has nothing to do with the justification settings. However, the header for the Act I is better on the right.