Firmware 5.0.175773

[Falkor]

Interesting, so I guess they broke a couple of things and the rest is just lack of features. How is the letter spacing with the Kobo renderer?

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Orphans and widows don't work, which is a plus in my view (I set them to 1 for RMSDK, to avoid large gaps at the bottom of the page).

Avoiding them is still considered to be good style, so I think 2 would be a good default value. But I would very much welcome if this was adjustable in the user interface.

Or is it possible to place a CSS with user settings somewhere?

Originally Posted by Sirtel

(…) and as for page breaks, the best way to do those is separate html files, then they work correctly. I edit my ebooks and split the files if needed. I set the text alignment in the css too.

Quite a procedure. I wonder why this is not implemented. It's a device for reading books – books can have page breaks!
RMSDK handles page breaks just fine.

Another thing that bothers me is the lack of hyphenation. None of my ePubs have soft hyphens, so it would make sense if the device could handle hyphenation.

[Sirtel]

AFAIK Kobo does hyphenation just fine, and it's possible to use other hyphenation dictionaries than the default one. Personally I can't stand hyphenation, so I disable it in the book css.

I haven't noticed any difference in letter spacing between the kepub renderer and RMSDK, unless it's specified in the css - the kepub renderer handles it badly if that's the case. Otherwise the fonts and spacing look the same.

[Falkor]

Without hyphenation, the gaps between words can get quite large when reading in justified mode, so I'd prefer to have it.
Not sure what's the problem with hyphenation on the Tolino. Maybe its dictionaries cannot be used for hyphenation?

Both, the default renderer and RMSDK ignore CSS letter spacing instructions.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Falkor

Without hyphenation, the gaps between words can get quite large when reading in justified mode, so I'd prefer to have it.

There's a patch for reducing word spacing in the Kobo kepub reader, I find it useful. But I use a smallish font size in general, so gaps between words aren't much of an issue for me. Split words bother me more.

[Falkor]

The gaps in RMSDK are often rather small, but I sometimes read German books and they tend to use long compound words. It takes just two long compound words in the wrong spot to cause ridiculously large gaps if there is no hyphenation.

Too many hyphens or hyphens in the wrong spots would probably bother me too, but sensible hyphenation settings should be rather unobtrusive.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Falkor

The gaps in RMSDK are often rather small, but I sometimes read German books and they tend to use long compound words. It takes just two long compound words in the wrong spot to cause ridiculously large gaps if there is no hyphenation.

Too many hyphens or hyphens in the wrong spots would probably bother me too, but sensible hyphenation settings should be rather unobtrusive.

Another factor is the screen size - the gaps are smaller on a larger screen, as more words fit on the screen. I find them tolerable on the 8'' screen of my Sage, even in the kepub reader; they're also mostly fine in RMSDK of my 7'' Libra 2. But Tolino Shine 5 is a 6'' reader, if I'm not mistaken - the gaps are worse there.

And of course both the side margin and font sizes matter as well.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

Does the webkit based renderer on Kobo suffer from the same issues as the Shine 5's default renderer?

The letter spacing is way too narrow: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...28#post4471428

The screen grabs look good to me. I like the letter spacing. It's not an issue that I see.

[Falkor]

Right. As it depends on the font size settings as well as the screen size, ideally this should be set on the device rather than in the ePub.
Advanced hyphenation settings (hyphenate-limit-chars, hyphenate-limit-lines and hyphenate-limit-last) may be overwhelming for most users, though. But I think on devices made for reading books all kinds of typography features really need to be supported.

[Falkor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The screen grabs look good to me. I like the letter spacing. It's not an issue that I see.

For me the difference is quite significant. I installed the font on the device and was immediately disappointed in how it looked. Switching to RMSDK was a revelation.

It's not the font file itself that is the problem, btw. The pre-installed fonts are also rendered with reduced letter spacing when using the default renderer.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

For me the difference is quite significant. I installed the font on the device and was immediately disappointed in how it looked. Switching to RMSDK was a revelation.

It's not the font file itself that is the problem, btw. The pre-installed fonts are also rendered with reduced letter spacing when using the default renderer.

The problem is that a small letter space is not good for slab serif fonts. Besides, slab serif fonts look rather ugly. Try a proper serif font and see what you get

[Falkor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem is that a small letter space is not good for slab serif fonts. Besides, slab serif fonts look rather ugly. Try a proper serif font and see what you get

Actually I found the narrow letter spacing to be a bigger issue in the first sample –*with the 'proper' serif font.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

Actually I found the narrow letter spacing to be a bigger issue in the first sample –*with the 'proper' serif font.

I like the first sample. The second is very ugly and almost unreadable.

[Falkor]

I wouldn't read a book in Bitter either, but I like both samples better with the wider letter spacing.

Funny how different font preferences are. EB Garamond is my preferred choice for reading. Apparently many don't like this font on e-ink displays, but with a little weight added it works great for me.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

I wouldn't read a book in Bitter either, but I like both samples better with the wider letter spacing.

Funny how different font preferences are. EB Garamond is my preferred choice for reading. Apparently many don't like this font on e-ink displays, but with a little weight added it works great for me.

I don't like any version of Garamond on eInk. If I was to use EB Garamond, I would have to up the weight a lot.

[Falkor]

I guess I just have a thing for fonts with a small X-height. I also like Crimson Pro