Ligature display

[yucca]

Originally Posted by yucca

It seems that I have been too optimistic about font embedding. It works fine in web browsers nowadays, and I had tested the technique in Android Reader, too, and was happy about it. But neither Adobe Digital Editions nor Reader for PC seems to support font embedding.

But was I too naive now? I only tested using an .otf font, not with a “stack” of font formats, as we normally do on web pages.

Can anyone help with some experience on font embedding support in e-book readers? Which formats are supported, and are there some tricks needed? This must be a frequent question, mustn’t it?

[Turtle91]

Here's a thread that talks about embedding fonts.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by yucca

Yes, that makes font tweaking very easy (if you want just the Greek words in an embedded font): after other @ rules, you would add e.g.

@font-face {
font-family: FreeSerif;
font-weight: normal;
font-sytle: normal;
src: url(../Fonts/FreeSerif.otf;
}

.greek {
font-family: FreeSerif;
}

and you would just need to add the FreeSerif.otf font in the Fonts folder. (I probably would not use FreeSerif, but it was easy to test with it.)

.

note the SRC correction

I made a @fonts template clip where all I need to do is name the Family and fill out the font file (and adjust for bold and italic if needed)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Instead of embedding a font for short/limited quotes in an alternate language, you could just insert it as an image. It wouldn't change if the reader changed font size, and it's not elegant, but if it is a stand-alone quote it should work well.

That is not a very elegant solution. I'd embed the font and use Calibre to subest it. I did that for a single line of mirrored text.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That is not a very elegant solution. I'd embed the font and use Calibre to subest it. I did that for a single line of mirrored text.

Yup, as I said, it's inelegant. But if it's a single quote (one-off) then it is A solution which avoids embedding and subsetting a font for only a few characters.

I've seen it used when inserting a different character/equation etc. within a sentence. Personally, I wouldn't use it in a sentence; I think that looks horrible when you change the background color unless the device/app supports transparent background, but it is OK if it is used like a blockquote.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Yup, as I said, it's inelegant. But if it's a single quote (one-off) then it is A solution which avoids embedding and subsetting a font for only a few characters.

I've seen it used when inserting a different character/equation etc. within a sentence. Personally, I wouldn't use it in a sentence; I think that looks horrible when you change the background color unless the device/app supports transparent background, but it is OK if it is used like a blockquote.

In the eBook Mr. Panumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, it had one line that was in a mirrored font. I embedded Charis SIL and modified the regular version to be mirrored. I did this so the mirrored text would look good. I did subset it and it wasn't that much bigger.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

In the eBook Mr. Panumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, it had one line that was in a mirrored font. I embedded Charis SIL and modified the regular version to be mirrored. I did this so the mirrored text would look good. I did subset it and it wasn't that much bigger.

BTW, you wouldn't need to embed any special fonts for mirrored text in KF8 files, since they support mirrored text (via 2D Transforms) out of the box.
This is one area in which Kindles actually offer more formatting choices than ADE/RMSDK based devices and apps.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

BTW, you wouldn't need to embed any special fonts for mirrored text in KF8 files, since they support mirrored text (via 2D Transforms) out of the box.
This is one area in which Kindles actually offer more formatting choices than ADE/RMSDK based devices and apps.

The problem with KF8 is that even though it has more features then ePub, most times they don't get used because most times, the KF8 editions get made from an ePub edition so anything ePub cannot do, KF8 won't be doing even if KF8 does it.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Why not use the character map to copy-paste whatever you want?

Much larger font size (I raise the font on the Wikipedia/Fileformat page HUGE, so it is very easy to see the accent characters).

Also, having them all organized in a table format by accent is MUCH easier than using the character map.

Plus if you do not know the exact name of the accent, but you know the LOOK of the accent, this can help. I have zero knowledge of Greek, but using the accent table on Wikipedia helped me figure out all the characters in the actual text of the book.

Originally Posted by yucca

I suspect it is a font issue rather than Unicode support problem. The readers probably interpret the character data properly, they just fail to display it. E.g., Adobe Digital Editions (on Win 7) shows the Greek characters in your epub OK, except that they are too slanted, but this is probably a feature of the font it is using. (Greek letters have often been designed in italic style.)

I did not know that some fonts already render these greek characters as pre-italics... in all the ones I tested, they were normal (unitalics).

I try to emulate the original book as closely as possible (so I made the .greek class font-style: italic).

I will have to take a closer look at font embedding more closely and do some more tests when I get some free time. Maybe it was just a mistake on my part in the implementation.

I tried to dabble in font embedding many months ago, when I was trying to create a font with just a SINGLE character in it, and assigning the Chi Rho to display in that font:

☧

Originally Posted by theducks

I made a @fonts template clip where all I need to do is name the Family and fill out the font file (and adjust for bold and italic if needed)

Genius, I always forget to add helpful Clips such as this. I will definitely add lots of commonly used CSS to my Clips section now.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

I personally use this site to easily search for unicode characters (then I copy/paste them):

http://www.fileformat.info/info/unic...preview=entity [...]

Those who can read Greek might find the following two web sites helpful:

Lexilogos Ancient Greek Keyboard Online

Online Betacode Converter (It's a German site, but the usage is pretty much self-explanatory: enter Betacode and click Hui!)

Both methods are much faster then Copy & Paste.