Why android epub apps almost always disregard provided CSS

[mrmikel]

Many of the books in the MR library use stylesheets and a lot of those that don't use style at the top of each section of the book.

Medwatt you seem to be after something that no one is quite responding to. If it is related to fonts, then it can be that the fonts exist on your computer, but they do not exist on the tablet. This would cause them to display on your computer but not on a tablet unless the fonts are embedded within the epub. Diacritical marks outside the basic ones would not show up then.

[DiapDealer]

Perhaps it would be more productive, medwatt, for you to post a sample epub wherein you believe your external stylesheet is being ignored by most reading apps.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Perhaps it would be more productive, medwatt, for you to post a sample epub wherein you believe your external stylesheet is being ignored by most reading apps.

+1

It also couldn't hurt to have your stylesheet validated by the W3C validator.

[mrmikel]

One thing to be aware of is that Sigil and the Calibre editor DO NOT show it as it will be displayed necessarily. They are more tolerant of errors and will accept web page types of styles which are not acceptable in epubs.

If you are making epubs to be shown on a variety of devices, you need to make sure you stick to the subset of styles that are allowed by epubs, not the broader ones which make up web pages.

Having them validated is dead simple in Sigil, Validate Stylesheets with W3C, so it is the thing to do.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by medwatt

<snip>
1. ADE - Headings and div tags are no longer centered, everything is indented (First paragraph should not be indented)
2. MoonReader - Line height is increased, headings are left aligned, no indentation whatsoever, open double quotes (&ldquo are converted to ".
3. Coolreader - Better than the rest in terms of CSS suport but doesn't load embedded font properly even though there's a tick box for that in the option menu.
4. Nook Simple touch - On the device the book looked best
5. Nook Simple touch android apk - not as in the device

Well, I can say certainly on 1, then you are doing something wrong. Ditto 4 & 5, but that makes sense, as they are Nooks, and if it doesn't work on ADE, it likely shan't work on a Nook of any color. See below:

I am not using any complicated css codes, just simple selectors and decedent selectors. I am really baffled why these readers seem to throw away my settings. I really hate reading a book that is not properly formatted.
In fact moonreader comes with 3 free wbooks and in all of them the text is left-justifed (no indentation). Really, who is making these software !! Surely, there's a reason why indentations were introduced in the first place.
Might it be possible that I should use inline styles instead?

Your inputs are welcomed and please recommend any android apk that supports even basic CSS (some pretend to).

Thanks

Decendent selectors don't work on a boatload of apps and devices, frustratingly. That could be part of the problem. Also, many Droid readers allow users to change EVERY-damn-thing. EVERYTHING. Which will, if you take this gig seriously, make your head explode. You've been warned.

I'm with Diap and the gang: show us your stylesheet and a sample ePUB, and we'll be far better able to help you.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Speaking of Android apps, what's the best Android based ePub reader that respects the CSS?

[odedta]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Speaking of Android apps, what's the best Android based ePub reader that respects the CSS?

The only app that I found which works best for both LTR and RTL books is ASTRI-Bee

Enjoy!

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by odedta

The only app that I found which works best for both LTR and RTL books is ASTRI-Bee

I use DL Reader on my iPhone, which displays Arabic text fine. (I haven't tested it with Hebrew, though.) Here's a link to the Android version.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Speaking of Android apps, what's the best Android based ePub reader that respects the CSS?

My money's with Mantano Pro.

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Speaking of Android apps, what's the best Android based ePub reader that respects the CSS?

1. PocketBook Reader
2. Aldiko
3. Kobo

PocketBook doesn't support rounded box and pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements (no epub3 features), but has hyphenation and you can do "pinch" to adjust font-size, etc. On the other hand, Kobo supports rounded box and pseudo-classes (it respects very well complicated page layout) but it hasn't hyphenation and is a bit slow (and no "pinch" at all, you need to do anything by menus). Finally, to read .mobi (or .azw3 files) the better is Kindle for Android; practically offers the same features as Kindle Fire. But you don't believe me, just try them and you'll see for yourself.

[odedta]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

I use DL Reader on my iPhone, which displays Arabic text fine. (I haven't tested it with Hebrew, though.) Here's a link to the Android version.

Thanks for the suggestion. I couldn't find where to import my books, how do you load books to the library?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by odedta

Thanks for the suggestion. I couldn't find where to import my books, how do you load books to the library?

The iOS version supports the iTunes file sharing option. I.e. you simply drag & drop the books to the DL Reader folder in iTunes.
I've assumed that the Android version provides a similar conduit.

If that's not the case, you might have to resort to using ES File Explorer File Manager or a similar tool that allows direct access to the Android file system.

Or you can simply continue to use your favorite Android app.

[odedta]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

The iOS version supports the iTunes file sharing option. I.e. you simply drag & drop the books to the DL Reader folder in iTunes.
I've assumed that the Android version provides a similar conduit.

If that's not the case, you might have to resort to using ES File Explorer File Manager or a similar tool that allows direct access to the Android file system.

Or you can simply continue to use your favorite Android app.

I'm keen on trying this app, i'll give it a go with file explorer

[mvo]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

My money's with Mantano Pro.

Another vote for Mantano from me

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

My money's with Mantano Pro.

I am trying this app & liking it.

But can you clarify something for me that is not clear from the user manual.

There is the idea of a theme which stores pretty much every preference except a font size. it stores your choice of font family, your margins, your line spaces etc.

But font size has it's own separate control - so is that stored on a per-book basis. i.e. if i tweak font size with gestures in one book ,then go back to some other book, does the change carry over - I think not ? ( whereas in moon reader & in Kobo, whatever you do to font size affects all of your books ? )

I was also surprised by the lack of fonts - it installs with only one font and the download fonts option delivers only a bunch of odd looking ones that I've not heard of.

I seem to have gotten around it by finding where the tablet stashes its system fonts and copying some of those into the mantano fonts folder, but I'm surprised they don't make that a little less geeky ?

meanwhile back with the ( now less impressive) moon reader. 3 questions here
1. this app has the standard concepts of font family and font size, but it also has something that it calls font scale. can you enlighten me on the difference between size & scale please & how that latter is meant ot be used. (or am I better advised to leave it well alone ! )
2. it seems to have it's own fixed ideas of what the relative size of h1, h2 etc tags should render at. So most headings appear bigger than expected and I think that any font-size that I specified in CSS for the H tags is being ignored. Is that what is actually happening ?
3, What does it do with blockquote tags - it seems to ignore indents & margins in CSS for those , so any book that makes extensive use of blockquotes is going to get oversimplified ?

finally a general one about mantano being based on adobe RMSDK. How do I relate that to ADE versions ? I am aware of some differences between ADE 1.7 and ADE 2.0 on PC, and I also , in my Sony-using days, became aware of the adobe renderer in the Sony T3 being different to that in the Sony T2 & earlier models. e.g. the older models did not do hyphenation.
|So a for dummies explanation of the various adobe flavors would help me. IS mantano using the same renderer as ADE v2.0 ?