Libra Kobo Libra H2O - first reviews

[a-m13]

I've sent back my aura H2O as soon as I received the libra. The screen is sharper, the touch part is much more accurate so it seems like it's faster, I don't ask myself if I pressed enough or not to change page.
The form factor is easy to hold in one hand, whether you turn pages with the buttons or the touch screen.

For the same price, the aura H2O seems deprecated to me!

[ps67]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

After successfully patching my Libra and experimenting almost the whole night with different formats and fonts, I came to the conclusion that I have to wait for the custom font sizes patch. I just could not find the perfect font size with any font, default or sideloaded. (I use custom font sizes on my Kindles too).

I also tried epubs, to see how much better the typography is. Unfortunately I found several annoying bugs. Several sideloaded fonts which work perfectly with kepubs and on Kindles, didn't work properly (or at all) with epubs (yes, they were .ttf files). Often there was a very large gap at the bottom of the page, for no reason I could discover. There was no mention of widows and orphans in the stylesheet of those books. I didn't have the energy to delve into the whys and wherefores, so it was back to kepubs pretty quickly.

Which font doesn't fit well with Epub? Because I have the opposite problem, some fonts works well with Epub but not with Kepub (Bookerly and others: Italic is rendered as BoldItalic)

I think that this is sorry.

[Fozkas]

Loving my Libra so far.

I also noticed the difference in loght colour in the bottom right, but only when under 10% light and under 25% "warm"
Other than that looks uniform.

Doesn't bother me as i only see it when i "want" to see it.

Has anyone added the clock in screen addon? What resolution should i set?

[Wearever]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I took some pictures of the Libra side by side with the Oasis 3. With the light off, the screens are pretty much identical (fonts are slightly different, because I couldn't get even Caecilia or Georgia look exactly the same on both, they render a bit differently). The fonts on the Oasis are very slightly darker/bolder, but on the Libra very slightly sharper (the difference between flush and recessed screens, I guess. The Libra screen is capacitive too, not IR).

With the frontlight all the way up in a dark room, I was in for a shock. My Libra looked GREEN. All the way green. It's nowhere to be seen in normal or even dim light, only in the dark. Still, it doesn't really bother me. But it's the first time I've seen a green screen on an eink reader.

As to the warm light, cranked all the way up it's pretty identical orange on both. I didn't manage to capture it in a photo, though. It looks much yellower on photos than it does in real life. I included one photo with the warm light up, but it should be taken into account that it looks much more orange to the naked eye.

The Libra is on the left, the Oasis on the right. The first photo is with the lights off, the second and third with the light maxed out (warmth off), the fourth with the light about halfway up (warmth off), the fifth with both light and warmth maxed out.

Thanks for the pics Sirtel

I know it takes a while to notice what the battery life will be, but since you own both an Oasis and Libra, I would like to know what differences there are if any? Just curious since they are the same size.

[Michal Jancik]

When I use Oasis 3 for a week, I can say that at least in my case "KoboLibra" has a little better battery life. I would say with a good 20% difference.
For example, when I am looking for a book in the Kindle store, in 10 minutes less than 4-5% of the Osasi3 battery has dropped, for "Kobo-Libra" less than 2%.

It is possible that it depends on optimization of a device to device and their software.Let's wait to see those who use devices in the long run.

[Sirtel]

Yes, it's too early to tell. In any case, I haven't noticed any major draining in the few hours I've used my Libra. The battery life seems pretty decent.

As to other differences, they're actually pretty similar, especially given the price difference. The weight is about the same, but the Libra is more comfortable to hold, being made of plastic. The build quality seems good. The Oasis has a flush screen, the Libra screen is recessed, but the screen quality is the same. The Oasis frontlight is warmer-toned (with the comfort light off) and more uniform. The comfort light is very similar in both. Both are pretty fast and responsive.

In short, two major differences are how easy they're to hold (the Libra is better, imho) and how even the frontlight is (there the Oasis wins).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ps67

Which font doesn't fit well with Epub? Because I have the opposite problem, some fonts works well with Epub but not with Kepub (Bookerly and others: Italic is rendered as BoldItalic)

I think that this is sorry.

There was more than one, but I'm afraid I don't remember which exactly, sorry. My favorite, CharisSIL Modified Larger, looked weird and ugly with epubs. There was one that was rendered in italics. And so on. Haven't tried Bookerly yet.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ps67

Which font doesn't fit well with Epub? Because I have the opposite problem, some fonts works well with Epub but not with Kepub (Bookerly and others: Italic is rendered as BoldItalic)

I think that this is sorry.

The Bookerly bold italics have to do with where you got Bookerly from. Bookerly from an e-ink Kindle will display correctly. I was going to attach my copy of the Bookerly font, which displays correctly in kepub, but I think I'm not supposed to as it isn't freeware.

[NiLuJe]

You can always modify the metadata on your own copy via font forge. I think there's a few detailed posts on the subject, at least from @jackie_w & myself, probably others. I may have the links tucked away somewhere but I'm on mobile right now.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

You can always modify the metadata on your own copy via font forge. I think there's a few detailed posts on the subject, at least from @jackie_w & myself, probably others. I may have the links tucked away somewhere but I'm on mobile right now.

Yes, I've done that in the past. But why some fonts work with kepubs and not with epubs (or vice versa), is a mystery... I mean, generally when the font metadata is not correct, it won't render correctly anywhere. At least that's been my experience, but of course I've no prior experience with the whims of Kobo readers.

[NiLuJe]

There's a few quirks to each renderer, but I think patched fonts can behave properly on both.

There are os/2 tables, panose metadata, and old style kern tables involved, among others ;p.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

There's a few quirks to each renderer, but I think patched fonts can behave properly on both.

There are os/2 tables, panose metadata, and old style kern tables involved, along others ;p.

Oh, joy.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

There's a few quirks to each renderer, but I think patched fonts can behave properly on both.

There are os/2 tables, panose metadata, and old style kern tables involved, among others ;p.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Oh, joy.

There's a Kobo Wiki entry here and it's original MR source here (with screenshots).

The example used was Amazon's Ember font but using both of the above an "enthusiastic and determined" user should be able to correct any set of .ttf font files to work OK for both kepub and epub.

I have a vague memory there may be other considerations for .otf files, but I can't really remember.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

There's a Kobo Wiki entry here and it's original MR source here (with screenshots).

The example used was Amazon's Ember font but using both of the above an "enthusiastic and determined" user should be able to correct any set of .ttf font files to work OK for both kepub and epub.

I have a vague memory there may be other considerations for .otf files, but I can't really remember.

Many thanks, that's very useful.

[NiLuJe]

Okay, back home, found my notes, which are possibly dated, so there may be some overlap with what @jackie_w just posted:

Speaking of fonts, if the UI and the ACCESS (KePub) reader mangles some styles with custom fonts, make sure the Panose stuff is sane (OS/2 > Panose).
Keep the usual Kindle line-height tweaks in mind, that might also help w/ the line-height < 1.0 issue...
c.f., https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2866441&postcount=218 for the line-height thing,
and https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3606469&postcount=2 & https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3608181&postcount=9 for the Panose tweaks.

Also, supposedly kerning has to be old-style for the ACCESS renderer to make use of it...

Keeping in mind that I generally go the extra-mile of murdering the extra space between lines, hence the line-height mentions .

(I'm happily using a patched Bookerly this way).