Kobalt: an alternative reader app for Kobo devices

[Sirtel]

I've turned off vertical justification, as I can't stand expanded line spacing, and I never have any gaps at the bottom (except at the end of a chapter, of course). But then I edit my books and they all have widows/orphans set to 1 in the css.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I've turned off vertical justification, as I can't stand expanded line spacing, and I never have any gaps at the bottom (except at the end of a chapter, of course). But then I edit my books and they all have widows/orphans set to 1 in the css.

Why do we have such a (IMHO) feature that's not useful?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why do we have such a (IMHO) feature that's not useful?

Presumably it's useful to someone.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why do we have such a (IMHO) feature that's not useful?

Probably not useful for those of us who edit their ebooks as a matter of course. For those who do not, it can be useful and they are a much larger group even on MobileRead.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Probably not useful for those of us who edit their ebooks as a matter of course. For those who do not, it can be useful and they are a much larger group even on MobileRead.

A feature that would be more useful is to change vertical justification to allow turning off widows and orphans. Problem solved.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

A feature that would be more useful is to change vertical justification to allow turning off widows and orphans. Problem solved.

There is this feature. Apparently it doesn't always work. As I don't use it either, I have no idea why or how.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

There is this feature. Apparently it doesn't always work. As I don't use it either, I have no idea why or how.

Once it's fixed, then the I don't see a need for vertical align.

[Dal Bhat]

From the github issues addressed for Beta 7:

Show the selected Kobo tile cover immediately while opening

Show the selected book cover immediately while opening, then replace it with a higher-resolution cover.

Is this where the flashing comes from?

Anyway, I don't take it as a particularly significant enhancement to have the book cover shown when the book is loading. (You may; I don't.)

I'd just as soon as have a settings toggle available to turn that off and just go back to the Kobalt splash screen.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Dal Bhat

From the github issues addressed for Beta 7:



Is this where the flashing comes from?

Anyway, I don't take it as a particularly significant enhancement to have the book cover shown when the book is loading. (You may; I don't.)

I'd just as soon as have a settings toggle available to turn that off and just go back to the Kobalt splash screen.

I don't see a need for this even as an option.

[fogice]

I feel more confused than I was a couple of hours ago. You guys are more expert than me, so explain why the following is incorrect:

In order to protect a widow, a line at the end of the previous page is moved to the top of the next page. This means that the text on the previous page does not flow to the bottom of the page. By implementing vertical justification, the line spacing is expanded to the point where the last line on the page is placed at the bottom of the text area.

Is this wrong? And if not, why don't people see it as a good idea (except for Sirtel, who already said he wants his line height to remain constant)? And how does "widows=1" fix anything? I was trying to read a book with w/o protection turned off, and I had a page that was just the second half of one hyphenated word. Ugly.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by fogice

Is this wrong? And if not, why don't people see it as a good idea (except for Sirtel, who already said he wants his line height to remain constant)? And how does "widows=1" fix anything? I was trying to read a book with w/o protection turned off, and I had a page that was just the second half of one hyphenated word. Ugly.

Some people don't mind that single line at the top of a page (my personal record holder was a book where the chapter ended in "top... )." and the ")." was moved to the top of the last page. They prefer it to the blank space at the bottom of a page where a line was moved to the next page whether to prevent a widow or an orphan. That is what widows=1, orphans=1 will enable since a single line at the beginning or end of a page is permitted.

Since my preferred justification is left justified (AKA ragged right), hyphens are not a concern. Until microjustification makes it into ereader renderers that minimize rivers and other flaws of basic justification by modifying spacing between letters and words often evaluating multiple paragraphs, that choice is unlikely to change.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by fogice

I feel more confused than I was a couple of hours ago. You guys are more expert than me, so explain why the following is incorrect:

In order to protect a widow, a line at the end of the previous page is moved to the top of the next page. This means that the text on the previous page does not flow to the bottom of the page. By implementing vertical justification, the line spacing is expanded to the point where the last line on the page is placed at the bottom of the text area.

Is this wrong? And if not, why don't people see it as a good idea (except for Sirtel, who already said he wants his line height to remain constant)? And how does "widows=1" fix anything? I was trying to read a book with w/o protection turned off, and I had a page that was just the second half of one hyphenated word. Ugly.

Widows/orphans=1 basically disables widows/orphans protection, so yes, you'll get one-line pages, but you'll never get gaps at the bottom. Which you prefer is your business; you can't have both. Many people (including myself) prefer one-line pages to gaps. (I never get half words, because I also disable hyphenation, which I dislike).

If you prefer active widows/orphans protection and can put up with gaps, nothing wrong with that; it's a personal preference. Why vertical justification doesn't do what you want in Kobalt, that's another matter, and unfortunately I don't know the reason.