Best font for e-reading

[barium]

Do some fonts simply not work with the reader? I've been trying several, and for a couple, the reader seems to just revert to the default. Maybe it was a typo, but I checked things carefully.

[Ripplinger]

The font names in your customized css info must be identical to the font filenames exactly. If there's any spaces in the font name, you must have quotes around the path. There was actually a font I used that wouldn't work without quotes at all, even though there were no spaces in the file name, so try it regardless.

If all that is correct and the font still isn't changing, some epubs have a specified font called for in their css file. Those will not change the font from a reader css file.

If you use Calibre, the way I check those epubs and change if necessary is to right click the book in question, select "Tweak ePub", then "Explode ePub". Open up the stylesheet.css file and see if there's a specific font family called for anywhere in the file. If there is, delete those referenced lines, save the file, rebuild the epub and upload it again to your reader and try it.

[barium]

Thanks, Ripplinger. I don't have any typos, and there are no spaces in the filenames. I tried quotes anyway, as you suggested, but they didn't do anything. I may have put them in the wrong place, though. I changed

src: url(res:///Data/epub/FONT/path/FONT-REGULAR.OTF);

to

src: "url(res:///Data/epub/FONT/path/FONT-REGULAR.OTF)";

Most fonts worked, but a couple didn't (Arno and Palatino). I used the same ePub to test out the fonts. Maybe the ones that seemed not to work are so similar to the default font that I can't tell that they're active, although I checked carefully.

[Ripplinger]

Make sure the caps are also exactly the same. A font file named Font-Regular.otf will not work if the path name is FONT-REGULAR.OTF.

Are you switching books to force the font to load? Opening the same book with a changed css file won't show any change.

How are you changing the fonts, through PRS+ Settings, under Book Viewer Settings and then User EPUB Style (CSS File)? Or trying to change an individual epub by converting with custom css info?

For PRS+ custom files, my path for the css files is \database\system\PRSPlus\epub. The path for the font files is \fonts. A typical css file is below that changes the font only, no special spacing or anything else.

Can you upload the 2 fonts somewhere that don't seem to work and one of us can try to see if they work for them to help pinpoint the issue?

@font-face {
font-family: "LexiaDaMa";
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/LexiaDaMa.otf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "LexiaDaMa";
font-weight: bold;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/LexiaDaMa-Bold.otf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "LexiaDaMa";
font-weight: normal;
font-style: italic;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/LexiaDaMa-Italic.otf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "LexiaDaMa";
font-weight: bold;
font-style: italic;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/LexiaDaMa-BoldItalic.otf);
}

body {
font-family: "LexiaDaMa"; 
}

Edit: I installed the Palatino fonts from this site and they do work on my reader. It is quite similar to the default, but you can easily see the difference if you take a screenshot of the same page in the default font, or whatever other font you were using, and then Palatino.

[barium]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

How are you changing the fonts, through PRS+ Settings, under Book Viewer Settings and then User EPUB Style (CSS File)? Or trying to change an individual epub by converting with custom css info?

I'm using porkupan/boroda's firmware, which moves userStyle.css to the reader's data partition. I'm editing that file to tell the reader where to look for the default fonts.

My understanding is PRS+ works similarly, except it may use a different name and location for the stylesheet. Does PRS+ allow you to switch the stylesheet in use on the fly? That would allow you to switch fonts, font sizes, and other formatting without ever connecting to a computer, if you had several premade stylesheets on your device.

I'm pretty sure the procedure I'm using to test the fonts is right (since most of the fonts I tried clearly worked), and I've been careful about capitalization. I probably won't use these fonts anyway, but I've sent you a PM with a link to the fonts in case you want to try them.

More on topic, I kind of like the Officina serif font. It's almost cartoonish, so I wouldn't want to use it all the time, but it's pretty legible.

Edited to add:

some epubs have a specified font called for in their css file. Those will not change the font from a reader css file.

You can override the font called for in the book's CSS file by using the !important property, at least for some books. For example, for some of my books with embedded fonts, the following line in my userStyle.css did the trick:

html { font-family: -ua-default !important;
}

I guess if you were using this, you'd change -ua-default to LexiaDaMa.

[Ripplinger]

I've used Boroda's CFW in the past when PRS+ required it, but now PRS+ stands on its own and is self-installing and is really very nice. You can have as many custom stylesheets as you want for various fonts and can change them on the fly from Settings > PRS+ Settings > Book Viewer Settings > User EPUB Style (CSS Files), and then you have your list of files you've installed (I've included a screenshot of my list as an example, being able to take screenshots like this are part of PRS+). Simply select which one you want to use from the list. You just have to swap books by opening a different one, then go back to the one you had before to force the font change.

And both Arno and Palatino worked for me. I only used 4 from each font pack for normal and bold in regular and italic, and have screenshots of each plus default in small font. The font style differences are much more noticeable in medium font size though. The fonts I used were ARNOPRO-REGULAR.OTF, ARNOPRO-BOLD.OTF, ARNOPRO-ITALIC.OTF, ARNOPRO-BOLDITALIC.OTF, and PALATINOLTSTD-MEDIUM.OTF, PALATINOLTSTD-BOLD.OTF, PALATINOLTSTD-MEDIUMITALIC.OTF, PALATINOLTSTD-BOLDITALIC.OTF. I didn't rename them at all and they worked fine.

And I'll have to try adding !important to the css files and see if that really will overwrite those epubs that specify their own font. I always find those most annoying since I prefer LexiaDaMa still (including a sample of that font too just for comparison).

Edit: Btw, my reader viewing settings are at 127/-125, I didn't think to change that back to default before taking the screenshots, so they probably look more saturated than you're used to.

[barium]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

PRS+ stands on its own and is self-installing and is really very nice. You can have as many custom stylesheets as you want for various fonts and can change them on the fly from Settings > PRS+ Settings > Book Viewer Settings > User EPUB Style (CSS Files), and then you have your list of files you've installed

I installed PRS+, and the ability to adjust stylesheets without connecting to a computer is incredible. Thanks for the tip and the screenshots.

And I'll have to try adding !important to the css files and see if that really will overwrite those epubs that specify their own font.

See this thread for some more information. Also, I attached my CSS file, which seems to work. It's a mess, but there may be something in it that's useful to you.

BTW, the fonts in the Arno and default screenshots you posted look identical to me, but Palatino is clearly different.

Edit: I uploaded the wrong css file originally. The corrected one replaces embedded fonts for my ebooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by barium

BTW, the fonts in the Arno and default screenshots you posted look identical to me, but Palatino is clearly different.

There is a difference in the Arno and default fonts. The default do not have true bold or true italics and while the bold is easy enough to simulate, the italic is not and doesn't look all that good. So Arno will have a proper italics.

[Ripplinger]

You're right about Arno and Default after examining them closer and not between other fonts. I did more checking with the Sony default against Arno using the Windows font viewer for Arno, and while they do look pretty similar, there are certain letters, like the "j" that are distinctively different and it looks like the Arno font isn't loading for some reason. I tried renaming the files, using files from my Windows directory that I know work in applications on my PC, and couldn't get Arno to load on the reader for some reason. Really odd, never ran into that before.

I'll give your css a try and see if it'll overwrite the epubs with embedded fonts, thanks. And glad you gave PRS+ a try and like it, I thought you'd like the ability to swap fonts so easily.

Edit: I was able to override all embedded fonts (all that I've tested it on at least so far) by adding just the following to my .css files. I haven't needed all the spacing entries so far, but saved your complete file in case I ever run into instances where it is needed. Thanks for the info about using !important.

html { 
font-family: LexiaDaMa !important;
}

.mainBody {
font-family: LexiaDaMa !important;
}

.calibre {
font-family: LexiaDaMa !important;
}

[advocate2]

Does PRS+ work with the 900? I see versions listed for the 600, 650 and 950, but no 900. I'm so happy with the results on my 950, I want to apply it to my daughter's 900.

[Soul_Est]

Just finished testing 11 different fonts on my PRS-650 to find the one that works well with my eyes. The fonts in question are Charis SIL, Droid, Fontin (OpenType), Fontin (TrueType), Gentium Basic, Gentium Book Basic, Gentium Plus, Liberation, Libertine (OpenType), Libertine (TrueType) and NimbusMod (by delphin). The first image is of the default font and all of the screenshots were taken with the brightness and contrast set to -60 and 60 respectively.



Better yet, just check out the album here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/album.php?albumid=675

I found that Droid, Gentium Plus, Lexia DaMa and NimbusMod worked very well for me when compared to the default font.

Edit: And I just failed at posting pictures from my album.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Soul_Est

Just finished testing 11 different fonts on my PRS-650 to find the one that works well with my eyes. The fonts in question are Charis SIL, Droid, Fontin (OpenType), Fontin (TrueType), Gentium Basic, Gentium Book Basic, Gentium Plus, Liberation, Libertine (OpenType), Libertine (TrueType) and NimbusMod (by delphin). The first image is of the default font and all of the screenshots were taken with the brightness and contrast set to -60 and 60 respectively.



I found that Droid, Gentium Plus, Lexia DaMa and NimbusMod worked very well for me when compared to the default font.

Edit: And I just failed at posting pictures from my album.

I just looked at all of them. The default one looks the best.

[Japes]

Originally Posted by astra

I just looked at all of them. The default one looks the best.

Uhhhh....Noooooo