Any way of adding fonts to PW2? - Page 3

NiLuJe · 03-11-2014, 05:34 AM

@radius: I hadn't noticed. Do you happen to know what the library/binary/support files might be named for iType?

Because AFAIK, I've never seen it anywhere on eInk devices (so far).

radius · 03-12-2014, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@radius: I hadn't noticed. Do you happen to know what the library/binary/support files might be named for iType?

Because AFAIK, I've never seen it anywhere on eInk devices (so far).

Nope, but Google says that you can get an evaluation dev package for Windows CE from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/downl....aspx?id=13194

Maybe it's only used for CJK?

NiLuJe · 03-12-2014, 12:50 PM

@radius: I don't think so, I haven't yet found something unaffected by switching the freetype lib used.

mandy314 · 03-12-2014, 01:39 PM

@NiLuJe
I'm still looking for "kerning" and did some testing with various ebook reading apps: calibre, coolreader, fbreader (windows versions). Looking at the sources I hope to learn more about ebook rendering - Python, Lua etc are well out of my comfort zone though.

Yesterday I installed KoReader on my PW1 (btw no kerning with this one as with the above mentioned).
With KoReader the fonts look at first very bad: afaik KoReader uses the system fontconfig chain and I have all goodies (subpixel, autohint, hinting) disabled. After removing alternate.conf the fonts were ok in KoReader.
But there is a difference between the Amazon-default rendering and the rendering with the hinting disabled: some glyphs (w,o) are wider and the letter spacing seems more balanced, at least to my eyes there isn't a great difference concerning the crispness.

So: with the Amazon reader I get "good" font rendering even "without hinting" whereas with KoReader this gives "bad" rendering. Perhaps there is some fallback for the Amazon kf8-reader ...

edit: added 2 screenies (left: Amazon-default / right: "no hinting conf" / stock Palatino fontsize 3)

NiLuJe · 03-12-2014, 10:32 PM

@mandy314: Amazon's setup is possibly more reliant on hardcoded stuff, I wouldn't trust it to actually do what FC asks.

That said, I can think of a few reasons for the difference in rendering though: whether the autohinter (and its various settings) is in use, or the bytecode. What exact snippet are you using for the second screenshot (and the first, for that matter)?

As for KOReader, I stopped trying to figure out how the hell the Cool Reader engine used FT, because, yeah, I get very surprising results there, and as I don't really use it, I never digged deeper. (It does use an internal copy of FT, so even in the best of cases (matching config, which you currently don't, since it doesn't care about FC IIRC), you'd never get the same rendering as Amazon's stuff anyway).

mandy314 · 03-13-2014, 03:08 AM

again thank you for the reply and all the information
don't know what you mean with "snippet" - it's a page of the bundled American English Dictionary
... and sorry for crashing this thread, won't do it again

HarryT · 03-13-2014, 03:45 AM

Moderator Notice
Please stay on-topic. The topic of this thread is adding fonts to the PW2.

NiLuJe · 03-13-2014, 09:00 AM

@HarryT: I'd argue we're still tangentially on topic, since tweaking the fontconfig settings is indeed a feature of the Font hack, but I get your point, as we're not in the dev corner

.

@mandy314: Feel free to start a thread in the dev corner if you wish to continue discussing this

.

Rizla · 03-13-2014, 09:52 AM

I think it's a massive deal whether you can add custom fonts or not. I personally will only use Caecilia Bold and nothing else. I can't stand anything after using Caecilia Bold. Caecilia is not for everybody. What if you can't change to the font you prefer? Personally I would not buy a device if I could not use the font of my choice.

HarryT · 03-13-2014, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rizla

What if you can't change to the font you prefer?

You live with the font you've got, just as you have done in a lifetime of reading paper books.

jswinden · 03-13-2014, 12:56 PM

Let me see....Printed paper books are 15th century technology. eBooks or 21st century technology (or arguably very late 20th century). It took us over 550 years to get to the point where we can change a book's font to something we like and prefer. DAMN straight I'm gonna want to do that whenever I can. It was a LONG wait baby!!!!

Josieb1 · 03-13-2014, 03:24 PM

When I updated my PW1 to the new software I deleted all 350 personal documents in the Amazon Cloud (I don't buy my books from Amazon) then embedded my font in over 2000 books in Calibre. Now I sideload AZW3 via USB. I've lost whispersync with my iPad and iPhone but it's worth it for my own font.

For me Amazon no longer offer much more than Kobo in reasons to stay with the Kindle

hatde130113 · 03-15-2014, 05:17 AM

You can use Sigil or Kindle Comic Creator to embed fonts into epub format and even change metada as you want. After that, you use Kindlegen or Kindle Preview to generate .mobi files before using Calibre to upload the final mobi file to your Kindle device. I use this method sucessfully on both OSX and Windows so I don't need to jaibreak for hacking fonts anymore. Good luck!

03-12-2014, 01:39 PM	#34
mandy314 Connoisseur Posts: 71 Karma: 200092 Join Date: Mar 2014 Device: kindle pw1	@NiLuJe I'm still looking for "kerning" and did some testing with various ebook reading apps: calibre, coolreader, fbreader (windows versions). Looking at the sources I hope to learn more about ebook rendering - Python, Lua etc are well out of my comfort zone though. Yesterday I installed KoReader on my PW1 (btw no kerning with this one as with the above mentioned). With KoReader the fonts look at first very bad: afaik KoReader uses the system fontconfig chain and I have all goodies (subpixel, autohint, hinting) disabled. After removing alternate.conf the fonts were ok in KoReader. But there is a difference between the Amazon-default rendering and the rendering with the hinting disabled: some glyphs (w,o) are wider and the letter spacing seems more balanced, at least to my eyes there isn't a great difference concerning the crispness. So: with the Amazon reader I get "good" font rendering even "without hinting" whereas with KoReader this gives "bad" rendering. Perhaps there is some fallback for the Amazon kf8-reader ... edit: added 2 screenies (left: Amazon-default / right: "no hinting conf" / stock Palatino fontsize 3) Attached Thumbnails Last edited by mandy314; 03-12-2014 at 02:11 PM.

03-12-2014, 10:32 PM	#35
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,506 Karma: 26047202 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	@mandy314: Amazon's setup is possibly more reliant on hardcoded stuff, I wouldn't trust it to actually do what FC asks. That said, I can think of a few reasons for the difference in rendering though: whether the autohinter (and its various settings) is in use, or the bytecode. What exact snippet are you using for the second screenshot (and the first, for that matter)? As for KOReader, I stopped trying to figure out how the hell the Cool Reader engine used FT, because, yeah, I get very surprising results there, and as I don't really use it, I never digged deeper. (It does use an internal copy of FT, so even in the best of cases (matching config, which you currently don't, since it doesn't care about FC IIRC), you'd never get the same rendering as Amazon's stuff anyway). Last edited by NiLuJe; 03-12-2014 at 10:38 PM.

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03-11-2014, 05:34 AM	#31
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,506 Karma: 26047202 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	@radius: I hadn't noticed. Do you happen to know what the library/binary/support files might be named for iType? Because AFAIK, I've never seen it anywhere on eInk devices (so far).

03-12-2014, 12:50 PM	#33
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,506 Karma: 26047202 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	@radius: I don't think so, I haven't yet found something unaffected by switching the freetype lib used.

03-13-2014, 03:08 AM	#36
mandy314 Connoisseur Posts: 71 Karma: 200092 Join Date: Mar 2014 Device: kindle pw1	again thank you for the reply and all the information don't know what you mean with "snippet" - it's a page of the bundled American English Dictionary ... and sorry for crashing this thread, won't do it again

03-13-2014, 03:45 AM	#37
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Moderator Notice Please stay on-topic. The topic of this thread is adding fonts to the PW2.

03-13-2014, 09:00 AM	#38
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,506 Karma: 26047202 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	@HarryT: I'd argue we're still tangentially on topic, since tweaking the fontconfig settings is indeed a feature of the Font hack, but I get your point, as we're not in the dev corner . @mandy314: Feel free to start a thread in the dev corner if you wish to continue discussing this .

03-13-2014, 09:52 AM	#39
Rizla Member Retired Posts: 3,183 Karma: 11721895 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Nook STR (rooted) & Sony T2	I think it's a massive deal whether you can add custom fonts or not. I personally will only use Caecilia Bold and nothing else. I can't stand anything after using Caecilia Bold. Caecilia is not for everybody. What if you can't change to the font you prefer? Personally I would not buy a device if I could not use the font of my choice.

03-13-2014, 12:56 PM	#41
jswinden Nameless Being	Let me see....Printed paper books are 15th century technology. eBooks or 21st century technology (or arguably very late 20th century). It took us over 550 years to get to the point where we can change a book's font to something we like and prefer. DAMN straight I'm gonna want to do that whenever I can. It was a LONG wait baby!!!!

03-13-2014, 03:24 PM	#42
Josieb1 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,084 Karma: 18051062 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: UK Device: Kindle Scribe, Coloursoft, PW SE, Kindle 6, Kobo Libra 2	When I updated my PW1 to the new software I deleted all 350 personal documents in the Amazon Cloud (I don't buy my books from Amazon) then embedded my font in over 2000 books in Calibre. Now I sideload AZW3 via USB. I've lost whispersync with my iPad and iPhone but it's worth it for my own font. For me Amazon no longer offer much more than Kobo in reasons to stay with the Kindle

03-15-2014, 05:17 AM	#43
hatde130113 Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 12500 Join Date: Mar 2014 Device: Kindle Paperwhite gen 2	You can use Sigil or Kindle Comic Creator to embed fonts into epub format and even change metada as you want. After that, you use Kindlegen or Kindle Preview to generate .mobi files before using Calibre to upload the final mobi file to your Kindle device. I use this method sucessfully on both OSX and Windows so I don't need to jaibreak for hacking fonts anymore. Good luck!

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