Do you patch your Kobo? How many patches do you use?

[koboy]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Why don't you just read ePub?

I don't mean this in a confrontational way. I ask because the reason I switched from ePub to kepub is for the one screen=one page rule. Otherwise, it seems ePub would be preferable. The layout is better, the font rendering is better. I believe ligatures are enabled by default.

After all this time, I forgot what the advantages of kepub are except for the one thing you seem not to like.

agreed again.

best wishes koboy

[ZodWallop]

For me:

1. Enable ligatures on kepubs (this shouldn't require a patch. Kobo should fix the layout on their proprietary format)
2. Advanced font control (again, shouldn't require a patch, though I could live without this if it stopped working)
3. Reduce footer height.
4. Once the bugs are fixed, I'll enable the patch to swap header/footer info.

[John F]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Why don't you just read ePub?

I don't mean this in a confrontational way. I ask because the reason I switched from ePub to kepub is for the one screen=one page rule. Otherwise, it seems ePub would be preferable. The layout is better, the font rendering is better. I believe ligatures are enabled by default.

After all this time, I forgot what the advantages of kepub are except for the one thing you seem not to like.

I'm not sure why I switched to kepub. I think it was because epub didn't have the nice chapter progress and bar graph. Does epub have the graph? Current chapter left, next chapter length? (Edit) while reading, without having to go back to the home screen?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

After all this time, I forgot what the advantages of kepub are except for the one thing you seem not to like.

Well, kepubs are a bit faster. Searching inside the book is faster with kepub. The images are zoomed and you can zoom in on them even further (that's my biggest epub issue with Kobo. Come on, Kobo, you can zoom images even on a Nook).

That said, I still use epubs. Not for page numbers, but because the layout of kepubs is pretty poor, imho (I read justified text with no hyphenation. If you use hyphenation, the reading experience is probably a lot better).

[theducks]

Originally Posted by John F

Percent alone is rather meaningless, to me. Being 10% into a book or chapter doesn't tell me much without more information. Using "pages" gives me a much better feel for where I am.

When I read paper books, I mostly gauged by % of thickness left.
True there were page numbers. BUT, they did not say ppp of nnn. You had to find the real end page (before all those pesky ads ) and REMEMBER IT.
No, you looked at the edges and guessed: 22% left

[koboy]

the main reason i switched to kepub was because i wanted pages left in chapter, but also because opening a book in kepub format was considerably faster.

best wishes koboy

[John F]

Originally Posted by theducks

When I read paper books, I mostly gauged by % of thickness left.
True there were page numbers. BUT, they did not say ppp of nnn. You had to find the real end page (before all those pesky ads ) and REMEMBER IT.
No, you looked at the edges and guessed: 22% left

And that worked because with paper, the thickness gives you an indication of length.

With ebooks, what are you applying the % too? I'm 10% thru an ebook; but 10% of what: 10 "pages", 100 pages, 1000 pages?

Percent and bar graphs are nice, but I want to know what they represent, otherwise they aren't too usefull, to me.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by John F

And that worked because with paper, the thickness gives you an indication of length.

With ebooks, what are you applying the % too? I'm 10% thru an ebook; but 10% of what: 10 "pages", 100 pages, 1000 pages?

Percent and bar graphs are nice, but I want to know what they represent, otherwise they aren't too usefull, to me.

Exactly. I've never used the percentage because it could be based on 50 or 5000 pages. The page xx of xxx will always be my preference (displayed xx / xxx on my reader thanks to a patch), and it doesn't matter if it takes several screen flips for one page, I'm fine with that.

The patches I use are all about font adjustments, smaller margins and smaller line spacing, and getting rid of the useless 3rd row on the home screen, and getting rid of the header. And I have the perma-clock mod installed which also shows the battery left.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

Use %. Page numbers are meaningless on ebooks. I know some people are attached. Even on paper books I glance at edge of book to see how far I've got, not page number. I only use the page number as a random access index mechanism for paper as tapping an index or reference doesn't work

% is meaningless. Let's say you have War & Peace and the other eBook is War of the Worlds. Now you are at 25% in both books. Do you know where you in each book? No you don't because they are of completely different lengths. But if you have ADE page numbers, then you know that if you are on page 50 or both eBooks, then you know how far in your based on the total number of pages. If youdon't know how long a book is, then % is 100% useless.

Most people want to know where they are in an eBook and % won't do it as you don't know what it means in the overall total. But page numbers based on a formula that ADE works and you know where you are or how long the eBook is.

We need a system where you know well enough how long your eBook is and where you are in that eBook. % doesn't do that because you don't know that 100%. ADE page numbers is that system.

[JeanPierre]

Allow searches on Extra dictionaries
Always show confirmation dialog before upgrading
Custom left & right margins
Dictionary text font-family/font-size/line-height
FeatureSettings - BookSpecificStats
FeatureSettings - ExportHighlights
FeatureSettings - MyWords
Freedom to advanced fonts control
KePub constant font sharpness
KePub stylesheet additions
My 10 line spacing values
Shorten dictionary entry not found message
ePub constant font sharpness
Custom synopsis details line spacing
Custom synopsis font size
Dictionary pop-up - increase available text area
Increase Book Details synopsis area
Increase library cover size
Increase size of kepub chapter progress chart
Reduce new header/footer height
Reduce top/bottom page spacer
Remove footer (row3) and increase cover size on new home screen



I'll probably enable the new one that switches the header and footer when v54 comes out.

[Michal Jancik]

Patching really enhances the Kobo experience.

- I really appreciate these PATCH if they weren't, I would hesitate to buy KOBO.
- Most of all I use those which in my case will improve the overall reading experience, such as:
* I use PATCH on all KOBO devices.

I mainly use the following:
- Freedom to advanced fonts control
- Custom synopsis details line spacing
- Reduce new header/footer height
- My 24 line spacing values
- Disable orphans/widows avoidance
- Force user line spacing in ePubs + kepub
- Allow rotation on all devices (for Kobo Clara HD)
- Custom left & right margins
- disable built-in body padding-bottom
- Force user line spacing in KePubs
- Change dicthtml strings to micthtml

And more like:
- AutoUsbGadget
- Custom new header/footer font
- Allow searches on Extra dictionaries
- Increase library cover size:
- Increase home screen cover size:
- Show all games
Increase size of kepub chapter progress chart
Only show stats SmartLink


I really have to thank the developers, both for their time and for the various improvements that make my reading easier.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

Cant "patch" HB or PB Books so Why Patch eBooks...

Take for example a current model Kindle. You are very limited on what you can do. For people who do not jailbreak or do other tricks/hacks, you have a margin that's a bit large and the line-height can be too large for some.

We patch our Kobo to either change thing to the way we want, fix something we think is broken, and/or to add features.

For example, the spaced used by the header and footer is too large (IMHO) and by making the spaced used and moving the header/footer to the edges of the screen, it means I can get an extra line or two of text on screen because of the now space available.

Once you know what the patches do, it's not difficult to decide what patches to apply.

One thing I always have to do with a new firmware is to install a different hyphenation dictionary because the Kobo one is using options that means it doesn't work as well as it should.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Why don't you just read ePub?

Because I don't care to spend good reading time fiddling with book files. I used to bother, but I don't any more. With kepubs, I buy or borrow a book and it shows up on all my Kobos right away. Done. It also means I can get a book on the fly, even a library book directly from my device, and not wait until I'm at the computer.

[Terisa de morgan]

I've just counted it now. 21 patches (some of them customized, so in other file) plus miniclock and sideloaded default font.

[ps67]

27 patches, but only some of them are really important. So I could say; "Patching really enhances the Kobo experience" instead of "I could never use my Kobo without patching".

When I bought it I didn't know anything about patches, I bought it only for the larger screen, so it is not true that I could never use it without patches, but surely now it would be difficult to come back to a not patched Kobo.

And, at the end: I like to make experiments on my Kobo

* really important

Spoiler:

src/nickel.yaml:
    *Reduce top/bottom page spacer: yes
    Dictionary pop-up - increase available text area: yes
    Increase Book Details synopsis area: yes
    Increase library cover size: yes
    Custom synopsis font size: yes
  src/libadobe.so.yaml:
    Remove PDF map widget shown during panning: yes
    Remove PDF page turn arrows: yes
    Keep PDF pan position: yes
  src/libnickel.so.1.0.0.yaml:
    *Allow rotation on all devices:
    Replace adobe page numbers toggle with invert screen: yes
    *My 10 line spacing values: yes
    *Custom font sizes: yes
    *Custom left & right margins: yes
    *Freedom to advanced fonts control: yes
    *Custom kepub default margins: yes
    *Force user line spacing in KePubs: yes
    Set KePub hyphenation: yes
    *Force user line spacing in ePubs (part 1 of 2): yes
    *Force user font-family in ePubs (Part 1 of 2): yes
    *Change dicthtml strings to micthtml: yes
    FeatureSettings - BookSpecificStats: yes
    *Increase TOC level indentation and fix extra indentation bug: yes
  src/librmsdk.so.1.0.0.yaml:
    *Disable orphans/widows avoidance: yes
    *Force user line spacing in ePubs (Part 2 of 2): yes
    *Force user font-family in ePubs (Part 2 of 2): yes
    Ignore ePub book Adobe XPGT stylesheet (page-template.xpgt): yes
    Default ePub monospace font (Courier): yes