Why the font won't change in certain epubs

[stevefinlay]

Originally Posted by Jelbee

As I suspected, woefully unable to make it work.

What am I missing here?

Changed the .epub file to a .zip file. Exploded it. Tried editting the style sheet and removing the lines that specified font point size, AND tried deleting the CSS file entirely.... re-zipping it, changing it back to an .epub.... both ways resulted in issues through Caliber. When I upload the edited .epub to my Kobo, it doesn't appear in my library, and if I try to "convert" it to change options, it says there was an "error."

Epic fail on the noob front. God, I'm aggravated. Anyone see a blindingly obvious step that I'm missing?


On the plus side, on a couple of the books, converting them and "disabling font scaling" worked to fix the font size issue. Strangely tho, it only worked on SOME, and not others, when I got the books from the same place.

Not sure how you did this, but the way I did it was to load the book to kobo using Adobe Digital Editions. Then plug in my Kobo, go to My Computer and double click on the Kobo (its just like an external drive) find the book that is giving you problems (probably in the Adobe Digital Editions file), rename and un-zip the file. Once you have opened the zip file and removed the css file, you don't have to re-zip. Just close the zip program and make sure you have renamed the file suffix to .epub. Now the book should be formatted so you can adjust size.

[corona]

If you use 7-zip (free, open-source archival software) you don't have to rename the file. You just right click on the ePub file, open the archive, do whatever you want to do, and just close it back up again.

I usually do this when the file's in the Kobo. Just open up Kobo as a drive with Windows Explorer or similar.

[DocDJ]

The advice given in this forum worked great for my Adobe Digital Reader app on my Verizon (Android) tablet.

Thanks so much for all the great comments on this problem.

[DevonHess]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Deleting the stylesheet is like recommending a lobotomy as a cure for a headache; you'll also be removing most of the other formatting from the file!

Edit the stylesheet (it's just a text file) and remove the specific line that's causing the problem; don't delete the whole thing.

I wouldn't quite say that.

Raw HTML still governs 80% of the formatting information inside an ePub. CSS files don't change the layout all that much in an ebook, especially rendered on a Kobo.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DevonHess

I wouldn't quite say that.

Raw HTML still governs 80% of the formatting information inside an ePub. CSS files don't change the layout all that much in an ebook, especially rendered on a Kobo.

I would disagree with 80% of the formatting coming from the raw HTML. Can you give any examples other than such oddments as hx tags bolding/enlarging text or blockquote adding left/right margins? Or are you thinking of the abominations created when the author uses inline styles? Is an ebook that looks like a simple text document a shining example of the genre?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DevonHess

I wouldn't quite say that.

Raw HTML still governs 80% of the formatting information inside an ePub. CSS files don't change the layout all that much in an ebook, especially rendered on a Kobo.

An epub with no stylesheet will render as:

• Paragraphs will be ragged-right, a gap above and below, no indentation on the first line.
• Headings will all be left justified. Probably bold, with spaces above.
• There will be no spacing for scene breaks
• Horizontal rules will all be the same length. Full width if I remember correctly.
• All the non-heading text will be the same size.
• A title page will be left justified.

So down-right ugly, and no style at all. I'm not sure if I agree with the idea that 80% of the formatting comes from the HTML. But, if it does, we have the old 80/20 rule. That 20% is what makes the book readable.

[DevonHess]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I would disagree with 80% of the formatting coming from the raw HTML. Can you give any examples other than such oddments as hx tags bolding/enlarging text or blockquote adding left/right margins? Or are you thinking of the abominations created when the author uses inline styles?

Nah, I'm not talking about inline style attributes. I mean formatting in a more foundational sense. Without extra CSS, it's not like you just get a massive block of text, you still have paragraphs, headers, quotes.

Originally Posted by DNSB

Is an ebook that looks like a simple text document a shining example of the genre?

Originally Posted by davidfor

So down-right ugly, and no style at all. I'm not sure if I agree with the idea that 80% of the formatting comes from the HTML. But, if it does, we have the old 80/20 rule. That 20% is what makes the book readable.

Maybe this is our point of disagreement. I kind of want my ebooks to look like a simple text document. I can appreciate well done CSS, but if it's missing will it hurt my enjoyment of the book? Probably not. I prefer no style to bad style, anyway.

I know that authors probably don't make those decisions, so they never felt like part of the "art."

I've used markdown a lot in the past, so maybe that's lowered my standards.

[Quoth]

I like my ebooks to be somewhat like the simpler styled paper novels. Not like they are in MS Notepad or a facsimile of typescript.
You don't need a LOT of CSS, but certainly you need as a minimum:
Heading styles. Main ones that are in TOC centred and desired top and bottom margin.
Scene break style, centred and desired top and bottom margin.
main paragraph style with an indent but no spacing. Vertical spaced paragraphs somehow are worse on a smaller page.
A first paragraph style with no indent after any object that's centred.

Optionally a style for included quoted material, like a letter, note, sign etc in the story.
Optionally a Preamble title style (it's usually NOT a header level but looks like one) and also Preamble body text style.

There are other book elements that may exist and need styled.

The good news is that if you use styles in a compatible way in the wordprocessor, then the CSS needed is automatically generated by programs like Calibre.

If you use a wordprocessor as a glass typewriter, or only use a text editor, then indeed no CSS may look similar!

I do sometimes write early draft chapters in a text editor with no styles.

[Quoth]

Oh, and a technical document may need LaTex and hand edit of CSS.

You'd hardly find a website or ebook without CSS in the last 12 years.

Perhaps on a Palm PDA or such the CSS is irrelevant.