Sideloaded Epubs on Forma

disconnected · 10-25-2018, 02:02 AM

I don’t know what I’ve done but something has gotten messed up.

I ordered a new Kobo Forma and updated to the latest Calibre version in preparation for it. When I got the Forma I updated it as well. Then I sideloaded a bunch of epubs from Calibre.

The books all show up with extra page numbers in the middle of the side margins. I remember having this problem several years ago but I don’t remember what the fix was.

I already had many of the same books on other Kobo ereaders and they look fine. However, I just loaded a couple of the same books to one of my other Kobo ereaders (Clara) that didn’t already have those particular books and they also showed up with the extra page numbers, and also insanely large text. I adjusted the text to normal size but now when I open books that were already on the Clara the text is tiny.

Is it obvious what I’ve done to mess things up?

davidfor · 10-25-2018, 05:45 AM

The numbers in the margin is a setting on the device. In the Reading Setting page, uncheck the "Show Adobe EPUB page numbers" option. By default, it is on, so you must have unchecked it on the Clara HD.

But, the difference in font sizes suggests you have disabled or removed the KoboTouchExtended driver. Using that would have sent the books as kepubs. The font scaling is different for kepubs than epubs. For the same setting, the font in a kepub will appear smaller than in an epub. Plus, kepubs never show the page number in the margins.

disconnected · 10-25-2018, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

But, the difference in font sizes suggests you have disabled or removed the KoboTouchExtended driver.

You're right. It's gone. I don't know when or how I could have removed it. Must have been in my sleep.

EDIT
I originally posted that I got an error message when I tried to reinstall the plugin but I restarted Calibre and then it allowed me to reinstall it. Now I'll try resending my books.

EDIT

Clara and Forma both doing well now.

jackie_w · 10-25-2018, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

The font scaling is different for kepubs than epubs. For the same setting, the font in a kepub will appear smaller than in an epub.

Point of order ... as far as I can tell this epub/kepub font-size discrepancy doesn't exist on the Forma or the KA1. It does exist on every other Kobo model I've owned, including the ClaraHD, which is newer than the KA1.

FWIW I "cure" it using the calibre driver's Modify CSS option with the kobo_extra.css file on the devices that need it. I suppose it's only an issue for those who regularly read both kepub and epub on the same device.

stumped · 10-25-2018, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackie_w

FWIW I "cure" it using the calibre driver's Modify CSS option with the kobo_extra.css file on the devices that need it. .

? is that a file you made yourself, or something downloadable from another thread , or already in calibre ?
is that you would use that AND the kobo extended driver plug in thing or is it and either/or

disconnected · 10-25-2018, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Point of order ... as far as I can tell this epub/kepub font-size discrepancy doesn't exist on the Forma or the KA1. It does exist on every other Kobo model I've owned, including the ClaraHD, which is newer than the KA1.

FWIW I "cure" it using the calibre driver's Modify CSS option with the kobo_extra.css file on the devices that need it. I suppose it's only an issue for those who regularly read both kepub and epub on the same device.

I guess I'd never seen the issue before because I'd never intended to use both formats. At least now I know why I needed the KoboExtendedTouch plugin in the first place, so it's been a learning experience.

I'm not sure I'm quite ready for the Modify CSS learning experience yet

but it may happen sometime. Thank goodness for this forum; I don't think I'd be able to manage to use Calibre at all without it.

jackie_w · 10-25-2018, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stumped

? is that a file you made yourself, or something downloadable from another thread , or already in calibre ?
is that you would use that AND the kobo extended driver plug in thing or is it and either/or

Yes, it's just a simple text file called kobo_extra.css which you create yourself in the root directory of the Kobo. Then you can stuff it with any CSS you think might "assist" your epubs/kepubs. Any CSS you add will be appended to the end of each book's internal CSS file(s) during the calibre send-to-device.

You can read more about it here. It works the same with either the KoboTouch or KoboTouchExtended calibre drivers.

I think KTE does have an extra option to store a set of these files on your PC so different versions can be copied to different Kobo models, but I don't use this option myself. I'm happy doing my own one-off copying of the file to the root directory.

There is an easy trick to allow you to add CSS which will affect your kepub styling but not (99.9999% of the time) your epub styling.

Caveat: There's no "magic" at play here. All the normal rules/limitations of CSS inheritance and order will apply.

If you decide to try it out and need specific help, feel free to come back and ask more detailed questions.

stumped · 10-25-2018, 02:08 PM

Ok thanks, I think I have that already on my kobo. From a much older thread.( I say "my kobo" but my son has had it on loan for so long it feels like its his)
I somehow misread your post and thought you were adding something to each book, using calibre add extra css at conversion function. Not using a one off add a file to device root folder

jackie_w · 10-25-2018, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stumped

Ok thanks, I think I have that already on my kobo. From a much older thread.( I say "my kobo" but my son has had it on loan for so long it feels like its his)
I somehow misread your post and thought you were adding something to each book, using calibre add extra css at conversion function. Not using a one off add a file to device root folder

Ah, no. The master epub in calibre remains untouched. Only the epub/kepub on the device gets the extra CSS.

stumped · 10-25-2018, 03:07 PM

It is a long long time ago since I set my on device file up, and the idea may have come form an old post of yours. I think that all my file does is take out some of the header and footer whitespace from sideloaded books, by setting explicit top and bottom margins?

But I also discovered the driver or plug-in that converts each epub to a kepub just before sending it to the kobo, and use that for all books,so I don't know if doing that makes the other tweak redundant.

jackie_w · 10-25-2018, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stumped

But I also discovered the driver or plug-in that converts each epub to a kepub just before sending it to the kobo, and use that for all books,so I don't know if doing that makes the other tweak redundant.

As long as your KTE driver still has the Modify CSS option checked then any CSS in the kobo_extra.css file will still be added into each kepub as it is transferred.

Whether it is still doing anything useful is another issue

It will depend on what CSS you have in there. For instance, I think the kepub renderer ignores @page and widows/orphans CSS. However, if you have a CSS line in there to boost the font-size for kepubs (but not epubs) then that may still be useful on some models (e.g. ClaraHD, H2O) ... which is where this original discussion began ...

davidfor · 10-25-2018, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Point of order ... as far as I can tell this epub/kepub font-size discrepancy doesn't exist on the Forma or the KA1. It does exist on every other Kobo model I've owned, including the ClaraHD, which is newer than the KA1.

I thought of that while writing the post, but, I didn't want to complicate things

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I think KTE does have an extra option to store a set of these files on your PC so different versions can be copied to different Kobo models, but I don't use this option myself. I'm happy doing my own one-off copying of the file to the root directory.

Correct. The advantage/disadvantage is that if you have more than one of the same device, you have exactly the same file on both.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stumped

It is a long long time ago since I set my on device file up, and the idea may have come form an old post of yours. I think that all my file does is take out some of the header and footer whitespace from sideloaded books, by setting explicit top and bottom margins?

That is very likely as the code in the driver is based on code from @jackie_w.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Whether it is still doing anything useful is another issue

It will depend on what CSS you have in there. For instance, I think the kepub renderer ignores @page and widows/orphans CSS.

It definitely ignores the widows and orphans. I think it ignores @page, but I strip them out when I edit my books, so I don't see them on the device.

stumped · 10-26-2018, 01:36 AM

i checked my PC to see if I had a saved copy of the extra CSS file that is on my Kobo and found this kobo_extra.css

( line 3 is because I dont like hyphenation, and I vaguely recall experimenting with the margin top value before settling on 12pts)

@page {margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0:}
body { orphans: 1; widows: 1; }
body {adobe-hyphenate: none;}

10-25-2018, 02:02 AM	#1
disconnected Fanatic Posts: 527 Karma: 4504715 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: US Device: Kobo Forma, Libra, H2O2e2, Clara, Auras, Kindles, Nooks, Sony, iPAQ	Sideloaded Epubs on Forma I don’t know what I’ve done but something has gotten messed up. I ordered a new Kobo Forma and updated to the latest Calibre version in preparation for it. When I got the Forma I updated it as well. Then I sideloaded a bunch of epubs from Calibre. The books all show up with extra page numbers in the middle of the side margins. I remember having this problem several years ago but I don’t remember what the fix was. I already had many of the same books on other Kobo ereaders and they look fine. However, I just loaded a couple of the same books to one of my other Kobo ereaders (Clara) that didn’t already have those particular books and they also showed up with the extra page numbers, and also insanely large text. I adjusted the text to normal size but now when I open books that were already on the Clara the text is tiny. Is it obvious what I’ve done to mess things up?

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10-25-2018, 05:45 AM	#2
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	The numbers in the margin is a setting on the device. In the Reading Setting page, uncheck the "Show Adobe EPUB page numbers" option. By default, it is on, so you must have unchecked it on the Clara HD. But, the difference in font sizes suggests you have disabled or removed the KoboTouchExtended driver. Using that would have sent the books as kepubs. The font scaling is different for kepubs than epubs. For the same setting, the font in a kepub will appear smaller than in an epub. Plus, kepubs never show the page number in the margins.

10-25-2018, 02:08 PM	#8
stumped Wizard Posts: 3,305 Karma: 10259306 Join Date: May 2016 Device: kobo forma, Kobo Libra, Huawei media Tab, fire HD10, PW3 HDX8.9,	Ok thanks, I think I have that already on my kobo. From a much older thread.( I say "my kobo" but my son has had it on loan for so long it feels like its his) I somehow misread your post and thought you were adding something to each book, using calibre add extra css at conversion function. Not using a one off add a file to device root folder

10-25-2018, 03:07 PM	#10
stumped Wizard Posts: 3,305 Karma: 10259306 Join Date: May 2016 Device: kobo forma, Kobo Libra, Huawei media Tab, fire HD10, PW3 HDX8.9,	It is a long long time ago since I set my on device file up, and the idea may have come form an old post of yours. I think that all my file does is take out some of the header and footer whitespace from sideloaded books, by setting explicit top and bottom margins? But I also discovered the driver or plug-in that converts each epub to a kepub just before sending it to the kobo, and use that for all books,so I don't know if doing that makes the other tweak redundant.

10-26-2018, 01:36 AM	#13
stumped Wizard Posts: 3,305 Karma: 10259306 Join Date: May 2016 Device: kobo forma, Kobo Libra, Huawei media Tab, fire HD10, PW3 HDX8.9,	i checked my PC to see if I had a saved copy of the extra CSS file that is on my Kobo and found this kobo_extra.css ( line 3 is because I dont like hyphenation, and I vaguely recall experimenting with the margin top value before settling on 12pts) @page {margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0:} body { orphans: 1; widows: 1; } body {adobe-hyphenate: none;}

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