PRS-505 Font differences - LRF vs EPUB

[jackie_w]

Please could someone explain the following to me.

The same HTML file looks different on a Sony PRS-505 depending on whether you convert to LRF or EPUB. In particular:-

1. Regular/Bold text. There is hardly any difference in appearance between regular and bold in LRF, but bold in EPUB has much better contrast. (EPUB better).

2. Monospace text. LRF looks pretty good (nice and dark), but EPUB is a wishy-washy grey. (LRF better)

3. Small Caps. Displayed OK in LRF, but just looks like regular text in EPUB. (LRF better)

4. Strikethrough. Displayed OK in EPUB, but just looks like regular text in LRF. (EPUB better).

I have not embedded any fonts in the file - at least not knowingly. The relevant bits of my CSS are:-

body {font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman", serif; }
p {font-size:100%; }
span.monospace {font-family:"Courier New", monospace; }
span.smallcaps {font-variant:small-caps; }

I would be very grateful for any help. I would like to start experimenting with font-embedding but not until I understand the basics, which I obviously don't!

Regards.

[JSWolf]

LRF and ePub do use different default fonts. ePub does not support font-variant:smappcaps. But if you just make the regular font smaller instead, that will work. And in ePub it is very easy to use the fonts of your choice.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And in ePub it is very easy to use the fonts of your choice.

I'm assuming you mean using font embedding. I've bookmarked a very long post about it but haven't psyched myself up to go through it yet. Soon ...

Thanks for the tip about Small Caps - now why didn't I think of that?

Jackie

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I'm assuming you mean using font embedding.

You can use custom fonts without embedding them (i.e. without including them in the ePub). See ePub custom Fonts on 700, 505, 300, 600. The simplest approach is to use an add-on to the CSS such as:

@font-face {
  font-family: "Arial Black", serif, sans-serif;
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style:  normal;
  src: url(res:///Data/fonts/Arial-Black.ttf);
}

Where fonts is a directory on your internal memory containing the fonts you want to use. This is a simple example, which renames the default fonts, and you can do a lot more with fonts that this.

[jackie_w]

Hi wallcraft,
Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I have done some experimenting and managed to get it roughly working. I need to do a lot more work to get it just right, but it's looking promising.

[awh_tokyo]

I must admit that I put one ePub book on my PRS-505 once. I got two pages in, and then re-converted to LRF and read that instead.

I just think that the ePub display is so awful on the PRS-505 that it's worth having all my books in the "closed" format of LRF.

[mrmikel]

The big advantage of epub for me is when the source is structured as many files linked together, like a web book. For me it is easier to get a usable if not attractive epub than an lrf. The LRF for me works best as one big source file, which takes a lot of work.

But I like the appearance of the LRF best.

[Hellmark]

Personally, I prefer the default settings in Calibre to make LRF's, and viewing under size S. What really is strange, is that with some epubs I have (Such as PJ Lyon's Sights a Bird) will not have one screen equal a page. It will have split pages (Page 5-6 of 318, or something like that) show a page number on the right hand side of the paragraph that starts the "page". On Sights a Bird, it takes like 3 or so screen changes, before it is on a new "page".

[latexsalesman]

I never realized that I am a font geek. Calibre + ePub means I can quickly and easily make several copies of my books 2 read. I normally make one copy with a semi bold font, like Myriad Webpro condensed (my favorite) or minion pro semibold, and another copy with Caecilia. I love 2 try new fonts out all the time and I cannot do this with LRF.

[Hellmark]

You can, but it isn't as easy. You have to hack the reader, usually by modifying the firmware.

[radius]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Please could someone explain the following to me.

The same HTML file looks different on a Sony PRS-505 depending on whether you convert to LRF or EPUB. In particular:-

You are seeing differences because of a couple of things:

1) LRF and EPUB have different capabilities. While EPUB is pretty much compatible with HTML, LRF was designed specifically for Sony's readers. There is very large overlap between what the two formats are capable of, they are not identical.

2) Different software draws LRF and EPUB. Sony wrote the software that renders LRF to the screen, while Adobe wrote the software that renders EPUB.

[jackie_w]

Thank you for the explanation, radius.