iBooks in iOS 16 no longer displaying original fonts

[Bluesteel83]

Hi, I've been editing books for my iPad Airs in Calibre for several years now. Up until iOS 16, if I included com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml and embedded fonts, I could set the preferred fonts I wanted for body and headings in my Calibre file, export the epub, and then set the font to "Original" in iBooks and everything would display accurately.

However, since the latest iOS/iPadOS 16 updates, the font in "original" now displays as Times New Roman. No matter what I do, I can't get my ebooks/ePub files to display properly/in their installed fonts.

I checked the books on another iPad running iPadOS 15.6 and they displayed properly, it's just the new OS that is the issue.

Does anybody know of a fix/way around it? Is there a new version of that xml file that's needed for the new OS? I have read several websites and forums, but haven't been able to find a solution. Any help appreciated.

[thiago.eec]

Originally Posted by Bluesteel83

Hi, I've been editing books for my iPad Airs in Calibre for several years now. Up until iOS 16, if I included com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml and embedded fonts, I could set the preferred fonts I wanted for body and headings in my Calibre file, export the epub, and then set the font to "Original" in iBooks and everything would display accurately.

However, since the latest iOS/iPadOS 16 updates, the font in "original" now displays as Times New Roman. No matter what I do, I can't get my ebooks/ePub files to display properly/in their installed fonts.

I checked the books on another iPad running iPadOS 15.6 and they displayed properly, it's just the new OS that is the issue.

Does anybody know of a fix/way around it? Is there a new version of that xml file that's needed for the new OS? I have read several websites and forums, but haven't been able to find a solution. Any help appreciated.

I don't know which version of EPUB you have. But try editing the OPF file like below. That's meant for EPUB3, but I think it might work on EPUB2 as well.

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" version="3.0" xml:lang="pt-BR" unique-identifier="isbn-id" prefix="ibooks: http://vocabulary.itunes.apple.com/rdf/ibooks/vocabulary-extensions-1.0/">
    <metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
        <!--Metadados embutidos-->
        <meta name="generator" content="Adobe InDesign 13.0.1"/>
        <meta name="cover" content="cover.jpg"/>
        <meta property="ibooks:specified-fonts">true</meta>
...

P.S.: Pay attention to the prefix attribute on the <package> element.

[Bluesteel83]

Hi Thiago,

When I exported the file with that opf file text, I couldn't then import the file into Books. If I reverted it back, I could.

The preferred fonts only seem to appear in headings. Body copy fonts don't.

I used Calibre to convert the ePub to v 3.0 and included the iBooks-display-options.xml file, but it still doesn't show the accurate fonts when displayed in iOS 16.

Not sure what is going on...

[Martinoptic]

I also have this issue. Body text is the problem. Fonts render ok in headings. They used to render in body text in iOS 15 with com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml
I have tried a different epub app (Bluefire) which does respect the ebooks embedded fonts.
I wonder what apple have changed. Oh and I miss the page curl transition too.

[Bluesteel83]

Hi Martinoptic,

That sucks. I was hoping not to have to use another ebook reader, but that's looking like a potential outcome as I haven't been able to figure out a solution...