Aura No advanced properties for some fonts

[Beniamina]

Hi to all,
I have just bought a KOBO AURA 2nd edition ereader.

Everythig is fine, but I noticed that for 2 fonts (KBJ-TsukuMin Pr6N RB and KBJ-UDKakugo Pr6N M) the choice of 'advanced properties' is NOT available, while for all other fonts this choice exists.

This choice is useful in order to increase or decrease the contrast.

Is this correct or do you think that it is a KOBO bug?

Thank you!
Beniamina

[JSWolf]

Advanced font controls only works for truetype fonts. Maybe those two fonts are opentype.

[salamanderjuice]

This is correct. Tsukushi Mincho and Kakugo are both Japanese fonts and those fonts aren't allowed to have their weightings changed. Not even using a patch to enable advanced font control on other fonts allows it.

[GeoffR]

Those two fonts have the advanced font controls available on my Glo with firmware 4.5.9587, in both ePub and KePub books. However I have patched the firmware with the `Freedom to advanced fonts control` patch, and I didn't check if it worked without the patch.

Edit: These are built-in fonts, they come with the firmware and are in TTF format. There is something strange about the font name displayed on your Aura 2, could it be you have sideloaded a different version of these fonts? In that case the advanced font controls won't work unless the firmware is patched.

[salamanderjuice]

It's just because they have it set to Italian. You see the same names if you set it to Italian or Spanish.

It doesn't work without the patch because I don't have the patch either. Didn't you say in one of your "Freedom to advanced fonts control" notes it doesn't work for Japanese fonts anymore? Or does that no longer hold true?

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

It's just because they have it set to Italian. You see the same names if you set it to Italian or Spanish.

Thanks, I didn't know about that.

It doesn't work without the patch because I don't have the patch either. Didn't you say in one of your "Freedom to advanced fonts control" notes it doesn't work for Japanese fonts anymore? Or does that no longer hold true?

The patch should work with any TTF font, but there might be side effects if the language is set to Japanese on the device or in the book. (I don't know exactly what the side effects are though, since I never read in Japanese, it might just be something minor like which font is used by default.)

Edit: If Kobo have disabled the advanced font controls on the Kobo Tsukushi Mincho and Kobo UD Kakugo fonts there might be a reason for it. Those fonts are much larger than the others, I've had problems with the device running out of memory when using them, and it might be that the advanced settings cause them to use even more memory. I'd avoid using either of those two fonts unless reading in a CJK language that actually needs them.

[Beniamina]

First of all,
thank you for all your replies!

I did not know that the 2 mentioned fonts were Japanese ones, as if I select one of them I see Latin characters.

Geoffr,
I too have your same firmware (4-5-9587) but I don't remember any 'Freedom to advanced fonts control' choice.

I did not sideloaded a different version of these fonts, I just syncronized the ereader with KOBO via wireless, just after having bought it.

How do I install patches?
I thought that synchronization would have been sufficient in order to have the most updated version...

Thank you again!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Beniamina

First of all,
thank you for all your replies!

I did not know that the 2 mentioned fonts were Japanese ones, as if I select one of them I see Latin characters.

Geoffr,
I too have your same firmware (4-5-9587) but I don't remember any 'Freedom to advanced fonts control' choice.

I did not sideloaded a different version of these fonts, I just syncronized the ereader with KOBO via wireless, just after having bought it.

How do I install patches?
I thought that synchronization would have been sufficient in order to have the most updated version...

Thank you again!

The two fonts mentioned have a lot more glyphs/characters than the other fonts on the device. This allows display of hiragana, katakana and kanji along with Latin characters required by Japanese typography. You do have to wonder about using 4 different alphabets.

For the patches, take a look at Instructions for patching firmware 4.5.9587 in the Kobo Developer's Forum. These are not official Kobo patches. These are not from Kobo and require you have the correct firmware version to match the patches.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The two fonts mentioned have a lot more glyphs/characters than the other fonts on the device. This allows display of hiragana, katakana and kanji along with Latin characters required by Japanese typography. You do have to wonder about using 4 different alphabets.

For the patches, take a look at Instructions for patching firmware 4.5.9587 in the Kobo Developer's Forum. These are not official Kobo patches. These are not from Kobo and require you have the correct firmware version to match the patches.

They aren't alphabets, two are syllabaries and one is a set of characters, along with the latin alphabet. They all serve a purpose. While you could write Japanese in just one of the syllabaries or the latin alphabet it's a lot harder to read.

ITSLIKEREADINGENGLISHINALLCAPSWITHNOSPACESORPUNCTU ATIONYOUCANDOITBUTITSNOTGREATESPECIALLYBECAUSEOFAL LTHEHOMOPHONES

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

They aren't alphabets, two are syllabaries and one is a set of characters, along with the latin alphabet. They all serve a purpose. While you could write Japanese in just one of the syllabaries or the latin alphabet it's a lot harder to read.

ITSLIKEREADINGENGLISHINALLCAPSWITHNOSPACESORPUNCTU ATIONYOUCANDOITBUTITSNOTGREATESPECIALLYBECAUSEOFAL LTHEHOMOPHONES

You have a space between the a and the ls in all on the screen but not when I quoted.

[salamanderjuice]

Yea I noticed that too, there isn't actually a space there. It's just all just one line. Seems like a bug in the forum system.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Yea I noticed that too, there isn't actually a space there. It's just all just one line. Seems like a bug in the forum system.

Where is the insecticide?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

They aren't alphabets, two are syllabaries and one is a set of characters, along with the latin alphabet. They all serve a purpose. While you could write Japanese in just one of the syllabaries or the latin alphabet it's a lot harder to read.

ITSLIKEREADINGENGLISHINALLCAPSWITHNOSPACESORPUNCTU ATIONYOUCANDOITBUTITSNOTGREATESPECIALLYBECAUSEOFAL LTHEHOMOPHONES

I commonly see hiragana and katakana referred to as alphabets. OTOH, I've seen Chinese characters and Japanese kanji referred to as logosyllabic just to add to the mess. Should we get into a discussion that hiragana and katakana (kana) are not complete syllabaries?

Perhaps I should have included furigana as a fifth option?

Can we agree that the glyphs in the two fonts in question are certainly more numerous than would be needed for a Latin/European language font?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Yea I noticed that too, there isn't actually a space there. It's just all just one line. Seems like a bug in the forum system.

That's what the code tag is for.

ITSLIKEREADINGENGLISHINALLCAPSWITHNOSPACESORPUNCTUATIONYOUCANDOIBUTITSNOTGREATESPECIALLYBECAUSEOFALLTHEHOMOPHONES

[Beniamina]

Thank you to everybody who answered to me!
I understood and have decided to...change the font in order to having as less troubles as possible.

It's very nice to receive answers so rapidly....