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Old 09-18-2013, 09:03 AM   #1
Rugalb
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Kobo page fitting

After reading a lot about both the new Aura and the Paper White 2, I am about to preorder the Aura. My main hangup is that in every video you can see the book's title on top of every page, and a huge main at the bottom. I assume you can get rid of the title, but, can you format the book so that the bottom margin is reduced to a minimum? Are there any pictures showing that?

Thanks in advance.
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Old 09-18-2013, 09:07 AM   #2
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No, you can't change the empty space at the bottom of the page. And you can't get rid of the title on top of the page. This is for the Aura HD, despite preordering the Aura August 28th and them charging my credit card the 12th of September I haven't seen one (or even a shipping notice) yet. But that extra space at the bottom is a common complaint for the Aura HD.
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Old 09-18-2013, 09:15 AM   #3
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To eliminate the top space, use side-loaded epubs.

For the bottom space, keep an eye on this thread to see if/when the patcher is updated for the new Aura firmware.
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Old 09-18-2013, 09:21 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rugalb View Post
After reading a lot about both the new Aura and the Paper White 2, I am about to preorder the Aura. My main hangup is that in every video you can see the book's title on top of every page, and a huge main at the bottom. I assume you can get rid of the title, but, can you format the book so that the bottom margin is reduced to a minimum? Are there any pictures showing that?

Thanks in advance.
Only kepubs have the title at the top. Epubs have nothing. Not sure what you mean by "huge main" at the bottom. My Kobo Aura HD has nothing at the bottom except for the page number. There's a bit of space but nothing to get hung up about. All of my paper books have at least an inch of space at the bottom of them.
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Old 09-18-2013, 10:09 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by treadlightly View Post
To eliminate the top space, use side-loaded epubs.

For the bottom space, keep an eye on this thread to see if/when the patcher is updated for the new Aura firmware.
Thanks for your answer, I truly appreciate that tip. So I think I am in for the Aura now that you can get rid of that blank space at the bottom. My only complaint is that they could implement that into the official firmware. They should hire that Russian bloke.
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Old 09-18-2013, 10:23 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by Rugalb View Post
They should hire that Russian bloke.
Why?

It's not as if Kobo do not know what they are doing or why. All he has done is to provide a means to alter some of their functionality, either by editing some HTML / CSS entries in the binary that happen to be obfuscated by being compressed in zLib format, or by changing some branch instructions in their actual compiled code.

Remember; it's not as if the PROGRAMMERS normally have any say in how the layout looks on the device.
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Old 09-18-2013, 10:30 AM   #7
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Remember; it's not as if the PROGRAMMERS normally have any say in how the layout looks on the device.
So you are telling me that they keep that disgraceful blank space and that awful long paragraph bug because they like the way it looks? They should allow the user more customisation IMHO.
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Old 09-18-2013, 01:17 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by Rugalb View Post
So you are telling me that they keep that disgraceful blank space and that awful long paragraph bug because they like the way it looks? They should allow the user more customisation IMHO.
Customization would be awesome. Full page mode would be one of those easy (I should think) things to implement on Kobo's part that would make a noteworthy selling feature.
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Old 09-18-2013, 01:39 PM   #9
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I have an Aura HD and I applied the patch within the first day: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=220171

I would not want to go back to the eyesore and clumsiness of wasted space at the bottom. There is a screenshot in post #13 of the patch thread. The HD has been out for a while, and Kobo seems unwilling or unable to do anything about some of the rendering bugs.
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Old 09-18-2013, 02:24 PM   #10
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I actually love the space, I don't feel like the screen is cluttered, i really don't care about turning 1-10 more times... Honestly is much more clear this way for me. (I've never had the long paragraph bug, also).
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Old 09-19-2013, 12:07 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterT View Post
Remember; it's not as if the PROGRAMMERS normally have any say in how the layout looks on the device.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rugalb View Post
So you are telling me that they keep that disgraceful blank space and that awful long paragraph bug because they like the way it looks? They should allow the user more customisation IMHO.
No, it means they have decided they know what is better for the device they are selling. Just like you have decided that you know what is better.

And Peter emphasised the word "PROGRAMMERS" for a reason. A programmer on a large project rarely has a say in what gets implemented. They get a task that says "implement this". How much detail they get depends on how the project is run and the actual programmer. A junior programmer might get it spelt out almost to the code level. A senior programmer will get more freedom. But that freedom will be to design something to a defined set of specifications. The programmer might be able to change some things, but will usually need to put these back through the change control process to get the are accepted.

I'll make a comment on the "Kobo should add these as options" that is everyone's opinion. That isn't as easy as it sounds. And adding options to existing code can be even harder. If we add a new option, say one to not display the title in kepubs, this is what needs to be done:

- Decide where to display the option
- Word the text and any help for the option
- Add code to read and save the option as part of the settings
- Add code to use the option
- Unit test the change to make sure it does what is intended
- Test the change as part of the product to make sure it works and doesn't break something else

The above is a simplification. And the first two steps are a lot more important than you think and can lead to a lot of discussion in the development team.

The testing is also a problem. Adding the option suddenly doubles the testing of that module. They need to test with the option set and without. If they also added an option to hide the page number, there is suddenly four combinations to test.

All the above means that adding features to an existing code base is not as simple as it might seem.

Bug fixes are usually handled differently. Someone gets a list of reported bugs, tests them to see if they can be reproduced, verifies they are actually bugs (the widows and orphans handling is not a bug, but the long paragraph handling is) and then prioritises them. Then, they are handed to the programmers to fix the bugs in order of priority. The highest priority bugs will always be "can't use the system" or data loss. As annoying as the long paragraph bug is, it will be a low priority. The book can still be read but will need a few more page turns.

Should Kobo hire the author of the patcher? I have no idea. What he is doing doesn't necessarily demonstrate any programming skills. It demonstrates the ability to read the compiled code and work out what can be changed. That is an impressive feat, but doesn't actually say the author can write code in the language that Kobo develops in.
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Old 09-19-2013, 04:44 AM   #12
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With Bookeens Cybookreaders you are able to hide bothe the page numer and the title header of a page which would be nice for the Kobo.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mr_nihilism View Post
Customization would be awesome. Full page mode would be one of those easy (I should think) things to implement on Kobo's part that would make a noteworthy selling feature.
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Old 09-19-2013, 11:03 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor View Post
I'll make a comment on the "Kobo should add these as options" that is everyone's opinion. That isn't as easy as it sounds. And adding options to existing code can be even harder. If we add a new option, say one to not display the title in kepubs, this is what needs to be done:

- Decide where to display the option
- Word the text and any help for the option
- Add code to read and save the option as part of the settings
- Add code to use the option
- Unit test the change to make sure it does what is intended
- Test the change as part of the product to make sure it works and doesn't break something else

The above is a simplification. And the first two steps are a lot more important than you think and can lead to a lot of discussion in the development team.
David, I don't disagree with your comment. I only missed the word flexibility in the first entry of the list.
This is imo what Kobo should keep more in mind and give users more control to enable or disable options or features. As I and others have mentioned earlier, other ereader manufactures have implemented similar features but in a more customizable way.

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Should Kobo hire the author of the patcher? I have no idea.
I don't know either but I do know that he touched a chord as it is one of the most popular kobo patches available.
To hire or not to hire but this should tell Kobo that something needs to be done with the amount of screen space the header/footer hijacks from the actual screen space available for reading.
And yes, showing book information in a header and footer can be useful but is not a necessity.
The patch "proved" that reducing (not hiding!) the margins of the footer did not encumber the readability of the displayed footer text.

Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor View Post
"Kobo should add these as options" that is everyone's opinion.
True. But there are many little tweaks available for more experienced users by modifying the kobo.conf configuration file.
The question is: Why are these tweaks not accessable through the GUI? And no, I don't mean every single one of them, but the most useful should be accessable through the GUI.

The Reading settings section of the GUI should enable/disable:
  • Online Wikipedia Lookup
  • Phrase Translation
  • Thesaurus
  • Book Specific Statistics
  • Use Full Book Page Numbers

Just to name a few. No technical features or features for developers only.

Last edited by Anak; 09-20-2013 at 09:17 AM.
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Old 09-19-2013, 11:37 AM   #14
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I, for one, like the "look" of the page setting. It feels like a paper book this the page number at the bottom and it doesn't bother me to turn pages a bit more. I would rather not have crammed full pages, it feels oppressive to me (and yet I have set a very small font on my reader as I can't stand a big font either). But I can understand that my likings are not everyone likings...
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Old 09-19-2013, 01:47 PM   #15
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I'm with you, vice-versa. The top & bottom margins have never bothered me. It's exactly the same layout as pretty much every paperback novel I've ever owned. I suppose that part of it is that for whatever reason I don't recognize the bevel as part of the "page". Still, everyone has their own preferences.
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