Naughty NookPress font Nuking.

[Hitch]

Gang:

Any of you professional bookies running into issues with the preview, at NookPress?

We have a client that decided to publish at NookPress. She dropped me a line, asking about "why" her fonts look all wonky. Honestly, I assumed that she'd hit the "insert the cover" or tweaked the file a bit, which almost always results in a corrupted ePUB. But nay, that is NOT what happened.

In addition to her book, I tested about 6 others, all with different fonts. I am getting NAFT on fonts. Everything is the ubiquitous TNR or some other basic serif font. And before you ask, yes, yes, I have it set to Publisher font.

Before I reach out to NookPress (and their utterly dead forums, etc.), and end up smashing myself in the noggin with a hammer, as I usually do when forced to actually try to reach a LIVE PERSON there, anyone else here run into this? We've tried calling the fonts directly; 2nd-party invoking by importing CSS sheet 2 from sheet 1; and putting it right on the HTML. If we put a font on the body tag, that works, but sheeeeeeeit, boys and girls, if we do that, we nuke their ability to change the main narrative font. I really do NOT want to do that.

Moreover, that's not the issue. We don't care what body font the person likes. The only thing we used were heading fonts, for the chapter heads and sub-heads. I'm getting naft.

Spoiler:

I forgot the fun part. They (NookPress) INSISTED, to her, that we had the ubiquitous encryption.xml file in there, and that's why the fonts weren't working. We made this from Word, so...nope. Wasn't in there. This client is pretty cool, thank god, but you know how the usual client is--no matter what you say, they'll be sure that B&N is right, and you're...well, FIBBING at best.

Dudes, dudettes? Anyone smash into this lately? AFAIK, it's a somewhat recent phenomena; I just had an uploading issue with another client, in the last...I dunno, 8 weeks?....and that font worked. Now? NIX.

TIA,

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Have you tried downloading a sample? You might have to use a nook to do this if you don't hav a working nook for PC. Then you can see exactly what you are getting back in regards to the embedded fonts.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Have you tried downloading a sample? You might have to use a nook to do this if you don't hav a working nook for PC. Then you can see exactly what you are getting back in regards to the embedded fonts.

Jon:

Actually, no, I haven't. Not the for-sale book. (We have 3 nooks here, so that's not the issue.) The client's distress is with their fairly abominable Previewer/LITB. I do know that the ePUB we uploaded works on the Nooks, but I take your point. Only christ knows what the hell the thing looks like now.

Anyone else????

<--------crickets------------->

Hitch

[dgatwood]

Are you certain that nobody tried to edit the book inside NookPress? Because I'd expect that to basically blow away any nontrivial CSS and thus hose things royally. You might try uploading an EPUB 3 with backwards compatibility bits just to make absolutely sure the editor can't open it.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by dgatwood

You might try uploading an EPUB 3 with backwards compatibility bits just to make absolutely sure the editor can't open it.

I guess that is one good reason to use EPUB3!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by dgatwood

Are you certain that nobody tried to edit the book inside NookPress? Because I'd expect that to basically blow away any nontrivial CSS and thus hose things royally. You might try uploading an EPUB 3 with backwards compatibility bits just to make absolutely sure the editor can't open it.

Hi, Dag:

I am 100% certain.

As part of the troubleshooting process, we've now uploaded more than ten books to the NookPress interface, and NONE of them have working fonts, in the "preview." All of them have working fonts in the actual books. But not in the Preview.

We've tried:

• Normal, typical ePUB2 with a single stylesheet;
• Normal typical ePUB2, with two CSS sheets, the first importing the second;
• and we've tried to roll back an ePUB, using only the TNR and Arial that they are now claiming that they support.
• EXCEPT, none of these work.

We removed the xml file that we'd had in it. We'd made this particular book from Word, BTW. What happened? When the client uploaded the second file, the CSRs at Nook sent us the same exact email that she'd received the first time, claiming that the fonts didn't work because the "bookmaking and publishing software that [we] used" embedded this encryption.xml file and made the fonts just not work.

Of course, none of this is remotely correct. We didn't have ANY X.xml file in the ePUB; it's not made from InDesign, which is what they are alleging, essentially, and the fonts work fine, ON the device. Just not in Preview.

I spent some time on the B&N website today, front end, and lo....when I look at BPH books, NONE of them are displaying embedded fonts. I suspect that B&N finally decided that they couldn't make their Preview work correctly, and they just changed it. Period.

(n.b.: did I check EVERY book? Hell no. But I tried to make sure that I selected books from big sellers, bph's, different houses, like Stephen King, Gaiman, et al. I would think that I should have seen at least ONE embedded font in those books.)

None of our uploads worked, in the preview. Not one. So, yes, I'm sure that whether or not the client edited it, it was moot. The editing, or not, didn't matter at ALL. Not an iota.

My frustration levels are just sky-high right now. I know that their Previewer fonts worked, only a few months ago, because I helped a client and saw the fonts, then. With my own eyeballs. (For that matter, in the Previewer, they have "publisher defaults," which you used to have to select, to see embedded fonts. Now? The option is still there, but nothing changes when you select it. If there are no embedded fonts, WTF is "publisher defaults" FOR?)

Spoiler:

(We need a Lycanthrope emoty. Werewolfy. When we're incensed and outraged and ready to bite heads off.)

{sigh}

[Hitch]

Well, the joy of trying to publish books to NookPress continues.

The font mystery problem continues. NP sent yet another email to our client, when she uploaded a revised ePUB, AGAIN claiming that this new and improved ePUB also had the alleged "encryption.xml" file. The thing that is absolutely slaying me is, we made this book from WORD, FFS. Not INDD.

There is NO encryption.xml file in there. Now, there is NO xml file, of any kind (other than xhtml, of course), in the ePUB. Nada. Zip. Zein, Zilch.

Next? We have a client with a professional book, needed RPNs. (Real Page Numbers). This was needed for both an index, AND we created a RPN map, that a buyer could use to nav to a specific spot in the book. This works like a champ in ADE, in iBooks, on real Nook devices.

BUT, does it work in the Preview? It by Gottdammed does NOT. The links seem to stop working, at a certain point in the narrative. They work up to ABOUT the 8th page link, and then they all fail, going to utterly unrelated places in the book. The client thinks we're nuts.

x 2.

Hitch