Nook STR - custom fonts

[aterry13]

Is there a simple way to add additional fonts to the Nook STR? I used to have a Kindle and I loved the fonts that were added when I was able to jailbreak it. Now, I don't want to do the whole "rooting" process on my STR, as most of it is unnecessary for me, but I really don't like any of the STR fonts. I want to customize it. Can I do it through Calibre? Is there a simple (not necessarily quick, but simple) way to do this?

[AnemicOak]

To the best of my knowledge rooting is the only way.

[livramax]

Originally Posted by aterry13

Is there a simple way to add additional fonts to the Nook STR?
...
I want to customize it. Can I do it through Calibre? Is there a simple (not necessarily quick, but simple) way to do this?

Yes, you can use alternative fonts (without rooting your Nook). I've done it using the methods & tools described in this blog

http://phanquochuy.me/?p=114

and this thread

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/...rs/td-p/494819

[aterry13]

Originally Posted by livramax

Yes, you can use alternative fonts (without rooting your Nook). I've done it using the methods & tools described in this blog

http://phanquochuy.me/?p=114

and this thread

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/...rs/td-p/494819

AWESOME!! Thanks so much! I will give it a try!

[aterry13]

Originally Posted by livramax

Yes, you can use alternative fonts (without rooting your Nook). I've done it using the methods & tools described in this blog

http://phanquochuy.me/?p=114

and this thread

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/...rs/td-p/494819

Ok...it didn't work for me... I think that the plug ins directions were a little too technical for me. What was I supposed to set the paths to? Did I need to load the preferred fonts onto the Nook? There were things that I just was unsure of. I played around with it, but no luck. If anyone is feeling generous, would you give me step by step instructions on how to work the plug in? I can load it into Calibre and all that, but customizing the plug in and the steps that follow was where I got completely lost....

And the second thread was definitely too technical for me - when it asked to convert fonts, it was WAY over my head!

[livramax]

Originally Posted by aterry13

...
If anyone is feeling generous, would you give me step by step instructions on how to work the plug in? I can load it into Calibre and all that, but customizing the plug in and the steps that follow was where I got completely lost....
...

Here are some pointers based on my setup which uses the embedded font approach (i.e. the font files are included in each converted epub, rather than stored once on the Nook):

- I keep my 4 font (MinionPro) files (MinionPro-Bold.otf, MinionPro-BoldItalic.otf, MinionPro-Italic.otf, MinionPro-Regular.otf) in a folder (named minionpro) in C:\Program Files\Calibre2\resources\embeddedfonts -- i.e. complete path is "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\resources\embeddedfonts\minionpro"

- Info for the "Customizing the plug in" menu (our Font Plug In is under "File type plug-ins"):

Font source: Use embedded font
Font name: MinionPro (note: this is the common-part of the font files' name without the font-type suffixes)
Font Extension: otf (note: this is file extension suffix of the font files)
Embedded Font Path: C:\Program Files\Calibre2\resources\embeddedfonts

All other fields are left with their default values.

Hope the above help.

[aterry13]

Would this work with a ttf?

So basically, I am embedding the font into the document rather than through the Nook. Would the font still be adjustable (size wise) and if I switched the font by mistake, am I replacing any of the font choices on the Nook with this font?

Any help is greatly appreciated. I really miss my Droid Serif font from my kindle. These Nook fonts aren't working for me...!

Well, in the meantime, I will give it a try....wish me luck!

[aterry13]

Well..it didn't work. At this point, either this is way over my head or I am a complete numbskull and I am missing something obvious! I wish I could just change the six font options (or whatever) that comes on the Nook to five choices I want. Will rooting let me do that? Does anyone know? If so, then could someone give me the link to learn to do that?

[livramax]

Originally Posted by aterry13

Would this work with a ttf?

So basically, I am embedding the font into the document rather than through the Nook. Would the font still be adjustable (size wise)

Yes, you can adjust the font size.

and if I switched the font by mistake, am I replacing any of the font choices on the Nook with this font?
...

(If I understand your question correctly) no. since the font is only applicable to the document which it's embedded in.

[livramax]

Originally Posted by aterry13

Well..it didn't work. At this point, either this is way over my head or I am a complete numbskull and I am missing something obvious!
...

Which release of Calibre are you using?

I discovered that for some reason the Default-Font-Change plugin stopped working after I upgraded from release 0.8.41 to 0.8.54, and it works again after I rolled back to 0.8.41.

Also, I browsed the Nook ST's /system/fonts directory and found that Droid Serif as well as Droid Sans Serif fonts are already included there (but unfortunately do not get used by the Nook eReader). Hence you should be able to configure the Calibre Font-Change Plugin to make use of these fonts with the following Plugin configuration:

- Font Source: Use Device's System Fonts
- Font Name: Droid
- Font Extension: .ttf
- System Font Path: (I would suggest as a start keepingthe default value "system/fonts")

[morantis]

I do not see getting to those file folders without rooting in.

[livramax]

Originally Posted by aterry13

...
I wish I could just change the six font options (or whatever) that comes on the Nook to five choices I want. Will rooting let me do that? Does anyone know? If so, then could someone give me the link to learn to do that?

I think this link provides the info you're looking for.

[aterry13]

Originally Posted by livramax

Which release of Calibre are you using?

I discovered that for some reason the Default-Font-Change plugin stopped working after I upgraded from release 0.8.41 to 0.8.54, and it works again after I rolled back to 0.8.41.

Also, I browsed the Nook ST's /system/fonts directory and found that Droid Serif as well as Droid Sans Serif fonts are already included there (but unfortunately do not get used by the Nook eReader). Hence you should be able to configure the Calibre Font-Change Plugin to make use of these fonts with the following Plugin configuration:

- Font Source: Use Device's System Fonts
- Font Name: Droid
- Font Extension: .ttf
- System Font Path: (I would suggest as a start keepingthe default value "system/fonts")

I eliminated and reinstalled Calibre to the 0.8.41 release. That didn't help and it caused more problems (Calibre didn't recognize the Nook at that release.) You said you would "start" with systems/fonts. Is there another thing that I could try? None of this makes sense. About 20% of the books have successfully converted, but why wouldn't all of them? Just about all of them started as RTF's that I converted to Mobi's when I had a Kindle. So, despite all of them starting at the same point, 80% won't work with this plug-in. After a few tries with different combinations, it seemed to really mess up the document I tried to work with. Nothing seems to be working and my only guess is that the problem is that this is a Nook Simple Touch Glow and something about that must be different. If anyone can help with this, I would greatly apppreciate it...

[livramax]

Originally Posted by aterry13

I eliminated and reinstalled Calibre to the 0.8.41 release. That didn't help and it caused more problems (Calibre didn't recognize the Nook at that release.)

I always side-load my ebooks via Win Explorer copy/paste so I was not aware of Calibre's problem with recognizing a Nook.

You said you would "start" with systems/fonts. Is there another thing that I could try? None of this makes sense. About 20% of the books have successfully converted, but why wouldn't all of them? Just about all of them started as RTF's that I converted to Mobi's when I had a Kindle. So, despite all of them starting at the same point, 80% won't work with this plug-in.

I don't really know why it works for some of your ebooks and not others.

In my limited experience with manually tweaking the format of ebooks in epub form I noticed that there is significant variance in their structures which I think would make quite a challenge for any given format conversion program to handle all of them equally effective.

Perhaps you can try converting them in 2-passes: first from rtf to epub without the font conversion plug_in (by just disabling the plug_in) then from epub to epub with the font conversion plug_in.

...
Nothing seems to be working and my only guess is that the problem is that this is a Nook Simple Touch Glow and something about that must be different. If anyone can help with this, I would greatly appreciate it...

In case it might help, here's the content of my configuration file for the plug-in (C:\Documents and Settings\(user_name)\Application Data\calibre\plugins\font_config.json):

{
"font_config_sys_font_path": "system/fonts/",
"font_config_mode": "USE_EMB_FONT",
"font_config_output": "default",
"font_config_ext_font_path": "system/media/sdcard/my fonts/",
"font_config_font": "MinionPro",
"font_config_ext": ".otf",
"font_config_emb_font_path": "C:/Program Files/Calibre2/resources/embeddedfonts/"
}