602 Problem with FBReader fonts, bold style

[Major Tom]

Hi everybody! A week ago I received PocketBook Pro 602 as a gift from a girl who was in Russia. It is working correctly, but with one major problem (for me it is major problem, because of my not so perfect eyesight): I cannot change font style in FBReader to bold, even if there is such an option. I mark "Bold", press OK, and PB accepts it, but when i return to the book i was reading with FBR, the font style is still regular, as if there is no difference at all between two styles. Changing font styles for the PB Interface was successful. Does anybody know what could be the problem?

[Billi]

I don't know if there is a solution for your problem on the device itself. I can only offer you two indirect ways what you can try besides FBReader.

- You could install CoolReader and look if it works there.
- You can change the css-file directly and include the bold font there.

And, welcome to MobileRead!

[Major Tom]

Thank you, Billi, for welcoming me, and for your suggestion. I would like, anyway, to make this FBR work, because I like every other feature this program offers. Also, I've heard that there is an issue with Cool Reader and TSS, and I need TSS for Russian books, because I'm trying to learn that language. For your other suggestion, I must say I don't know what css-file is, where it is, and what is its purpose.
PS. Does anybody have this kind of problem with PB 602 and FBR, is this a known issue?

[troll05]

It's a knowm problem for fbr that it pretty much ignores styles that are not written in a specific form, if you look around you'll find a whole bunch of complaints about that.

I'd suggest to use a font that's more or less bold by nature like PNM Cecilia. 75/76 is Kindle font, 85/86 might suit you better. I guess there might be a lot more

[J.C.]

Originally Posted by troll05

It's a knowm problem for fbr that it pretty much ignores styles that are not written in a specific form, if you look around you'llfind a whole bunch of complaints about that.

I'd suggest to use a font that's more or less bold by nature like PNM Cecilia 75 is Kindle font, 85/86 might suit you better. I guess there might be a lot more

+1 For troll05's suggestion of 'a bigger font size / different font' despite its supposed integration with the system FBReader seems to ignore some settings (like font anti-aliasing) that are set through the system configuration.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Major Tom

I cannot change font style in FBReader to bold, even if there is such an option. I mark "Bold", press OK, and PB accepts it, but when i return to the book i was reading with FBR, the font style is still regular, as if there is no difference at all between two styles. Changing font styles for the PB Interface was successful. Does anybody know what could be the problem?

Install FBReader180.
For FBReader180 there are many more configuration options. Then you go to custom styles, select style "Regular Paragraph" and set it to bold. From that moment on it will not matter how the book is formatted, FBReader will always display regular paragraph text as bold.

[Major Tom]

Thank you, guys, for your advices, I do very appreciate your efforts. I still hope there is a way around this problem, and that somebody will come with an answer. If not, I'll try some of those you told me.

@troll05. Thank you for the fonts you suggested, but I believe those are too expensive for me, I can't believe that I should pay 30 euro for a font!? Though I may be wrong, and this could be normal price in fonts category. Still, I hope there could be something more affordable.

As for those programs you mentioned, I mean FBR 180 and CoolReader, to tell you the truth, I'm afraid to do any software updates to my PB 602, or to mess with the FW, cause if anything goes wrong, it is just impossible to me to send it to service, for the closest service to my country is that in Germany, and it is too far and too expensive for me to send the device. So, there I have a question: does installing FBR 180 or CR interfere with the existing FW (I have 2.0.6 version), and does it overwrite any of existing programs and features (especially FBR)?

[Guns4Hire]

Originally Posted by Major Tom

So, there I have a question: does installing FBR 180 or CR interfere with the existing FW (I have 2.0.6 version), and does it overwrite any of existing programs and features (especially FBR)?

Installing fbreader180 is very simple and does not interfere with the firmware. And no it does not overwrite any programs or features. You don't really even install it really you just add it to the folder in the root of the device. Then just follow what kacir said. I would suggest adding a better font to the device, one designed for digital devices. I am currently using LexiaDaMa which is very similar to the font Amazon uses for their Kindle and it is by far the best font I've used.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Major Tom

@troll05. Thank you for the fonts you suggested, but I believe those are too expensive for me, I can't believe that I should pay 30 euro for a font!? Though I may be wrong, and this could be normal price in fonts category. Still, I hope there could be something more affordable.

That is normal price for a font. We are all just used to fonts that Microsoft or Red Hat or Google or somebody paid for and we received such fonts as a part operating system, software package or whatever.
No. Nobody expects you to pay that 30Eur for a font, unless you are a publisher and you just *have* to have that particular font.
Try to find font called Lexia Da Ma. It is very similar to Caecilia and can be downloaded for free.
There are many threads about fonts and you can find a lot fonts that are free of charge.
You can even use any font you find on your PC in fonts directory. It is not licensed use, but I do not think that anybody will prosecute you for it ;-)
Look up Google Web fonts. Many of those are high quality ones (try Ubuntu Font, my favorite) and can be downloaded for free. Legally.

Originally Posted by Major Tom

As for those programs you mentioned, I mean FBR 180 and CoolReader, to tell you the truth, I'm afraid to do any software updates to my PB 602, or to mess with the FW, cause if anything goes wrong, it is just impossible to me to send it to service, for the closest service to my country is that in Germany, and it is too far and too expensive for me to send the device. So, there I have a question: does installing FBR 180 or CR interfere with the existing FW (I have 2.0.6 version), and does it overwrite any of existing programs and features (especially FBR)?

No. Fbreader180 doesn't overvrite anything.
In the simplest configuration you just copy fbreader.app to the X:\system\bin on you reader (as connected to your PC as drive X: ) and directory \share\fbreader to the X:\system\share\fbreader on your reader. No hacking necessary. You "uninstall" the improved FBReader just by removing the *.app file from the X:\system\bin directory.
The bulit-in fbreader.app will be used again if you remove your "override" version.

[Major Tom]

Guns4Hire, Kacir, thanks for those fonts, I like them both, and searching for them I also found many free fonts.

Originally Posted by kacir

No. Fbreader180 doesn't overvrite anything.
In the simplest configuration you just copy fbreader.app to the X:\system\bin on you reader (as connected to your PC as drive X: ) and directory \share\fbreader to the X:\system\share\fbreader on your reader. No hacking necessary. You "uninstall" the improved FBReader just by removing the *.app file from the X:\system\bin directory.
The bulit-in fbreader.app will be used again if you remove your "override" version.

I'm not really sure about the part of your direction which I underlined: should I create the "share" directory, since it doesn't exist on my PB? And should I just copy the "share" directory (with all its sub directories ) from the install package of the FBR180 to the X:\system?
And another thing: if I instal FBR 180, does it mean that I wouldn't be able to use regular FBR, until I uninstall FBR180?

[paola]

Major Tom, yes, do create the share folder (or copy it directly), and no, you do not have to override the existing fbreader - just make sure you name the fbreader180.app something diffferent. Then edit the extensions.cfg file by adding the name of your fbreader 18o application (eg fbreader180.app) for the EPUb files, and you are done! In the fbreader sticky thread Kacir provides very full and clear isntructions on how to do it.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Major Tom

should I create the "share" directory, since it doesn't exist on my PB? And should I just copy the "share" directory (with all its sub directories ) from the install package of the FBR180 to the X:\system?

You can create share directory manually, or it usually gets created automatically when you unpack archive. Just make sure that the files in archive\\system\share\fbreader get copied to X:\system\share\fbreader.
There is no X:\system\share\ directory on reader as it comes from factory.

Originally Posted by Major Tom

And another thing: if I instal FBR 180, does it mean that I wouldn't be able to use regular FBR, until I uninstall FBR180?

There are TWO ways of installing FBReader180:

1. you copy fbreader180.app to X:\system\bin\fbreader.app.
This is the simple way, and in practical use the new application is used instead of built-in. If you want to use the old one you remove (or reaname) X:\system\bin\fbreader.app (*)

2. you copy fbreader180.app to X:\system\bin\fbreader180.app.
Now you have to tell the PocketBook that there is a new app available and ypu have to configure what file formats are being opened by the new app, and you have to configure where in the menu (first item (that gets used by default), second item, last item).
So you get extensions.cfg for PB602 (different models have a bit different versions of this file) and edit it to your tastes and copy it to X:\system\config\extensions.cfg (*)
You can get extensions.cfg at:
2.A. This site
2.B. in the Coolreader installation archive or perhaps FBReader installation archive
2.C. you can install poterm.app to the X:\system\applications directory, run it and use that terminal emulator to copy files from /ebrmain/config/* to /mnt/ext1/ (No, I do not expect you to mess with poterm.app but you must be wondering how we got the first copy of extensions.cfg ;-) ) There is an old post by me, where you can see that step-by-step

(*) Like with many things, the programmers in Kiev, Ukraine made the software in such a nice and well thought-out way that when there is user config file in X:\system\config\ or binary (meaning executable program) X:\system\bin in it will get precedence over file that is inside in the main memory of the device

[apos]

Hi there,

I am very happy with fbreader so far. But, when I read html files with a <h1>-tag, it is simply ignored and displayed like normal text.

So I installed fbreader180 (fbreader180-app-fw2.x.x.zip) and it works quiet like expected. Unfortunately fbreader180 does not support all the features integrated with my PocketBook 912, that is

• TTS
• taking notes

My question: does anybody know how to fix this <h1>-bug? Is there a configuration directory / file to do this?

Greets

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by apos

My question: does anybody know how to fix this <h1>-bug? Is there a configuration directory / file to do this?

It's a very long time since I used FBReader and my PB is the PB360, an older model, but I think there is a file in /system/config called style.xml (??? not absolutely sure of name).

You can manually edit in a text editor to configure headings. Look for a line something like

<style id="31" name="Header 1" fontSizeDelta="10" bold="true" allowHyphenations="false" family="DejaVu Sans" spaceBefore="20" spaceAfter="20" alignment="center"/>

and edit the attributes to suit yourself.

[apos]

Thank you very much,

i found the file styles.xml. Unfortunately this seams to be "metainfo" for fbreader itself, because you won't find a <Header 1>-tag in HTML-code. So far, the document I am using is very complex and uses a lot of divs an "class="-definitions. What I find anoying is, that fbreader180 has no problem at all with this document.

I also tried to enable "style_load=1" in fbreader.cfg.
It seams, that fbreader ignores the styles-xml completely!

I will go a little bit deeper into the problem over time ...