Are there any readers that don't support Greek?

[swapjim]

I'll be reading novels in Greek. Are there readers that don't support (at all or well) Greek text? I expect the answer to be "no" but I want to make sure. I'm leaning toward Tolino Shine 2 HD or Kobo Aura 2nd Edition.

If there's anyone who would like to do a test for me, or out of curiosity, I've attached a sample eBook I prepared for this. It has all the greek letters, plus some sample greek text from the Gutenberg project. I place this sample under the Public Domain, for anyone to use.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by swapjim

I'll be reading novels in Greek. Are there readers that don't support (at all or well) Greek text? I expect the answer to be "no" but I want to make sure. I'm leaning toward Tolino Shine 2 HD or Kobo Aura 2nd Edition.

If there's anyone who would like to do a test for me, or out of curiosity, I've attached a sample eBook I prepared for this. It has all the greek letters, plus some sample greek text from the Gutenberg project. I place this sample under the Public Domain, for anyone to use.

The only major issue I've seen with Greek books is making sure the font used supports the Greek alphabet/glyphs when displaying them on a Kobo ereader. If I transfer the font I used for testing on my KA1 to the Tolino epos, it displays the books with no noticeable issues so the Shine should work. The fonts I've used for this were Charis Gentium and Noto Serif Display. Amazon's Bookerly works as well. Code2000 works but the glyphs are not great.

Gentium is downloadble from SIL's website at Gentium Download if you wish to give it a try.

[PeterT]

To follow up DNSB's comment, reading ePubs on a Kobo with font that is missing glyphs from the font is quite annoying; there is no indication that a character is not displayed.

If you convert the ePub to a kePub the Access engine will use an alternate font to display the missing character.

[swapjim]

Hello again. I was away for a month. I've got a one more question.

So if one Greek book displays properly on the reader, all the rest will too, right? If yes, then I only need to take a sample eBook (containing just the Greek alphabet) to the store (selling the reader) and ask them to test it.

I've done a quick search on the web and I can see that I can easily add a custom font on Kobo (don't know about Tolino yet) and can choose to use that on all my books. Serves as a back up solution and it sounds quicker than editing all my ebooks.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by swapjim

Hello again. I was away for a month. I've got a one more question.

So if one Greek book displays properly on the reader, all the rest will too, right? If yes, then I only need to take a sample eBook (containing just the Greek alphabet) to the store (selling the reader) and ask them to test it.

Yes.

Originally Posted by swapjim

I've done a quick search on the web and I can see that I can easily add a custom font on Kobo (don't know about Tolino yet) and can choose to use that on all my books. Serves as a back up solution and it sounds quicker than editing all my ebooks.

It's almost as easy to add a custom font to a Tolino (I have the Epos) as to a Kobo ereader. The only issue I find is that Kobo will use the font used in the last book as the default font for a new book while Tolino goes back to their "publisher default". A minor annoyance.

[swapjim]

Excellent! Thanks everyone!