Font Hack: Cyrillic in Meta, but not in text?!

yuriman2002 · 06-30-2010, 01:34 PM

Hi all,
I installed the font hack on my Kindle 2i (firmware 2.5) - now I can see the titles and authors in Cyrillic on Home Page, but the body of the books contains nothing but "garbage" (accented and umlauted Roman characters). What am I doing wrong? I take TXT or RTF files and convert them to MOBI via Calibre. Maybe MOBI doesn't do Cyrillic? What format should I use instead?
I am grateful for any ideas - thanks a bunch!
Cheers,
Yuri

NiLuJe · 06-30-2010, 07:39 PM

What fonts set (or Font hack) are you using, and are your books encoded in UTF-8?

yuriman2002 · 07-01-2010, 09:10 AM

NiLuJe -
I am using the hack with Droid font set (posted on your blog), and it does display Cyrillic if I use a PDF source and convert it to MOBI. So, the font hack definitely works.
However, if I download a TXT file from Moshkov's e-library, for example, and open it in Word for cleanup, that's where trouble begins. Word asks me how I want to convert it. If I click on "UTF-8", the text is garbled. If I click on "Unicode", the text is in normal Cyrillic. However, if that normal Cyrillic (saved as RTF) is then run though Calibre and converted to MOBI, the result is garbled. Total bafflement!

Myng · 07-01-2010, 10:55 AM

Hi,

I had the same problem when experimenting with Chinese fonts. I finally managed to get it working.

What I did was, when I open my .TXT file in Word, I select an encoding which CAN read the font (not UTF-8 - which as you discovered, garbles up the text) and then save this file into PDF (instead of RTF). And from this PDF, I convert it into .MOBI (I use Mobipocket Creater).

This works for me and I hope you get it working as well.

yuriman2002 · 07-01-2010, 11:59 AM

Myng - thank you, thank you, thank you!
Yes, going from PDF to MOBI preserves the unicode characters!
I used Calibre for PDF-to-MODI conversion, and it inserts random paragraph breaks in the resulting MOBI (seemingly where the lines wrap in the original PDF). I will try Mobipocket Creator, as you suggest - perhaps it will solve this minor glitch.
Thank you again for the great suggestion!

Myng · 07-01-2010, 12:34 PM

Yes I do have the same issue when using Calibre as well. I prefer Mobipocket Creater for pdf -> mobi conversion, except in the case I want to add a line between paragraphs, which only Calibre seems to be able to do...

And you're welcome of course

tomsem · 07-01-2010, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yuriman2002

NiLuJe -
I am using the hack with Droid font set (posted on your blog), and it does display Cyrillic if I use a PDF source and convert it to MOBI. So, the font hack definitely works.
However, if I download a TXT file from Moshkov's e-library, for example, and open it in Word for cleanup, that's where trouble begins. Word asks me how I want to convert it. If I click on "UTF-8", the text is garbled. If I click on "Unicode", the text is in normal Cyrillic. However, if that normal Cyrillic (saved as RTF) is then run though Calibre and converted to MOBI, the result is garbled. Total bafflement!

Calibre (0.7.1 OS X) seems to have some problems with Unicode encodings. The text viewer only works properly when the file has a BOM indicator to identify the encoding used (well, lots of apps have this requirement). And conversion to MOBI works right only if the source file is UTF-8, not UTF-16. But the UTF-8 output from Word should be simpatico: it does include the BOM (at least my version does: Word 2003 for Windows).

You are seeing garbled text with UTF-8. Using which application?

Of course, I am assuming calibre for Windows will exhibit the same behavior I'm seeing in OS X, but maybe not. Guess I'll install the Windows version to check.

yuriman2002 · 07-02-2010, 08:03 AM

After some poking around, I got Cyrillic to work in Calibre-generated MOBI.
Here are the steps. I have the original file in RTF, using MS Word (Windows PC), with all the desired formatting and ready to be "e-book-ized" (if it's a word). Then I do a "Save As..." and pick "html". The resulting HTM file then needs to be opened in an HTML editor - even the lowly Notepad will work. Toward the top of the source code you will see a parameter "charset=windows-1252". THAT'S THE PROBLEM. To display Cyrillic, it needs to say "charset=windows-1251". Change it, save the HTM file. Now import it into Calibre and do the HTM to MOBI conversion. (Look up "Character encoding" in Wikipedia for more scoop on "charset" values and what they do.)

06-30-2010, 01:34 PM	#1
yuriman2002 Bibliobibulus Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Lancaster, PA (USA) Device: Kindle 2 International	Font Hack: Cyrillic in Meta, but not in text?! Hi all, I installed the font hack on my Kindle 2i (firmware 2.5) - now I can see the titles and authors in Cyrillic on Home Page, but the body of the books contains nothing but "garbage" (accented and umlauted Roman characters). What am I doing wrong? I take TXT or RTF files and convert them to MOBI via Calibre. Maybe MOBI doesn't do Cyrillic? What format should I use instead? I am grateful for any ideas - thanks a bunch! Cheers, Yuri

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06-30-2010, 07:39 PM	#2
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,477 Karma: 26012492 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	What fonts set (or Font hack) are you using, and are your books encoded in UTF-8?

07-01-2010, 09:10 AM	#3
yuriman2002 Bibliobibulus Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Lancaster, PA (USA) Device: Kindle 2 International	NiLuJe - I am using the hack with Droid font set (posted on your blog), and it does display Cyrillic if I use a PDF source and convert it to MOBI. So, the font hack definitely works. However, if I download a TXT file from Moshkov's e-library, for example, and open it in Word for cleanup, that's where trouble begins. Word asks me how I want to convert it. If I click on "UTF-8", the text is garbled. If I click on "Unicode", the text is in normal Cyrillic. However, if that normal Cyrillic (saved as RTF) is then run though Calibre and converted to MOBI, the result is garbled. Total bafflement!

07-01-2010, 10:55 AM	#4
Myng Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: none	Hi, I had the same problem when experimenting with Chinese fonts. I finally managed to get it working. What I did was, when I open my .TXT file in Word, I select an encoding which CAN read the font (not UTF-8 - which as you discovered, garbles up the text) and then save this file into PDF (instead of RTF). And from this PDF, I convert it into .MOBI (I use Mobipocket Creater). This works for me and I hope you get it working as well.

07-01-2010, 11:59 AM	#5
yuriman2002 Bibliobibulus Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Lancaster, PA (USA) Device: Kindle 2 International	Myng - thank you, thank you, thank you! Yes, going from PDF to MOBI preserves the unicode characters! I used Calibre for PDF-to-MODI conversion, and it inserts random paragraph breaks in the resulting MOBI (seemingly where the lines wrap in the original PDF). I will try Mobipocket Creator, as you suggest - perhaps it will solve this minor glitch. Thank you again for the great suggestion!

07-01-2010, 12:34 PM	#6
Myng Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: none	Yes I do have the same issue when using Calibre as well. I prefer Mobipocket Creater for pdf -> mobi conversion, except in the case I want to add a line between paragraphs, which only Calibre seems to be able to do... And you're welcome of course

07-02-2010, 08:03 AM	#8
yuriman2002 Bibliobibulus Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Lancaster, PA (USA) Device: Kindle 2 International	After some poking around, I got Cyrillic to work in Calibre-generated MOBI. Here are the steps. I have the original file in RTF, using MS Word (Windows PC), with all the desired formatting and ready to be "e-book-ized" (if it's a word). Then I do a "Save As..." and pick "html". The resulting HTM file then needs to be opened in an HTML editor - even the lowly Notepad will work. Toward the top of the source code you will see a parameter "charset=windows-1252". THAT'S THE PROBLEM. To display Cyrillic, it needs to say "charset=windows-1251". Change it, save the HTM file. Now import it into Calibre and do the HTM to MOBI conversion. (Look up "Character encoding" in Wikipedia for more scoop on "charset" values and what they do.)

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