How to invoke different fonts in CSS 2.3.1?

[jackie_w]

@tshering,

That's interesting. Can you confirm which of those fonts are built-in (first 4???) and which sideloaded? The Sanskrit looks a bit rough.

Also, is it possible to post your test epub so I can see what it looks like, unchanged, on my Glo fw2.1.5? I could post a photo of the results.

[tshering]

@jackie_w,

Arial Unicode MS is part of Windows XP; Sanskrit 2003 is a free font (link), its Devanagari letters (used for instance for Sanskrit and Hindi) are quite beautiful (in contrast to the Latin letters). The other fonts (1 to 5) are built-in.
I add the epub.

[jackie_w]

@tshering,

How very odd.

After downloading the linked Sanskrit font and selecting it in the font settings pop-up I see the the same results as you (except I didn't sideload the Arial).

If I choose any of my other fonts (both built-in and sideloaded) all lines are displayed in the selected font. I wonder what's special about Sanskrit?

You probably already tried it, but if the epub is renamed back to .epub then all lines display in the selected font, even if Sanskrit is selected.

[tshering]

@jackie_w,

Yes, very odd. I have no idea what is going on.
I made a second kepub.epub file and added some Sanskrit text. I am not sure, but I guess non of the built-in fonts has those characters implemented. Whatever font I select, the Sanskrit text of all paragraphes is displayed as Arial Unicode MS. Only if I select Sanskrit 2003, the Sanskrit of the Sanskrit 2003-paragraph is displayed as Sanskrit 2003, all the others again as Arial Unicode MS. I even changed the sequence of the font entries in the css, without any change. Therefore I guess that in the case of not supported characters in a certain font the ereader chooses the first font in alphabetical order that supports these characters. Since you do not have Arial Unicode MS your reader should display all Sanskrit characters as Sanskrit 2003. Right? If you would like to check it, the most significant part is at the beginning of the word शूद्रको.

[jackie_w]

Yes, the Sanskrit chars all appear in the same font, which must be Sanskrit2003, because as soon as I deleted this font file they all displayed as squares instead.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by xuyn2003

Thank you hubertphava, what is the firmware version of your kobo?
I was sucessful in 2.2 but failed in 2.3 firmware.

What hubertphava is saying it to actually embed the fonts in the ePub and then they work regardless of firmware. I know this is not what you want to do. You want to have the font in an external directory and call them from the ePub. So don't listen to hubertphava as it's not what you want to do.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What hubertphava is saying it to actually embed the fonts in the ePub and then they work regardless of firmware. I know this is not what you want to do. You want to have the font in an external directory and call them from the ePub.

I'm sure this is what I already said in post #14

[tshering]

@jackie_w,

Thank you for the answer! I do not know why Sanskrit 2003 has this effect but we can use it for our purpose.

css

body {margin-left:0;
    margin-right:0;
    margin-top:0;
    margin-bottom:0;
    font-family:"mynormalfontname";}

.code {font-family:"mymonospacefontname";}
p.code {margin-left:2%;
    margin-right:2%;
    margin-top:2%;
    margin-bottom:2%;
    font-family:"mymonospacefontname";}

body

<p>This is <span class="code">some code</span> follow by normal text.
</p>

<p class ="code">This is a block of code.
</p>

If we then select Sanskrit 2003 the reader should use the fonts specified in the css without displaying a single char in Sanskrit 2003.

[jackie_w]

@tshering,

For my purposes, which is to access monospace & small-caps fonts for relevant portions of the few books that need them, I don't think it offers any reduced effort over the embedded font method (mainly because I already did a bit of coding to automate that). I don't want to hard-code font names into the css for main body text because I want to retain the Kobo 'switch-fonts-on-the-fly' feature. Also I need to be able to read the same epubs simultaneously on Kobo, Sony and Android so I don't want device-specific code in the calibre master epub.

Nevertheless, it's been an interesting exercise and I thank you for your participation I guess a reader which combined the best features of both Kobo and Sony would be just about perfect for me.

[tshering]

@jackie_w,

I see. I am trying to avoid embedded fonts for size concerns, since I have many small epubs with the same fonts.
Would be nice if there were a way to use alternative style sheets for different devices, and also if the user could choose between different style sheets.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by tshering

Would be nice if there were a way to use alternative style sheets for different devices, and also if the user could choose between different style sheets.

Exactly, just like you can on all the Sonys and PocketBook I've owned, which all have ADE-based reading apps.

[murg]

Originally Posted by tshering

@jackie_w,

I see. I am trying to avoid embedded fonts for size concerns, since I have many small epubs with the same fonts.
Would be nice if there were a way to use alternative style sheets for different devices, and also if the user could choose between different style sheets.

One of the biggest weaknesses of CSS is the lack of decision making processes in the definition files.

I really want to be to say something like: .class {font: (if font is sans-serif then serif else sans-serif} or .class {text-indent: text-indent/2}

This would allow for the internal formatting of a book to be maintained when the device allows things like font setting, margins, etc.

[xuyn2003]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What hubertphava is saying it to actually embed the fonts in the ePub and then they work regardless of firmware. I know this is not what you want to do. You want to have the font in an external directory and call them from the ePub. So don't listen to hubertphava as it's not what you want to do.

Thank you JSWolf, I didn't look at hubertphava's CSS code carefully, If I did, maybe I would find that [src: url(../Fonts/name_of_the_font.ttf);] is for embed fonts.

I have reported this issue on firmware2.3x to KOBO customer care, they promised that it will be resolved by future firmware update, but not sure about the arrive time.

[PeterT]

I seriously doubt that Customer Care has the ability to promise a fix....

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I seriously doubt that Customer Care has the ability to promise a fix....

Maybe they passed it on to the firmware team and the firmware team said they would have a fix and thus, passed it back to customer care to pass on to the customer.