Alternative to Gentium Book?

[MacEachaidh]

I'm not a fan of Times Roman (New or otherwise) in ebooks -- to me it looks too cramped and squidgy -- but I do like that classic serif look.

I've been trying out Gentium Book, but on my Kobo Touch its Italic looks very scrappy and unevenly-coloured. (It looks much better, though not perfect, on my Aura HD, so I assume it's a matter of screen res and anti-aliasing.)

What do others use?

Can anyone suggest a font, please, with the classic printed-book look, but that renders well on a Kobo Touch-generation eInk screen?

[jbacelar]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

My font of choice is my modified CharisSIL Compact Hinted. Very nice font for eInk. One of the best (IMHO).

It's free and the link is http://www.mediafire.com/download/om...L_-_Hinted.rar

I also think it's the best (IMHO).

[MacEachaidh]

Thanks for that, jbacelar. The modified Charis I've seen linked to in a few posts (I assume it's JSWolf's) seems a little too heavy to me. Eye-of-the-Beholder stuff, I guess.

I do tend to use a similar font (Bitstream's Charter) for non-fiction, but I prefer a serif for fiction. So I'm looking for something stylistically similar to Gentium Book.

[Toxaris]

Try Sabon Next. It is a bit like Garamond, but readable on a reader.

[MacEachaidh]

Hi Toxaris,
I have Sabon LT -- is Sabon Next a different flavour of that?

I'll search it out and see how I go. Thanks.

[Toxaris]

Sabon LT is quite similar to SabonNext LT. The publisher is different though.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

I've been trying out Gentium Book, but on my Kobo Touch its Italic looks very scrappy and unevenly-coloured. (It looks much better, though not perfect, on my Aura HD, so I assume it's a matter of screen res and anti-aliasing.)

I found the same problem with Gentium Book Basic on my Glo.

Garamond No 8 works much better for me, and it also has some kerning data, which Gentium Book lacks.

TeX Gyre Bonum is good too, it might appeal to those who like Kobo's built-in Georgia font but don't like Georgia's lack of kerning.

Both these fonts, but especially Garamond No 8, have very wide default line spacing. I have patched my Glo to allow narrower line spacing, and to allow the font weight/sharpness adjustor to work with sideloaded fonts. (The latter may require converting OTF fonts to TTF.)

[MacEachaidh]

Thanks indeed for those, Geoff -- and for links to access them!

They are exactly the kind of line and weight I was looking for, so I'll give them a try. Much appreciated. ;-)

You mention about sideloading the fonts perhaps needing cnnversion to TTF -- that's not a problem, but I'll be interested to see if there's a qualitative difference between sideloading the fonts on my Kobo, or embedding the font in the epub.

Since you're also a Koboite, do you know if there's any way of capturing an image of the screen on the device itself? (My phone is really very dumb, and doesn't have the toys most have to hand.) I have a Touch with 3.11, and an Aura HD with 3.12.1.

[PeterT]

See this post

It refers to editting the Kobo eReader.conf file in .kobo\Kobo

Originally Posted by davidfor

You need to edit the config file to have:

[FeatureSettings]
Screenshots=true

The FeatureSettings section will probably be there, so just add the other line after it. And make sure you use a Linux line end aware editor.

With the above in place, sliding the power switch will take the screenshot. Unfortunately, you can't use the power switch to wake the device or turn it off. But, if you use a sleep cover, that isn't as important.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

You mention about sideloading the fonts perhaps needing cnnversion to TTF -- that's not a problem, but I'll be interested to see if there's a qualitative difference between sideloading the fonts on my Kobo, or embedding the font in the epub.

Converting to TTF is not necessary unless you are using the firmware patch to enable the advanced weight/sharpness adjustment menu for sideloaded fonts. With some firmware versions (such as 3.13.1) this patch only works on TTF fonts.

I should have mentioned the other TeX Gyre fonts fonts too: Bonum, Pagella, Schola, Termes make a good collection of different serif styles.

[radius]

I like Minion a lot, but I can't remember how it looks on a Kobo; I no longer have one. You should be able to try it out easily as it comes in Adobe's Reader install.