How do you set up your readers?

[mmobes]

So I’ve got my Libra 2 set up pretty much the exact way I like it. So now, when I get a new book, I add it to my Calibre library and then sync it and everything works like I want it.

Just got a new reader in for my wife and I can’t remember for the life of me everything I’ve done to set mine up, so I’m hoping you can run through the procedures you all use when setting up a new reader. From step 1 to complete. So for instance, what are the plugins you make sure to install, how do you do it, what fonts do you install, how do you do it, etc. I’d like to have a ton of options for her to pick from and then once I know what she wants, I can just get it all set up for her.

Thanks!

[Sirtel]

For Kobo-related plugins I have the Kobo Utilities and the Extended Driver. On my Sage I use kepubs, on the Libra mostly epubs. I edit all my books in the calibre editor to get them to look exactly as I want (font size, line spacing, margins, text indents, TOC, widows/orphans, disabled hyphenation and so on. Ads, samples and excerpts added to the main content get deleted).

When I get a new Kobo, the first thing I do is go through all the settings and adjust them according to my preferences. Then I sideload custom fonts and screensavers (I edit the font metadata in FontForge, so that Kobo would display the fonts correctly). My favorite fonts are LexiaDama, ChareInk and DejaVu Serif Eink, but I also load others I may occasionally try.

Next item on the menu is to edit the configuration file (mainly setting widows and orphans to 1). I don't enable kerning or ligatures, because they don't play nice with word and letter spacing.

Then the patches. I use a lot of them, over 20, so I'm not going to list all of them here. Most are about reading settings (font sizes, line spacing, word spacing, margins etc.), some are about the look of the homepage, book details, dictionary and so on.

And last but not least I load the books. I have over 2,000 of them on my Kobos, so I load them in batches.

[DNSB]

Personally, I have my spouse's Kobo and mine set up pretty much identically. I do have a custom column in calibre that has 3 values for distinguish between their books, my books and shared books. This allows me to have 3 virtual libraries but simple search in the main library when checking if a "new" book is actually new.

The only patch I use is the one to match font size from ePub to kepub.

The screensaver images and fonts are set up identically allowing us to choose whichever font we prefer. I do use a simplified NickelMenu menu on their Kobo since many of the functions such as starting the Telnet server, kernel version, etc. are not items they would ever use.

For the most part, they are not interested in the nitty-gritty of ebook management so I tend to get books added to my honey-do list which I then purchase & download, cleanup metadata and transfer to their Kobo.

Happy wife, happy life.

[geek1011]

For the patches, here's the ones I'd say are essential and widely useful:

• Custom font sizes -- much nicer and more useful range of font sizes, especially on badly formatted books
• 24 line spacing values -- same idea, but even more useful in some ways
• Header/footer, page space, margin patches -- uniform narrow margins for aesthetics and maximizing screen space
• SmartLink patches -- make the bottom buttons on the homescreen actually do something you find useful
• Uniform font sizes -- you'll get frustrated by the font size discrepancy quite quickly if you switch between epub and kepub
• Increase page navigation history -- very useful for reference material and large fiction books

Apart from development stuff and launching external applications, the main thing I use NickelMenu for is inverted rotation (so I can hold my clara upside down by the thick part), dark mode toggle, usb connection, starting a FTP server for file transfer, and some custom selection menu lookup/notetaking stuff.

If you sideload books, the kepub reader is much faster and better IMO. You can use calibre KTE or kepubify for this.

If your sideloaded books have series metadata, my NickelSeries mod is a must.

Some people like having a clock while reading; NickelClock is the cleanest way to do this.

Many people with bluetooth Kobos seem to like the kobo-btpt mod.

Some fonts I like are: Equity, Charis SIL, Gentium Plus, Minion Pro, Caladea, Source Serif 4, Roboto, and Roboto Serif.

[Apollyon202]

I'm using my Libra 2 in sideloaded mode. First I load the books into Calibre to mostly just edit metadata and covers and convert them to epub. Then I use kepubify to convert the epubs to kepub, then copy the books manually to the kobo. After this I run covergen to put in grayscale and reconvert the covers of the books on the kobo.
This may seem like a lengthy procedure, but actually, it's just a few commands that take 1-2 minutes, and then I have a lot of books on the ereader.

I also have a couple of sideloaded fonts, altough for some reason I read only with the font named Metropolis. You can download it from github.
And the same things that most people do here on the forum. Nickelmenu, Nickelclock to keep track on time and battery while reading. As with most of the stuff I have with a rechargeable battery, I try to keep the battery between 30% and 80% of charge, which puts much fewer cycles on it and can extend the battery's lifetime. However, if we had the option of a replaceable battery, the latter wouldn't be as important.

[mmobes]

Originally Posted by geek1011

If your sideloaded books have series metadata, my NickelSeries mod is a must.

Can you help me understand this? I'm not really sure what series metadata is.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by mmobes

Can you help me understand this? I'm not really sure what series metadata is.

Series info, i.e. the series name to which a book belongs and the number. For example, "City of Golden Shadow" by Tad Williams is the first book in the Otherland series.

Kobo can group books by series, if the series metadata is correct.

[DNSB]

Series metadata is the series (name of the series) and series index (number within the series). For example, in J. D. Robb's In Death series, you might see In Death 27 - Strangers in Death or In Death 33 - New York to Dallas.

Personally, I use calibre to send the series metadata which does take a second connection whereas geek1011's SeriesMetadata only requires a single connection but does require the series metadata be embedded in the ePub file in a recognizable format which ePub3 has standardized while most ePub2 used the format used by calibre to embed series information.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Personally, I use calibre to send the series metadata which does take a second connection whereas geek1011's SeriesMetadata only requires a single connection but does require the series metadata be embedded in the ePub file in a recognizable format which ePub3 has standardized while most ePub2 used the format used by calibre to embed series information.

Hmm? It does support calibre's series metadata, as long as it's been embedded and not in a standalone OPF file.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Hmm? It does support calibre's series metadata, as long as it's been embedded and not in a standalone OPF file.

Sorry, what I wrote doesn't really match up with what I meant. ePub3 uses the standard's series metadata while ePub2 use the calibre series metadata which is the closest thing to a standard for ePub2 files. Both of these are recognized by SeriesMetadata.

[deleted2]

Originally Posted by geek1011

For the patches, here's the ones I'd say are essential and widely useful:

• Custom font sizes -- much nicer and more useful range of font sizes, especially on badly formatted books
• 24 line spacing values -- same idea, but even more useful in some ways
• Header/footer, page space, margin patches -- uniform narrow margins for aesthetics and maximizing screen space
• SmartLink patches -- make the bottom buttons on the homescreen actually do something you find useful
• Uniform font sizes -- you'll get frustrated by the font size discrepancy quite quickly if you switch between epub and kepub
• Increase page navigation history -- very useful for reference material and large fiction books

Apart from development stuff and launching external applications, the main thing I use NickelMenu for is inverted rotation (so I can hold my clara upside down by the thick part), dark mode toggle, usb connection, starting a FTP server for file transfer, and some custom selection menu lookup/notetaking stuff.

If you sideload books, the kepub reader is much faster and better IMO. You can use calibre KTE or kepubify for this.

If your sideloaded books have series metadata, my NickelSeries mod is a must.

Some people like having a clock while reading; NickelClock is the cleanest way to do this.

Many people with bluetooth Kobos seem to like the kobo-btpt mod.

Some fonts I like are: Equity, Charis SIL, Gentium Plus, Minion Pro, Caladea, Source Serif 4, Roboto, and Roboto Serif.

Great advice.

I bookmarked your post for when I'll receive my Libra Colour.