user accessable userStyle.css please

[tselling]

I have noticed on the Sony 505 forum that someone has hacked Adobe DE to point to a user accessable location for userStyle.css where one can change the default font and other style things. Would it be possible to get this feature on the pocketbook 360? From what I see the default location on the sony is res:///adobe/pxf/userStyle.css.

Not sure where it is on the pocketbook 360 but if we could make our own userStyle.css we could customize how DRM'd EPUBs look (especially replacing the default font).

[wallcraft]

I made a similar request (with more detail) in Needed: Customization for ePub, which is for the EZ Reader (Hanlin) but is equally applicable to any implementation of mobile ADE

Some implementations (Sony, Jinke, Bookeen) already have a way to access user-provided fonts in ePubs, see for example Fonts and Epub - What works on Sony, Works for Pocket Pro too!. This is a standard feature of mobile ADE, but the fonts need to be in a particular location (i.e. in a particular folder) - and this location varies between devices. This capability is required in addition to a user-provided userStyle.css in order to have user-selectable default fonts.

[SciFiFan]

The same feature has been requested in the German PocketBook forum. German PocketBook importer and forum user Forkosigan has already forwarded the request to the PocketBook makers, so there is some hope that it will be implemented.

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

I made a similar request (with more detail) in Needed: Customization for ePub, which is for the EZ Reader (Hanlin) but is equally applicable to any implementation of mobile ADE

Some implementations (Sony, Jinke, Bookeen) already have a way to access user-provided fonts in ePubs, see for example Fonts and Epub - What works on Sony, Works for Pocket Pro too!. This is a standard feature of mobile ADE, but the fonts need to be in a particular location (i.e. in a particular folder) - and this location varies between devices. This capability is required in addition to a user-provided userStyle.css in order to have user-selectable default fonts.

I took the freedom to take your idea and submit to the PocketBook guys! They working on it right now!

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Some implementations (Sony, Jinke, Bookeen) already have a way to access user-provided fonts in ePubs, see for example Fonts and Epub - What works on Sony, Works for Pocket Pro too!. This is a standard feature of mobile ADE, but the fonts need to be in a particular location (i.e. in a particular folder) - and this location varies between devices. This capability is required in addition to a user-provided userStyle.css in order to have user-selectable default fonts.

Hello all,
I am a new PocketBook 360 owner who has been using a Sony PRS505 and Calibre for about a year. I like my new "small object of desire" very much.

Having played with it for a few days I am confident that with fbreader180 it will allow a better reading experience with some of my "lesser-styled" books (TXT, plain HTML, RTF) without spending a lot of time editing beforehand.

However, to get to the point of my post, much as I love the excellent fbreader180, I am having difficulty weaning myself off the AdobeViewer for epubs which contain lots of CSS styling (poetry, epigraphs, centre-/right-align, blockquotes, SmallCaps, variety of font-size and/or font-faces, combination of serif, sans-serif, monospace etc) within the same epub. I also missed my Sony's ability to render epubs in the font(s) of my choice, by either of two methods.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, there is a way to do this for epubs in AdobeViewer on the PB360 using some simple "Extra CSS" when converting to epub in Calibre.

For anyone who would like the details of how to do this, read on. I have used the Georgia serif font as an example as the .ttf files are easily available on all Windows PCs in c:\windows\fonts.

1. Copy the 4 files from the Georgia font-family (reg, italic, bold, bolditalic)
   

   georgia.ttf
   georgiai.ttf
   georgiab.ttf
   georgiaz.ttf

   to the PB360 directory [Letter]:\system\fonts\
   whilst it is connected to the PC. This is just the same as you would do if you wanted to use Georgia in fbreader.
   
2. Convert your file to epub in Calibre, placing the following CSS code in the "Extra CSS" box in the [Convert] - [Look & Feel] section
   
   

   @font-face	{ font-family: serif;	font-weight: normal;	font-style: normal;	src: url(res:///mnt/ext1/system/fonts/georgia.ttf);}
   @font-face	{ font-family: serif;	font-weight: normal;	font-style: italic;	src: url(res:///mnt/ext1/system/fonts/georgiai.ttf);}
   @font-face	{ font-family: serif;	font-weight: bold;	font-style: normal;	src: url(res:///mnt/ext1/system/fonts/georgiab.ttf);}
   @font-face	{ font-family: serif;	font-weight: bold;	font-style: italic;	src: url(res:///mnt/ext1/system/fonts/georgiaz.ttf);}
   
   body 		{font-family: serif; line-height:100%}

3. If you don't like the line-spacing, adjust the
   line-height:100%
   parameter. Try 110% or 90% if you want it wider or narrower respectively.

That's all there is to it. The epub should then look just as good as it would have done on the Sony. Better, in fact, if you like your body text to be full-justified left and right.

If it doesn't work re-check the Extra CSS. The font file names/locations are case-sensitive.

You can use the same principle to customise your epub sans-serif and/or monopace and/or SmallCaps fonts. If anyone would like to see examples of these just ask.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

You can use the same principle to customise your epub sans-serif and/or monopace and/or SmallCaps fonts. If anyone would like to see examples of these just ask.

I'm not a fan of editing an epub to do what the reader software should let you do in the first place, but I can see a use for this trick (once or twice).

Question: can this approach be used to control margins as well as the base font face?

[jackie_w]

Hi fjtorres,

It's not really an edit of the epub. It's more a case of setting some personal preferences at the time of creation. Admittedly, it's not as good as being able to change them at will during reading. (This method isn't really necessary anymore on a Sony PRS505 since the excellent hack development of PRSPlus)

Re: margins. I think the usual way to control margins during a Calibre conversion would be on the [Convert] - [Page Setup] page where you specify top, bottom, left, right explicitly.

Calibre's Extra CSS facility is very powerful though. You can add pretty much any CSS you like. I often use it to control the space between paragraphs by adding
p, div, li {margin-top:0.25em; margin-bottom:0.25em;}

I know this is something else you can do on-the-fly in fbreader

[tselling]

Has there been any progress on having an accessible userstyle.css for AdobeViewer? I would rather not remove the DRM from library ebooks to reformat them, but some EPUB ebooks have small fonts and huge margins... and the margins get gigantic when I increase the fontsize. My hacked PRS-300, while a much less capable ebook reader, does a much better job with library books since I can modify the userstyle.css file.

[tselling]

I created a new thread for this.... since I made a hacked version of the AdobeViewer.app available that does this. I just got tired of waiting for someone else to do it :-)

[Logseman]

Originally Posted by tselling

I just got tired of waiting for someone else to do it :-)

This is what makes this forum different from every other in which I have been. If there is a problem, people are actually able to hack their way through it.

[Amalthia]

Hi,

I'm using Pocketbook HD2 and I'm trying to reference a font installed on my device in my css file. However, it's not quite working. Here is what I'm using.

@font-face {font-family: "Georgia" ; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; src: url(res:///mnt/ext1/system/fonts/georgia.ttf);}
@font-face {font-family: "Georgia" ; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; src: url(res:///mnt/ext1/system/fonts/georgiab.ttf);}
@font-face {font-family: "Georgia" ; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; src:url(res:///mnt/ext1/system/fonts/georgiai.ttf);}
@font-face {font-family: "Georgia" ; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; src: url(res:///mnt/ext1/system/fonts/georgiaz.ttf);}

font-family: "Georgia" , serif;

I'm afraid that maybe ///mnt/ext1/system/fonts is no longer a valid path to the fonts file. Or maybe I should add the fonts to my SD card instead? However, I'm not sure how to find the valid path to that directory either.

I'd appreciate any and all help.

Thanks,
Amalthia

[rkomar]

Assuming that you are using the built-in reader program, do the Georgia fonts show up if you go into the settings and try to choose a new font? If so, then that path is still good for adding fonts to. I expect it to still be good, since PocketBook have been keeping stuff like that backwards compatible so far.

[Amalthia]

Originally Posted by rkomar

Assuming that you are using the built-in reader program, do the Georgia fonts show up if you go into the settings and try to choose a new font? If so, then that path is still good for adding fonts to. I expect it to still be good, since PocketBook have been keeping stuff like that backwards compatible so far.

Yes, I can select Georgia from the font choices within an ebook. However, my default is Times New Roman and I don't want that to change, I just wanted specific types of text within the novel to use Georgia font. However, the settings I'm using aren't working. The entire ebook is in Times New Roman.

I mean I can embed the font and that works, but I know with Sony PRS device I was able to tell the css file which font to use. So often I had a different header font vs paragraph fonts.

Thanks,
Amalthia

[rkomar]

At least you know that you put the font files into the correct directory, and that the path in the urls to the font directory is correct. So the problem is with some other part of your CSS. Unfortunately, I don't know much about CSS, so someone else will have to spot the problem.

[Amalthia]

Originally Posted by rkomar

At least you know that you put the font files into the correct directory, and that the path in the urls to the font directory is correct. So the problem is with some other part of your CSS. Unfortunately, I don't know much about CSS, so someone else will have to spot the problem.

Thanks. I'll start a new post. I was thinking maybe the url I was using was no longer valid for Pocketbook HD2. Or something else is wrong.