Embedding fonts - strange issue

[sparklemotion]

I embedded fonts into a couple books on my PW2 in calibre and it came out great. However, I'm now trying to play around and use a different font (charis) on a third book and for some odd reason when I embed it, and then choose publisher font, the font isn't charis, but instead it's helvetica.

Any ideas what could be causing this? I can't seem to get the proper font to embed for this one book.

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

I embedded fonts into a couple books on my PW2 in calibre and it came out great. However, I'm now trying to play around and use a different font (charis) on a third book and for some odd reason when I embed it, and then choose publisher font, the font isn't charis, but instead it's helvetica.

Any ideas what could be causing this? I can't seem to get the proper font to embed for this one book.

I see that a lot when I try to view the publisher/embedded font on the iOS apps, but rarely on the PW2. I don't use calibre to make conversions so I cannot say for sure. But if you use Sigil to modify an ePub, then the CSS has to resemble this:

@font-face {
  font-family: "CaeciliaHeavy";
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: normal;
  src: url("../Fonts/Caecilia-Bold.otf");
}

@font-face {
  font-family: "CaeciliaHeavy";
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: italic;
  src: url("../Fonts/Caecilia-BoldItalic.otf");
}

@font-face {
  font-family: "CaeciliaHeavy";
  font-weight: bold;
  font-style: normal;
  src: url("../Fonts/Caecilia-Heavy.otf");
}

@font-face {
  font-family: "CaeciliaHeavy";
  font-weight: bold;
  font-style: italic;
  src: url("../Fonts/Caecilia-HeavyItalic.otf");
}

body { 
  font-family: "CaeciliaHeavy";
}

[sparklemotion]

Thank you, Jack! Maybe I'll give Sigil a go if I can't get this font working. I'm so confused why it isn't embedding properly with calibre and I hate to let it beat me. Grrr.. unruly font.

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

Thank you, Jack! Maybe I'll give Sigil a go if I can't get this font working. I'm so confused why it isn't embedding properly with calibre and I hate to let it beat me. Grrr.. unruly font.

I wished I could help, but I don't use calibre for anything but liberation of books. It tends to make the HTML in converted ePubs a mess. I just liberate the book, extract the ePub, edit in Sigil, and recompile with Kindle Previewer. But that is a convoluted process that most people would avoid!

[sparklemotion]

Ha. I notice a lot of people on here use Sigil, but I'm not terribly familiar with it myself. I pretty much use calibre for everything.

I'm a little sad I can't use my favorite fonts on the PW2, so I'm trying to fix that by embedding. Everything went perfectly with the other font. I had to laugh that of all the fonts for it to default to it would be helvetica. (One of my least favorites!)

[JSWolf]

The most likely reason your embedded font isn't working is because there are font-family statements in the CSS overriding your embedded font. Try Tweak ebook (from within Calibre) and see if there are any font-family statements that should not be there in the CSS.

[Katsunami]

In addition to JSWolf's reply: first run Modify Epub (Calibre Plugin) with the Remove Embedded Fonts ticked to make sure the file has no embedded fonts to begin with.

If your file is an AZW3, you'll need to convert to epub first, or extract it to EPUB using KindleUnpack.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

In addition to JSWolf's reply: first run Modify Epub (Calibre Plugin) with the Remove Embedded Fonts ticked to make sure the file has no embedded fonts to begin with.

If your file is an AZW3, you'll need to convert to epub first, or extract it to EPUB using KindleUnpack.

But once it's been shifted to ePub via KindleUnpack, the technical errors will have to be fixed before Modify ePub can reliably be run on it. That involves using epubcheck as FlightCrew is not good enough and either Sigil or Tweak ebook.

[dordale]

I had that problem (publisher font showing as helvetica) when I first started trying to embed my own fonts with Calibre. Turns out I under the "Filter Style Information" tab on the "Look and Feel" section of the conversion screen I also had the box checked to "completely remove fonts". When I unchecked that and tried the conversion again, it worked perfectly. (Thanks to booklover6 for pointing me in the right direction on this!)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The most likely reason your embedded font isn't working is because there are font-family statements in the CSS overriding your embedded font. Try Tweak ebook (from within Calibre) and see if there are any font-family statements that should not be there in the CSS.

Nope. It's because Amazon will not use it. Publisher's Guide, Section 3.1.6:

Publishers can include their own font for their content. Amazon has a quality assurance process to ensure that these fonts display well on e Ink-based devices and do not impair the reading experience. Do not include the Charis font; it is replaced with a higher quality font in the Kindle Readers.

(Underscore emphasis added).

Hitch

[Katsunami]

LOL. "Do not use the Charis font."

It's used in almost all books that have embedded fonts straight from the publisher. Don't ask me why that is, but I've seen Charis more than any other font in ebooks I've bought.

Originally Posted by dordale

I had that problem (publisher font showing as helvetica) when I first started trying to embed my own fonts with Calibre. Turns out I under the "Filter Style Information" tab on the "Look and Feel" section of the conversion screen I also had the box checked to "completely remove fonts". When I unchecked that and tried the conversion again, it worked perfectly. (Thanks to booklover6 for pointing me in the right direction on this!)

I'd love to see those two options work together: completely remove any font that may be in the file, and THEN embed the one selected by the user. Now it seems to work the other way around: Calibre removing the font it just embedded itself. Maybe it'd be a good feature request.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

LOL. "Do not use the Charis font."

It's used in almost all books that have embedded fonts straight from the publisher. Don't ask me why that is, but I've seen Charis more than any other font in ebooks I've bought.

I think the fact that it can be legally distributed for free probably explains why.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I think the fact that it can be legally distributed for free probably explains why.

Yes, but it doesn't explain why publishers are so keen to even include such a font, knowing that each e-reader has at least 6 of them to choose from. Some (older) e-readers actually lock font choices and sizes, if they are set in the CSS. That's not funny.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I think the fact that it can be legally distributed for free probably explains why.

I think the fact that so many legacy publishers included Charis is the very reason that it's the only font that Amazon mentions, in pretty much any context, in the Publisher's Guidelines. I suspect that all those legacy-pubs that outsourced their books got them back with Charis embedded, which, BTW, doesn't work all that great on a Kindle, and Amazon finally got tired of dealing with it, so put it in the guide. That's sheer speculation, but it makes sense--why else mention solely one font?

For that matter, some fonts that are quite nice and commonly used in print suck on ebooks; Garamond, as one example. {shrug}.

Katsunami:

Replacing a font is certainly not hard by any stretch, as you know. Just pull one out, and put the other in, do a fast regex on the CSS page. Subsetting it is a valuable tool, but making a plug-in or feature just to "swap" fonts seems like overkill to me, not to mention a feature ripe for abuse by well-meaning, but under-knowledged amateurs (vis-a-vis embedding and licenses). If you want something that will do that, try Atlantis; it embeds fonts directly from your hard-drive, which gives me the licensing willies.

Hitch

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Hitch

<explanation>

Makes sense indeed...

Katsunami:

Replacing a font is certainly not hard by any stretch, as you know. Just pull one out, and put the other in, do a fast regex on the CSS page. Subsetting it is a valuable tool, but making a plug-in or feature just to "swap" fonts seems like overkill to me, not to mention a feature ripe for abuse by well-meaning, but under-knowledged amateurs (vis-a-vis embedding and licenses). If you want something that will do that, try Atlantis; it embeds fonts directly from your hard-drive, which gives me the licensing willies.

Hitch

Calibre can already embed fonts during conversion.
Calibre can also strip fonts during conversion.

If you use them both at the same time, Calibre seems to first embed the font you selected (along with any other in the book), then strip all of them out. If that functionality would be reversed, Calibre would automatically gain the option to swap fonts on conversion.

If someone wants to embed a font into an ebook for which they don't have a license, then they're fully able to do so now, using Calibre or other tools.

Even so: I have Minion Pro on my computer because I have an Adobe product installed. Probably, the license prohibits me from embedding it into e-books. If I still do just that, and just read the books myself, nobody is ever going to know, so that point is moot as well as far as I'm concerned. (Apart from the fact that Minion Pro looks dreadful on e-ink; almost any font does, except if it's specifically tweaked.)