Top and bottom margins with side loaded EPUB

[chromeuser]

I just got the Kobo Aura One - so far, I like it. However, I have a problem with the margins with sideloaded epubs. The margin space works for left and right but not top and bottom (there is little space at the top). Is there a patch that allows me more control over the margins? Also, how would I install the patch? Thanks!

[344a]

You might be able to do it by Calibre.
http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/201...-wasted-space/

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by chromeuser

I just got the Kobo Aura One - so far, I like it. However, I have a problem with the margins with sideloaded epubs. The margin space works for left and right but not top and bottom (there is little space at the top). Is there a patch that allows me more control over the margins? Also, how would I install the patch? Thanks!

This can be quite a complicated topic because there are different ways the publisher can set the top/bottom margins, and so while there are some simple solutions that will work for most books, there are certain books that might need extra work to fix.

In short, the simplest method is to use Calibre to change the @page margin in the book's stylesheet. You can do this manually by editing the book and adding your own @page style, or automatically by configuring the KoboTouch driver to use the "Modify CSS" feature.

An example of a @page margin style, to increase the top margin only, is:

@page { margin-top: 25px; margin-bottom: 0px; }

Change the numbers to suit your device and preferences, put it in a file named "kobo_extra.css" in the root directory of your device, and configure the KoboTouch driver in calibre to enable the "Modify CSS" option. Thereafter every book you send to the device with Calibre will have that style added to its CSS stylesheet.

There are also patches that can override the publisher's @page top/bottom margin style, either with a fixed-size margin, or with adjustable margins that change when you change the left/right margins with the slider. See this post. If you do choose to use a patch, I recommend still using Calibre to change the @page margin in the book as well, so that if the patches stop working in the future you will still have sensible @page margins in the book to fall back on. Apart from being able to make the top/bottom margins adjustable, the advantage of patching is that it can override the @page margins in DRM books too.

But there are complications, here are some:

1. There are actually two ways that the publisher can set the top/bottom margins in a book: @page margin styles in the CSS stylesheet is one; the other is using the Adobe XPGT stylesheet (usually called page-template.xpgt). Some publishers use one method, some use the other, some use both (resulting in extra-large margins), and some use neither. The easiest way to avoid this complication is to use the Modify ePub plugin in Calibre to "Remove Adobe .xpgt files and links" before you sideload the book. There is also a patch that will cause the XPGT stylesheet to be ignored.

2. Some publishers set different @page styles for different parts of the book. For example, some set zero margins on the cover page so that the cover reaches the edges of the screen, but set it to a larger value for other pages. if you use the patch to override the @page margins then it will override all of them with the same value. If you use Calibre to change the @page margins in the stylesheet it might not override styles set for individual pages inside the individual HTML files. You can use the Modify ePub plugin to "Modify @page and body margin styles" to override the @page margins, but it doesn't always work for the body margins.

3. If the publisher makes the left/right margins large then the top/bottom margins will not be in proportion, and since the left/right margins can be set by the publisher using a number of different methods it is impossible to account for every possibility with any automatic procedure. There will be some books where the only way to reduce the left/right margins is to edit the book manually.

4. You may need to change the top/bottom margins if you switch from normal reading mode to full-screen mode, because of the huge footer in normal mode you probably want the bottom page margin to be zero, but in full-screen mode you probably want it to be the same as the top margin.

5. Edit: There are other things that affect the size of the gap at bottom of the page apart from margins: widows/orphans paragraph styles can add extra blank lines, so you might want to override the default or publisher's orphan/widows settings as well as @page margins, either using Calibre or a patch. Even with a zero bottom margin and no extra blank lines caused by orphans/widows settings, the space used by the footer is very large so you might want to reduce it using a patch. Also with some fonts the text doesn't sit in the centre of the line, so for example if it sits closer to the top of the line than the bottom then the top margin will look smaller and the bottom margin bigger. Some publishers have a small margin between each paragraph, which makes it impossible to get the gap at the bottom of the page consistent from page to page bacuse the number of paragraphs changes.

Edit: I am not suggesting this would suit everyone, but personally this is what I do (I have a Glo, currently running firmware 3.19.5761 but this hasnt changed for years):
* I read all books in full-screen mode (no header or footer.)
* I strip all XPGT stylesheets from the book using Modify ePub before sideloading.
* I manually edit all books before sideloading to set the left/right body margins to zero, set the orphans/widows to 1, remove margins between paragraphs, and set a default @page margin in the CSS stylesheet (but I leave the publisher's @page margins intact for special cases like the cover page.)
* I use the `ePub fixed/adjustable top/margins` patch with top and bottom margin adjustable. Because I have set the left/right margins in the book to zero, that results in all four top/bottom/left/right page margins being the same size whichever slider setting I select.

[chromeuser]

Thanks a lot for the responses - especially, Geoff for the time taken and the detail provided

Just a question - to implement 'ePub fixed/adjustable top/bottom margins' is there a file I need to alter and code to use in the altered file (similar to full screen mode)?

Apologies, as this is my first Kobo device, so I am still learning.

Thanks again

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by chromeuser

Just a question - to implement 'ePub fixed/adjustable top/bottom margins' is there a file I need to alter and code to use in the altered file (similar to full screen mode)?

There is some information on patching in the Index to the Metazoa firmware patches thread, which includes links to threads for each specific firmware version with instructions.This is a more complicated process than just editing the device's configuration file, and it might take a while to learn how it all works.

Enabling the full-screen reading options is a much simpler process, there are some instructions in this post.

My usual advice is not to rush into patching when you are still new to the device. It is a good idea to become famliar with what it can do with the stock firmware, and learn what your preferences are first.

Will you read ePubs exclusively, KePubs exclusively, or will you read both?

Will you read in normal mode (with the footer showing progress), in full-screen mode, or do you want to be able to switch between the two?

The problem with the top/bottom margins in ePubs is affected by the presence of the footer. (The same huge footer is used for ePubs and KePubs, but KePubs have a huge header to balance it.)

If you want to keep the footer, then using the patch for adjustable top/bottom margins will be more complicated, and will probably require another patch to modify the footer -- either to make it much smaller or to shift the position of the progress indicator upward to reduce the gap between book text and progress indicator. But doing this can spoil the symmetry of the header/footer when reading KePubs. It is much simpler to use a fixed top margin in ePubs if you are not using full-screen mode, and that doesn't require a patch.

If you read exclusively in full-screen mode then using the patch for adjustable top/bottom margins is much simpler, and switching between ePub and KePub is no problem because in full-screen mode KePubs have adjustable top/bottom margins too.

[chromeuser]

Geoff,

Thanks a lot for the info.

I agree, in the long run, Calibre is the way to go.

I'll be using the Kobo Aura One mainly for epubs and PDFs (I'm using KOReader for PDF files and so far no serious problems). However, I have a few books with Nook that will transfer to Kobo soon (Nook no longer operates in the UK, transferring their content to Sainsbury's. Now Sainsbury's is closing its e-book service and transferring their content to Kobo). I assume the transferred e-books will be in Kobo's native format.

I found your patches with the instructions provided here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=279351

It worked and helped a lot - I was careful and only activated the patches that I needed. Applying the right increment for top and bottom margins is trial and error. Advanced font options for side-loaded fonts is a great feature to add to a Kobo device.

[robko]

Originally Posted by chromeuser

However, I have a few books with Nook that will transfer to Kobo soon (Nook no longer operates in the UK, transferring their content to Sainsbury's. Now Sainsbury's is closing its e-book service and transferring their content to Kobo). I assume the transferred e-books will be in Kobo's native format.

In theory they should be available for download as a regular epub as well as in kepub (Kobo) format.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by robko

In theory they should be available for download as a regular epub as well as in kepub (Kobo) format.

In real life that wasn't the case with the Sony accounts, what makes you think they'll act differently now?

[Sir Loyne]

Hi. I don't know if you got the answer yet, but, for me anyway, the easiest thing to do would be to install Calibre and then install the Kobo Touch Extended plugin (look up how to install plugins. It's easy). After you do this Calibre will automatically convert your epubs to kepubs (Kobo ePub) when you send the book to your reader. This will fix all of your problems

[robko]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

In real life that wasn't the case with the Sony accounts, what makes you think they'll act differently now?

I was not aware of that. So even if there is an epub option for a book bought directly from Kobo, if you had the same book transferred over from Sony you can't access the epub version (as opposed to the small number of books that don't have an epub version at all)?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by robko

I was not aware of that. So even if there is an epub option for a book bought directly from Kobo, if you had the same book transferred over from Sony you can't access the epub version (as opposed to the small number of books that don't have an epub version at all)?

From what I saw when Sony accounts were transferred, the vast majority of books were available in the new Kobo accounts in exactly the same way as if the books had been bought from Kobo. i.e. epub downloadable from the library or kepub downloaded to the Kobo apps and devices. There were some books that didn't transfer, but my impression was that this was well under 10%.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

In real life that wasn't the case with the Sony accounts, what makes you think they'll act differently now?

The only person I know who was caught in the move from Sony to Kobo had 95% of the ebooks in his library made available in downloadable epub format and Kobo's direct sync to Kobo devices/apps kepub format. A few of his books were not available after the transfer and it took a while to get some of them made available while others did not seem to be available from Kobo and he finally gave up on them. I will note that he could not sync the kepubs to his ereader until after he moved to a Kobo device but the Kobo desktop app synced them immediately.

[Sir Loyne]

Perhaps this is more of what you're looking for.

Enable Full Screen Mode on Kobo eReaders

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sir Loyne

...install the Kobo Touch Extended plugin...Calibre will automatically convert your epubs to kepubs...This will fix all of your problems

I have the plugin and really do appreciate it. But it won't fix the problem the OP mentioned. Instead of having one bar, he'll have two and by default they can not be adjusted.

[chromeuser]

Thanks everyone for the contributions.

Sir Loyne - I tried converting an epub to kepub, via Calibre, and you were right it makes a huge difference (the converted e-book is far more responsive to line spacing, margins etc.). I just don't think the Kobo Aura One handles epubs very well. I decided to do a factory re-set and remove all the epub patches and just keep KOReader on the device. I only use KO Reader for PDF files.

I installed the Kobo Touch Extended plugin and the kepub batch convert plugin. It might be a nuisance to convert every epub to a kepub but that is what I do when converting an epub to a mobi for the Paperwhite. The only difference is that I can do it online and send it direct to my Kindle, via my email. However, the excellent hardware and larger screen with the Kobo makes it worth it.

ZodWallop - I tried the plugin with one epub conversion and it works. I can now alter all the margins (top, bottom, left and right). Of course, this is just one epub, so not too sure how it works out with others. I only wish Kobo will let us remove the header and keep the footer only. The full screen patch allows you to remove both or keep them. Anyway, I don't mind too much, due to the larger screen. I can understand how annoying it would be with a six inch Kobo.