Bookerly font woes

[hukka]

I recently bought a Kobo Libra H2O and am very impressed with it. However, I'm having a small issue with the Bookerly font I installed on it: all italics are rendered as bolded (so bold italics). This only happens with the Bookerly font, italics in all other fonts look fine. Is anyone else having a similar issue?

More details:
- Latest firmware used
- Tried both the 2014 and 2016 version of the font, same issue with both
- Fonts seem fine under Windows - the italics font isn't bolded

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by hukka

I recently bought a Kobo Libra H2O and am very impressed with it. However, I'm having a small issue with the Bookerly font I installed on it: all italics are rendered as bolded (so bold italics). This only happens with the Bookerly font, italics in all other fonts look fine. Is anyone else having a similar issue?

More details:
- Latest firmware used
- Tried both the 2014 and 2016 version of the font, same issue with both
- Fonts seem fine under Windows - the italics font isn't bolded

I don't recall exactly what's wrong, but you'll need a font editor such as FontForge to load the fonts and look at the metadata and fix what's wrong.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by hukka

I recently bought a Kobo Libra H2O and am very impressed with it. However, I'm having a small issue with the Bookerly font I installed on it: all italics are rendered as bolded (so bold italics).

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I don't recall exactly what's wrong, but you'll need a font editor such as FontForge to load the fonts and look at the metadata and fix what's wrong.

Or a different bootleg version of Bookerly

The bold italics problem was much discussed on here a while back. Everyone downloaded the same bootleg upload of Bookerly that had the issue with italics being bolded.

[hobnail]

hukka, I feel your pain. Luckily for me the built-in Cecaelia on the Kobo is good enough so I use that.


There are also alternative low contrast typefaces you could try. I tried Alegreya, Bitter, and Literata but I'm tired of hassling with fiddling with this kind of stuff and decided that Cecaelia is good enough.

[hukka]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Or a different bootleg version of Bookerly

The bold italics problem was much discussed on here a while back. Everyone downloaded the same bootleg upload of Bookerly that had the issue with italics being bolded.

That'll teach me to use the search feature before posting. Problem solved! Just had to rename the files and do a power cycle.

Thanks for the replies!

[stumped]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Or a different bootleg version of Bookerly

The bold italics problem was much discussed on here a while back. Everyone downloaded the same bootleg upload of Bookerly that had the issue with italics being bolded.

Exactly. The version I installed works fine, all 4 variants are well bahaved. I probably copied what I had on some amazon device.

Perversely though, I have currently reverted back to kobo nickel for my kepubs on kobo forma, abandoning the notion of having same font on all my devices. The line spacings and font height are very different with that and it reads like something that was actually designed to look good on the kobo reader.
I am not a font technician so I can't explain exactly how/why it looks so different compared with bookerly or caecelia, but it does.

[hukka]

Originally Posted by hobnail

hukka, I feel your pain. Luckily for me the built-in Cecaelia on the Kobo is good enough so I use that.

There are also alternative low contrast typefaces you could try. I tried Alegreya, Bitter, and Literata but I'm tired of hassling with fiddling with this kind of stuff and decided that Cecaelia is good enough.

Caecilia and Bitter are my other favourites and I'd be perfectly happy using either. But they're both ever so slightly too bolded on the Kobo and I prefer the thinner glyphs of Bookerly.

[ps67]

I have found the instruction for setting bold and italics in font for Kobo with Font Forge by Jakie_W:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...81&postcount=9

Here the whole thread:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ighlight=ember

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Or a different bootleg version of Bookerly

The bold italics problem was much discussed on here a while back. Everyone downloaded the same bootleg upload of Bookerly that had the issue with italics being bolded.

Nope. All versions of Bookerly have the same issue. It comes that way from the Kindle firmware. So it's not just someone posted a buggered version.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Nope. All versions of Bookerly have the same issue. It comes that way from the Kindle firmware. So it's not just someone posted a buggered version.

That does not compute
On both my kobo readers all 4 variants of bookerly work as they should.

So either I have the only working set in the known universe or you are overgeneralising.

[NiLuJe]

ACCESS and RMSDK have different sets of font quirks. I don't recall if the RMSDK had noticeable issues with Bookerly, because I don't use it, but ACCESS certainly does with a stock Kindle Bookerly (as in, unmodified, unrenamed).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

ACCESS and RMSDK have different sets of font quirks. I don't recall if the RMSDK had noticeable issues with Bookerly, because I don't use it, but ACCESS certainly does with a stock Kindle Bookerly (as in, unmodified, unrenamed).

RMSDK works with Bookerly as is from a Kindle (eInk) firmware as long as the filenames are correct. That's why I didn't know of the problem until it was mentioned with Access.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

RMSDK works with Bookerly as is from a Kindle (eInk) firmware as long as the filenames are correct. That's why I didn't know of the problem until it was mentioned with Access.

I don't recall for sure but it is more likely i got my files from an Amazon fire tablet, not an e ink kindle. Would they be any different? Do these things have known checkable checksums or hidden version numbers ?

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by stumped

That does not compute
On both my kobo readers all 4 variants of bookerly work as they should.

So either I have the only working set in the known universe or you are overgeneralising.

Working using version 1.020 for epub. Not for Kepub.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by stumped

I don't recall for sure but it is more likely i got my files from an Amazon fire tablet, not an e ink kindle. Would they be any different? Do these things have known checkable checksums or hidden version numbers ?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think there are differences between the eInk and LCD versions. You should get your Bookerly from an eInk Kindle firmware. But get it from a Kindle firmware where Bookerly still had hinting. I cannot say which KIndle firmware version removed hinting.