Justified text or not?

[PunkyKoopa]

Hi,

I am really enjoying my Kobo Libra 2 most of the time but there is a thing that is driving me nuts. I thought that justified text is the best setting for a pleasant reading experience.

I usually use justified text but with these setting I notice that the space between words is sometimes very uneven, it looks right one paragraph and the next one it looks completely off. It’s the lack of consistency that quicks me out of reading. Can be this a problem with hyphenation?

I am Spanish so I read in Spanish most of the time. I also use Kepub. Is this one of these things that people talk about when they say that EPUB looks better?

Thank you.

[npr]

That's just a issue with kepub.
If you use patches, try patch "KePub stylesheet additions - word-spacing" it helps a little but is not a complete answer.

[JSWolf]

Another help is the better hyphenation Spanish hyphenation dictionary which will give you much better hyphenation. There's one for English as well.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=252405

[PunkyKoopa]

Yeah, I notice that this happens when hyphenation is not done. In fact, in those instances, if I turn off justified text and I leave it as publisher default, that paragraph looks exactly the same.

In Spanish hyphenation is very common in texts and printed books. Could the problem be that Kobo doesn’t hyphenate enough?

Thanks!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PunkyKoopa

Yeah, I notice that this happens when hyphenation is not done. In fact, in those instances, if I turn off justified text and I leave it as publisher default, that paragraph looks exactly the same.

In Spanish hyphenation is very common in texts and printed books. Could the problem be that Kobo doesn’t hyphenate enough?

Thanks!

You need the better hyphenation dictionary that I linked and you need to turn on hyphenation.

Plug your in your Kobo to your computer.

In the .kobo > Kobo directory on your Kobo, edit Kobo eReader.conf (if using Windows, use a text edutior such as Notepad++ to keep theline endings correct) and add...
[code][Reading]
webkitTextRendering=optimizelegibility[/quote]

If you already have [Reading] then don't add that line.

Then when this and the better hyphenation dictionary, you will have hyphenation.

[PunkyKoopa]

Thank you, I will try it as soon as I can.

I wonder how a hyphenation dictionary works. For example, I don't remember this issue in all of my years with Kindle.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PunkyKoopa

Thank you, I will try it as soon as I can.

I wonder how a hyphenation dictionary works. For example, I don't remember this issue in all of my years with Kindle.

Until KFX, Kindles had no hyphenation.

The reason for the better hyphenation dictionary is because the settings Kobo uses are for hyphenation are poor. This dictionary uses settings that allow more hyphenation.

[PunkyKoopa]

I see.

Besides using the hyphenation dictionary, should I make any change in Calibre to improve this? Or maybe switch to EPUB?

Maybe I am overthinking about it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PunkyKoopa

I see.

Besides using the hyphenation dictionary, should I make any change in Calibre to improve this? Or maybe switch to EPUB?

Maybe I am overthinking about it.

You'll be good with KePub if that's what you want.

[MGlitch]

Aside from the patches and the dictionary and config file change mentioned, adjusting literally any font setting can help. Even going up or down a single tick for size, line spacing, or margins.

[PunkyKoopa]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You need the better hyphenation dictionary that I linked and you need to turn on hyphenation.

Plug your in your Kobo to your computer.

In the .kobo > Kobo directory on your Kobo, edit Kobo eReader.conf (if using Windows, use a text edutior such as Notepad++ to keep theline endings correct) and add...
[code][Reading]
webkitTextRendering=optimizelegibility

If you already have [Reading] then don't add that line.

Then when this and the better hyphenation dictionary, you will have hyphenation.

Ok, my config file looks like this now (I only copied the Reading paragraph).

[Reading]
chapterProgressType=3
invertPageTurnButtons=true
newBookProgressType=0
numPartialUpdatePageTurns=10
readingAlignment=left
readingFontFamily=Literata Book
readingFontSharpness\Bookerly=-0.06
readingFontSharpness\Caecilia=-0.246666666666667
readingFontSharpness\Literata%20Book=-0.0666666666666667
readingFontSize=38
readingFontWeight\Bookerly=0.11
readingFontWeight\Caecilia=-0.085
readingFontWeight\Literata%20Book=0.1
readingLeftMargin=6
readingLineHeight=1.2
readingRightMargin=6
webkitTextRendering=optimizelegibility

I also copied the Spanish dictionary on the .Kobo folder. Can I delete the KoboRoot.tgz from the device?

It looks better now. Far better. With justified turned on it's much smoother. If I turn it off, it stills looks ugly with big chunks of white spaces between some words. The same paragraph with justified on, looks just perfect. Is this a normal and expected behavior? It is like it doesn't apply hyphenation with the justification turned off.

And last but no least. If I don't apply patches to my Kobo, I will have to install the dictionary after a firmware update, right?

Thank you. I really appreciate your help. You have just improve my favorite gadget and made it even better.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by PunkyKoopa

It looks better now. Far better. With justified turned on it's much smoother. If I turn it off, it stills looks ugly with big chunks of white spaces between some words. The same paragraph with justified on, looks just perfect. Is this a normal and expected behavior? It is like it doesn't apply hyphenation with the justification turned off.

It seems to be the normal behaviour not to hyphenate text that is not fully justified.[/QUOTE]

[CyberPaul]

This sounds weird to me: justified turned off shouldn’t show big chunks of white spaces between words!

[johnydon3]

Use the Better Hyphenation dictionares from this site, i was having the same problems, i use epub only and i like my paragraphs to look even, and the lines with normal spancing in beetween words.

i am still new to kobo and i didnt know how to fix those ugly big spaces from one word to other lol and @JSWolf helped me out making a spanish hyphenation dictionary and now my Epub books look beautiful! idk about kepub, because i dont like that format because i dont get static/real page numbers lol

[johnydon3]

Originally Posted by PunkyKoopa

Hi,

I am really enjoying my Kobo Libra 2 most of the time but there is a thing that is driving me nuts. I thought that justified text is the best setting for a pleasant reading experience.

I usually use justified text but with these setting I notice that the space between words is sometimes very uneven, it looks right one paragraph and the next one it looks completely off. It’s the lack of consistency that quicks me out of reading. Can be this a problem with hyphenation?

I am Spanish so I read in Spanish most of the time. I also use Kepub. Is this one of these things that people talk about when they say that EPUB looks better?

Thank you.

Ah bueno, no lei la ultima parte, que hablas espanol hahahah pero bueno, JSWolf creo un diccionario para mi en espanol hace como una semana y con eso se arreglan esos espacios feos, tambien antes de ese plugin lo que me ayudo fue usar el pluging Hyphenate this, para calibre, sin necesidad del diccionario de better hypenation, aplicas el plugin de hyphenate this a tus libros antes de enviarlo a tu kobo y ya saldran justificados, si gustas te paso el diccionario que yo uso para el hypenathe this, que es el mismo que uso JSWolf para crear el diccionario instalable para el kobo