Onyx Boox Display vs Sony Reader

medwatt · 07-06-2016, 01:41 AM

Hello,
I was on a trip and took with with me my "old" Sony PRS-T1 Reader for some casual reading. After getting back home, I switched to my I86+ and immediately noticed a real difference in the display. Mind you, the I86+ is supposed to have resolution.
Take a look at the attached images.
I am running the same app with the same css, fonts, everything. You can notice that there is an unambiguous difference between texts that are bold, italic from those that are regular on the PRS-T1. This is not so the case with the I86+. The PRS-T1 display is much pleasing.

Randy11 · 07-06-2016, 02:56 AM

Hi,
I'm very surprised by this difference. I would test your file. Could you send me by private message the file or page, or give a way to access to the file or only the page ?

medwatt · 07-06-2016, 03:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Randy11

Hi,
I'm very surprised by this difference. I would test your file. Could you send me by private message the file or page, or give a way to access to the file or only the page ?

Indeed, the PRS-T1 offers a far more appealing display, and for someone like me, who is fastidious about such details, I am starting to look at the i86 with disgust. Not that its terrible or anything, but it makes everything look bold. You can't tell what is bold when its bold. Of all the readers I've had or used, the i86 definitely has the worst display. Even my kindle keyboard look sharper.

franzli · 07-06-2016, 08:00 AM

I have no way to compare then myself, but to me this looks like a font issue, i.e. a software issue, on the onyx rather than a problem with the display itself. What might be more revealing regarding the displas themselves would be pdfs.

medwatt · 07-06-2016, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by franzli

I have no way to compare then myself, but to me this looks like a font issue, i.e. a software issue, on the onyx rather than a problem with the display itself. What might be more revealing regarding the displas themselves would be pdfs.

PDF looks fine but everything that requires system fonts look bold. I wonder if there's a way to overcome that. As I have already mentioned, the fonts used were loaded in both system, so no question of using different fonts.

franzli · 07-07-2016, 03:55 AM

Ok, yes that sounds like a software problem then rather than an issue with the hardware of the onyx. I only use my ereaders for PDFs, so unfortunately I have no experience regarding how you manipulate the way fonts are displayed or installed. Have you tried if other reading programmes display fonts better, i.e. if it's only a problem with the onyx reader? The only thing that I could think about there is that I think there are some font boldness settings in the menu. Maybe if that is set to too bold, this could lead to a situation where originally non-bold fonts become hard to distinguish from those that are bold? If you find that frying, maybe you can see of it can be set lower and if that improves anything?
Otherwise, maybe someone who actually uses e-books on their onyx can give some better advice than me.

Randy11 · 07-07-2016, 07:30 AM

Hi,
You could try EPUB books from O'Reilly or from the The Pragmatic Bookshelf (https://pragprog.com/), the file are very good, so you'll rapidly see if it's a hardware or software problem.

medwatt · 07-07-2016, 09:18 AM

Got a reply from Booxtor:

Hello,
your device is OK. It has not to do with resolution. This embolden of fonts (overwriting of original CSS in HTML documents) has been made on purpose in the Onyx software. It allows to read some pale or not designed for EINK display contents. This feature has been implemented because of a lot of customer requests. In next updates for i86 we will add an option to allow user to disable /enable this embolden feature.

medwatt · 07-12-2016, 08:56 PM

Someone on this forum pointed out to me a post by someone else on how to disable this global font emboldening.
There's a file called framework-res.apk located in /system/framework. If you rename the file to zip or rar or whatever and have something like winrar, you can access the files in the apk. There's a css file in the folder res/raw/ called webview_contrast_enchanced.css. You will find that font weights are set to 900. Take the CSS file out, replace all instances of 900 with 450, save and drag the file back int to replace the original. Restart and all will be good.

Things look much better now when you can tell the difference between regular and bold fonts.

07-06-2016, 01:41 AM	#1
medwatt Zealot Posts: 147 Karma: 87723 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Kuiper Belt Device: Kindle 3 (dead); Nook ST (dead); Sony PRS-T1; Onyx i86+	Onyx Boox Display vs Sony Reader Hello, I was on a trip and took with with me my "old" Sony PRS-T1 Reader for some casual reading. After getting back home, I switched to my I86+ and immediately noticed a real difference in the display. Mind you, the I86+ is supposed to have resolution. Take a look at the attached images. I am running the same app with the same css, fonts, everything. You can notice that there is an unambiguous difference between texts that are bold, italic from those that are regular on the PRS-T1. This is not so the case with the I86+. The PRS-T1 display is much pleasing. Attached Thumbnails

07-12-2016, 08:56 PM	#9
medwatt Zealot Posts: 147 Karma: 87723 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Kuiper Belt Device: Kindle 3 (dead); Nook ST (dead); Sony PRS-T1; Onyx i86+	Someone on this forum pointed out to me a post by someone else on how to disable this global font emboldening. There's a file called framework-res.apk located in /system/framework. If you rename the file to zip or rar or whatever and have something like winrar, you can access the files in the apk. There's a css file in the folder res/raw/ called webview_contrast_enchanced.css. You will find that font weights are set to 900. Take the CSS file out, replace all instances of 900 with 450, save and drag the file back int to replace the original. Restart and all will be good. Things look much better now when you can tell the difference between regular and bold fonts. Attached Thumbnails

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07-06-2016, 02:56 AM	#2
Randy11 Wizard Posts: 1,138 Karma: 1577094 Join Date: Oct 2008 Device: Samsung EB60, Onyx M92, Onyx Max2	Hi, I'm very surprised by this difference. I would test your file. Could you send me by private message the file or page, or give a way to access to the file or only the page ?

07-06-2016, 08:00 AM	#4
franzli Addict Posts: 220 Karma: 704750 Join Date: Apr 2016 Device: Nook Simple Touch, Onyx Boox T68 Plus	I have no way to compare then myself, but to me this looks like a font issue, i.e. a software issue, on the onyx rather than a problem with the display itself. What might be more revealing regarding the displas themselves would be pdfs.

07-07-2016, 03:55 AM	#6
franzli Addict Posts: 220 Karma: 704750 Join Date: Apr 2016 Device: Nook Simple Touch, Onyx Boox T68 Plus	Ok, yes that sounds like a software problem then rather than an issue with the hardware of the onyx. I only use my ereaders for PDFs, so unfortunately I have no experience regarding how you manipulate the way fonts are displayed or installed. Have you tried if other reading programmes display fonts better, i.e. if it's only a problem with the onyx reader? The only thing that I could think about there is that I think there are some font boldness settings in the menu. Maybe if that is set to too bold, this could lead to a situation where originally non-bold fonts become hard to distinguish from those that are bold? If you find that frying, maybe you can see of it can be set lower and if that improves anything? Otherwise, maybe someone who actually uses e-books on their onyx can give some better advice than me.

07-07-2016, 07:30 AM	#7
Randy11 Wizard Posts: 1,138 Karma: 1577094 Join Date: Oct 2008 Device: Samsung EB60, Onyx M92, Onyx Max2	Hi, You could try EPUB books from O'Reilly or from the The Pragmatic Bookshelf (https://pragprog.com/), the file are very good, so you'll rapidly see if it's a hardware or software problem.

07-07-2016, 09:18 AM	#8
medwatt Zealot Posts: 147 Karma: 87723 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Kuiper Belt Device: Kindle 3 (dead); Nook ST (dead); Sony PRS-T1; Onyx i86+	Got a reply from Booxtor: Hello, your device is OK. It has not to do with resolution. This embolden of fonts (overwriting of original CSS in HTML documents) has been made on purpose in the Onyx software. It allows to read some pale or not designed for EINK display contents. This feature has been implemented because of a lot of customer requests. In next updates for i86 we will add an option to allow user to disable /enable this embolden feature.