Kindle PaperWhite font checkboxes are inactive

[reinsley]

Gents,

Concerning a Kindle PaperWhite, I have a font issue with one book.
I select any font checkbox (on the Kindle), there is no font change.
These options are working well with the other books.

I presume it's related to a weak HTML code on this specific book.
But what is the line to add or to remove in the editor ?

I appreciate any help, I don't know what to search for. I made some comparison, but it's tricky.

TIA

[JimmyR]

Most likely a font-family declaration in a CSS file.

For a quick fix, try a conversion with the following option enabled:

Convert > Look & Feel > Styling
Under Filter Style Information check "Fonts". That will remove the "font-family" property from the CSS.

[retiredbiker]

Over time, I've had so much trouble with this on my Kindles that now whenever I edit a book, I just take out all the fonts and references to them. I have a saved regex search that finds "font-family.*?;" and replaces it with nothing in all style files.

Once in a while, if a book contains a bunch code or typewriter text or something, I will allow a "font-family: sans-serif;" line, and the Kindle seems OK with that.

[Brett Merkey]

I agree with the comments that Kindle's problem in this regard is partly a too rigid specification of fonts in the style file. There is a Calibre tool that takes care of this, not only wiping out all font-family references but also @font-face declarations and any embedded font files in the book directories:

Edit window > Tools > Manage Fonts

The tool will flexibly allow you to retain certain fonts, or generic sans-serif, etc. while deleting the rest. I use Manage Fonts so often, I keep it on the main edit toolbar.

[JimmyR]

^Good Tip. I use the editor often but never used that tool before. I need to dig around in there more.

[reinsley]

I appreciate your support.

@JimmyR, thank you, the quick fix has changed one thing.
The default font is more pleasant (azw3 convertion), but it has no effect over Kindle's checkboxes.
Only one default font.

The faulty book :
Css references to font-family : Times.
There is no embedded font in the epub.
(Another book with checkboxes working fine has no embedded font).
Pinch n zoom is ok.

The good book :
Another book from the same serie, has embedded font, and checkboxes are active. I see an extra checkbox Publisher Font. Probably because a TTF font is embedded.

A close CSS code comparison, between two books, may show what the faulty line is. Hard work to crack the conumdrum.

https://mademers.com/the-conumdrum-t...font-handling/

@Brett, your manage tool is a way to explore. Thank you. First I'd like to find the code that inhibates the internal checkboxes.

Best regards

[stumped]

If you want an automated fix, convert to epub in calibre after ticking the option to remove fonts, then convert that epub back to azw3.
To do it manually instead just use calibre editor on azw directly and delete all font family lines in stylesheet

Once there are no explicit font declarations anywhere in the book, then Kindle will let you choose a font.

If there is a line like

font-family: Times

Somewhere in the stylesheet
That is what prevents you choosing something different on the device
So delete them via either of the 2 methods above

[reinsley]

@stumped

Great, it works fine.
Thank you for the fix.
Best regards