Aura HD A good font setting for reading novels on a Kobo Aura HD?

[dclauzel]

I am currently using the font Georgia, with smaller interline and margins. But I am willing to try something else. Do you have any (good) font setup to recommend for extended reading session of French novels on a Kobo Aura HD?

Serif, sans serif ? Size, sharpness, weight?

Also, for reading scientific articles (with math formulas, algo, etc), what font settings could you recommend?

Note: I don't like Kobo Nickel: it does look too round to me, and the serif are too big.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by dclauzel

I am currently using the font Georgia, with smaller interline and margins. But I am willing to try something else. Do you have any (good) font setup to recommend for extended reading session of French novels on a Kobo Aura HD?

Serif, sans serif ? Size, sharpness, weight?

Also, for reading scientific articles (with math formulas, algo, etc), what font settings could you recommend?

Note: I don't like Kobo Nickel: it does look too round to me, and the serif are too big.

My personal preference is a modified version of the Charis SIL font (slightly larger and darker) or Deja Vu Serif. I set the line height to 1.1 in all the stylesheets that I can access (i.e. any DRM free epub).

However, fonts, spacing, margins, etc. are all very personal items.

Regards,
David

[dclauzel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

My personal preference is a modified version of the Charis SIL font (slightly larger and darker)

Charis SIL ? it does look a good choice. I will try it, thank you!

Originally Posted by DNSB

Deja Vu Serif

The DejaVu fonts have a good characters coverage, but are kind of bland to the eye, I feel. They are fine to me for short texts, but for extended reading they strain my eyes; they are to thin and always make me feel like I am reading a document in a word processor and not a book.

[ectoplasm]

This might interest you:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=222015

I haven't side loaded Charis SIL (yet), but I probably will some day.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by dclauzel

Charis SIL ? it does look a good choice. I will try it, thank you!

Check the Summary of Modified Fonts sticky for a link to JSWolf's modified Charis SIL (a bit larger and a bit heavier which looks good on an eink screen). The modified Charis SIL link is in one of the spoilers. Advantage being it is correctly named for use on a Kobo. Just create a fonts (case sensitive) directory and extract the font files there and power cycle the Kobo.

Regards,
David

[dclauzel]

Thanks!

It looks like the font question is still a work in progress. Hopefully, it shouldn't be too much difficult to find a serie of good settings.

[samhy]

I really like Ubuntu and Deja Vu Serif. From the stock ones, Malabar looks quite nice when the light is on.

[ectoplasm]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Check the Summary of Modified Fonts sticky for a link to JSWolf's modified Charis SIL ...

I think a good endorsement for Charis SIL is that it comes embedded in a lot of EPUBs. It looks good in Calibre, so that's enough for me to give it a try.

Maybe I should start another poll and include the top side loaded fonts.

I haven't had my Aura HD long enough yet to get totally settled with font selection. I'm currently using Amasis exclusively, but I haven't settled on font size yet. I also wish it was possible to set the font size numerically rather than an imprecise slider.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ectoplasm

I haven't had my Aura HD long enough yet to get totally settled with font selection. I'm currently using Amasis exclusively, but I haven't settled on font size yet. I also wish it was possible to set the font size numerically rather than an imprecise slider.

If you use Metazoa's patch, you can change the font settings so that each step is one rather than the default mix though you are still restricted to 24 steps. For me, I seldom if ever used the smaller sizes so I went with a set that goes from 20 to 43 rather than the 15 to 38 MZ used or the 12 to 58 Kobo default.

Regards,
David

[ectoplasm]

Originally Posted by DNSB

If you use Metazoa's patch, you can change the font settings so that each step is one rather than the default mix though you are still restricted to 24 steps...

Thanks, will check. Also, something that I should probably have noticed sooner, is that the font size selection appears to be specific to a single book. Is there a way to change the "default" font size? Or am I missing something?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ectoplasm

Thanks, will check. Also, something that I should probably have noticed sooner, is that the font size selection appears to be specific to a single book. Is there a way to change the "default" font size? Or am I missing something?

When you change the settings, they are saved into the database for the current book. They are also saved to the configuration file and become your defaults. The settings in the configuration file will be used whenever you open a new book or reopen a book that doesn't have saved settings.

If you want to see, get rid of or change the settings for a book, my Kobo Utilities plugin for calibre will allow you to do this. Plus it allows you to set the font size in single steps.

[ectoplasm]

Originally Posted by davidfor

When you change the settings, they are saved into the database for the current book. They are also saved to the configuration file and become your defaults. The settings in the configuration file will be used whenever you open a new book or reopen a book that doesn't have saved settings.

If you want to see, get rid of or change the settings for a book, my Kobo Utilities plugin for calibre will allow you to do this. Plus it allows you to set the font size in single steps.

Thanks, that clears it up. I think I'll start doing some queries on the database. If nothing else, I think I'll be able to see and set the exact font size that way.

[dclauzel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

JSWolf's modified Charis SIL (a bit larger and a bit heavier which looks good on an eink screen)

Ah, my eyes! It burns! Ok, no, it is not that bad, but modified Charis SIL is way too thick for me. It make everything look like it is written in bold.

[ectoplasm]

Originally Posted by dclauzel

Ah, my eyes! It burns! Ok, no, it is not that bad, but modified Charis SIL is way too thick for me. It make everything look like it is written in bold.

I haven't tried it yet, but I also prefer lighter fonts on the Aura HD, which is why I'm using Amasis. I'm going to try Charis SIL, but I doubt I'll prefer a customized version that is bolder.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by dclauzel

Ah, my eyes! It burns! Ok, no, it is not that bad, but modified Charis SIL is way too thick for me. It make everything look like it is written in bold.

And for my eyes, it's just a touch heavier.

You might want to try the unmodified Charis SIL then or Deja Vu Serif. For me, these are the two fonts I've found have the best support for diacritical marks which are quite popular with some authors. I got tired of seeing names with boxes where some of characters should have been. Deja Vu also offers better support for the Greek alphabet than Charis SIL.

Another font I've tried is the Merriweather font from Google Fonts. Quite readable for me but a lack of diacritical support. I've stuffed part of my font tester file into this message just to display what characters I've run into.

The next lines display various diacriticals and some special characters.
 
Macron
Ā Ē Ḡ Ī Ō Ū Ȳ Ǣ Œ̄ ā ē ḡ ī ō ū ȳ ǣ œ̄
 
Breve
Ă Ğ Ŭ ă ğ ŭ
 
Grave
À, È, Ì, Ò, Ù à è, ì, ò, ù
 
Acute
Á Ć É Í Ĺ Ń Ó Ŕ Ś Ú Ý Ź á ć é ģ í ĺ ń ó ŕ ś ú ý ź
 
Circumflex
 Ĉ Ê Ĝ Ĥ Î Ĵ Ô Ŝ Û Ŵ Ŷ â ĉ ê ĝ ĥ î ĵ ô ŝ û ŵ ŷ
 
Tilde
à Ĩ Ñ Õ Ũ ã ĩ ñ õ ũ
 
Umlaut/Diæresis
Ä, Ë, Ï, Ö, Ü, Ÿ ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ
 
Dot
Ċ Ė Ġ İ Ż ċ ė ġ ż
 
Ring
Å Ů å ů
 
Cedilla
Ç Ģ Ķ Ļ Ņ Ŗ Ş Ţ ç ķ ļ ņ ŗ ş ţ
 
Caron
Ǎ Č Ď Ě Ǐ Ľ Ň Ǒ Ř Š Ť Ǔ Ž ǎ č ď ě ǐ ľ ň ǒ ř š ť ǔ ž
 
Thorn: Þ þ  Eth: Ð ð  Yogh: Ȝ ȝ  Ezh: Ʒ ʒ
 
ß ¿ ¡
 
⅛ ¼ ⅓ ⅜ ½ ⅝ ⅔ ¾ ⅞
 
Æ æ Œ œ ᵫ ff fi fl ffi ffl ſt st
 
Shīgū Tomanāk Sothōi
 
Hŭrăka Zŭrăk Ǣtesk Œ̄tesk

Regards,
David