CSS files and reading software

[paola]

After scouring the forum, it seems to me that the only reading software that "understands" CSS files in full is tselling's "Hacked Adobeviewer" (though things might improve with pkbo's further versions of Coolreader). However if I got it right this hack does not work with the Pro models.
Is this correct, or are there "things" which can be done to use CSS with any of the current readers? My problem is that I'd like to be able to rescale images up. I've tried by using the option "width: 100%" in the image class, but it only works in Adobeviewer (but there I am stuck with the inability to change fonts).

[darknessEC]

.....

[Billi]

In my mind, Adobeviewer is the best ePub-reader on the Pro Pocketbooks although it is not perfect.
You can use another font with the Adobeviewer if you include this font right into the ePub/css-file.
Maybe you want to have a look at this book and its css-file
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48377
where Zelda played a lot with the possibilities of css, amongst them using another font.

[paola]

Originally Posted by Billi

In my mind, Adobeviewer is the best ePub-reader on the Pro Pocketbooks although it is not perfect.
You can use another font with the Adobeviewer if you include this font right into the ePub/css-file.

ah, I see, so in a way it is again an issue of changing the files - although, I presume this wouln't be possible with DRM files, right?

Originally Posted by Billi

Maybe you want to have a look at this book and its css-file
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48377
where Zelda played a lot with the possibilities of css, amongst them using another font.

great, many thanks, I did have the book, but had never thought of looking at the style file!

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by paola

ah, I see, so in a way it is again an issue of changing the files - although, I presume this wouln't be possible with DRM files, right?

Right.
Some people see nothing wrong in spending time reformatting and recompiling ebook files before reading them.

Others, like me, seem to think that duty properly belongs to the reader app, at render time, not the consumer.

Which is why the hacked adobeviewer for 3xx came about.

At this point, since you'd have to strip DRM anyway, I suspect you might as well go with coolreader and its custom *global* css features. At least that way you don't have to decompile and recompile each epub.
But then, I'm lazy and would rather spend my ebook time reading.

[paola]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Right.
Some people see nothing wrong in spending time reformatting and recompiling ebook files before reading them.

Others, like me, seem to think that duty properly belongs to the reader app, at render time, not the consumer.

Which is why the hacked adobeviewer for 3xx came about.

At this point, since you'd have to strip DRM anyway, I suspect you might as well go with coolreader and its custom *global* css features. At least that way you don't have to decompile and recompile each epub.
But then, I'm lazy and would rather spend my ebook time reading.

thanks fj - for me it all started because I wanted to see clearly the figures (and tables rendered as figures) in non fiction books. Alas, the problem with coolreader is that it does not (yet) solve my original problem, i.e. too small figures. So it looks like for the moment I am stuck with adobeviewer's (or the hope of a future hack that would work on the pro models) if I want to see the graphs.

But I do not follow when you talk about "decompile and recompile": I simply opened the file in Sigil, and edited the "width: auto" line to "width: 100%". And saved. Presumably Sigil then does all in the background?

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by paola

But I do not follow when you talk about "decompile and recompile": I simply opened the file in Sigil, and edited the "width: auto" line to "width: 100%". And saved. Presumably Sigil then does all in the background?

Yes. EPUB files are compressed zip archives. Sigil does the unzipping/zipping for you when loading/saving. It's a very nice program.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by paola

But I do not follow when you talk about "decompile and recompile": I simply opened the file in Sigil, and edited the "width: auto" line to "width: 100%". And saved. Presumably Sigil then does all in the background?

On too many occassions, I've seen queries about how to customize epub rendering receive replies about opening up epubs, *manually* hardwiring the formatting, embedding fonts, etc. As if it were perfectly reasonable to expect consumers to be versed in website coding and do hours of work to fix defects in the file or the reader to be able to read an ebook. I just think that if epub is to be a solid publishing standard its ecosystem needs to be plug and play all the way through and not *expect* consumers to be technically proficient (even if, like you, they are). I've used Sigil once or twice, more or less under protest; it is a nice tool but it shouldn't need to be used that way. The standard and its supporting tools need to be better.
Just a matter of philosophy.

I am glad to see Sigil solved your problem painlessly (which is what matters) and you have a workaround until the graphics display option is enabled on Coolreader which, given the speed with which this port has matured, probably won't be long.

[paola]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

On too many occassions, I've seen queries about how to customize epub rendering receive replies about opening up epubs, *manually* hardwiring the formatting, embedding fonts, etc. As if it were perfectly reasonable to expect consumers to be versed in website coding and do hours of work to fix defects in the file or the reader to be able to read an ebook. I just think that if epub is to be a solid publishing standard its ecosystem needs to be plug and play all the way through and not *expect* consumers to be technically proficient (even if, like you, they are). I've used Sigil once or twice, more or less under protest; it is a nice tool but it shouldn't need to be used that way. The standard and its supporting tools need to be better.
Just a matter of philosophy.

on your philosophy I completely agree - and I promise you I am not at all proficient, indeed very much feel like a monkey pressing levers that for some reason hand out a peanut or two

I'd like to learn more, but if and when I choose, whereas here I am simply pressed by the fact that I'd like to be able to see the pie charts - I haven't yet tackle the font issue, which I'll overcome only if there is some monkey-proof one line fix - if it works, I'll report back!

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by paola

...I haven't yet tackle the font issue, which I'll overcome only if there is some monkey-proof one line fix - if it works, I'll report back!

For your future info re the fonts, if your epub is non-DRM there is a middle ground you might try which requires no hacked AdobeViewer and should work on your PocketBook.

But to backtrack a little... reading epubs in the font-face of your choice, on a reader which uses an Adobe renderer requires only 2 things:

• the font files (.ttf) you want to use
• a bit of magic css, which specifies which fonts you want to use and tells the reader where to find them.

There are 3 ways an epub with customized fonts can be prepared:

1. Fonts are embedded inside the epub, magic css already inside the epub's css file.
   This method is often used by publishers for DRM'd retail epubs. But anyone could do it (with a bit of knowledge) for an epub not locked by DRM.
   
2. Font files are copied to the reader, magic css is placed in a fixed-name text file on the reader.
   This is how the hacked AdobeViewer works. All the hack does is tell the reader where the magic css file is to be found. This method can be used for all epubs whether they have DRM or not.
   
3. The middle ground - font files are copied to the reader, magic css is forced into the epub's css file.
   No hacks are required, but it must be a non-DRM epub. You can manually put the magic css into the epub's css file using Calibre Tweak-epub feature (and probably Sigil but I don't use it, so not sure). However, it's easier to do it with a Calibre epub-to-epub conversion because all you have to do is copy the magic css into Calibre's Convert - Look&Feel - ExtraCSS box.
   
   You cannot guarantee 100% that this will work first time for every epub because it depends on the existing contents of the epub's css file. However, I've never yet found an epub which could not be tweaked afterwards so it does work.

When you get round to trying it, there is no reason why you can't use option 3 on your reader, for non-DRM epubs. Just ask if you need help

[paola]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

For your future info re the fonts, if your epub is non-DRM there is a middle ground you might try which requires no hacked AdobeViewer and should work on your PocketBook.

But to backtrack a little... reading epubs in the font-face of your choice, on a reader which uses an Adobe renderer requires only 2 things:

• the font files (.ttf) you want to use
• a bit of magic css, which specifies which fonts you want to use and tells the reader where to find them.

There are 3 ways an epub with customized fonts can be prepared:

1. Fonts are embedded inside the epub, magic css already inside the epub's css file.
   This method is often used by publishers for DRM'd retail epubs. But anyone could do it (with a bit of knowledge) for an epub not locked by DRM.
   
2. Font files are copied to the reader, magic css is placed in a fixed-name text file on the reader.
   This is how the hacked AdobeViewer works. All the hack does is tell the reader where the magic css file is to be found. This method can be used for all epubs whether they have DRM or not.
   
3. The middle ground - font files are copied to the reader, magic css is forced into the epub's css file.
   No hacks are required, but it must be a non-DRM epub. You can manually put the magic css into the epub's css file using Calibre Tweak-epub feature (and probably Sigil but I don't use it, so not sure). However, it's easier to do it with a Calibre epub-to-epub conversion because all you have to do is copy the magic css into Calibre's Convert - Look&Feel - ExtraCSS box.
   
   You cannot guarantee 100% that this will work first time for every epub because it depends on the existing contents of the epub's css file. However, I've never yet found an epub which could not be tweaked afterwards so it does work.

When you get round to trying it, there is no reason why you can't use option 3 on your reader, for non-DRM epubs. Just ask if you need help

Jackie, thanks so much. The css box in the tweaks always scared me, so I never used it (wouldn' know how), but I would be eager to know how to proceed. In the end, I found the levers to pull for my peanuts, and here is what I did:

- opened the epub in Sigil;
- use the "show both display and code" option, and identified "calibre 3" as the "class" for images (not too sure what a class mean, but I think I get the genral idea)
- clicked on the .css file in calibre and changed "width: auto" to "width: 75%".
- Opened Zelda's "Three men in a boat" and looked at the css file;
- cut and past from it the first bits of codes which mentioned fonts:

@font-face {
  font-family: "Fontin";
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: normal;
  src: url(../Fonts/Fontin-Regular.ttf);
}

@font-face {
  font-family: "Fontin";
  font-weight: bold;
  font-style: normal;
  src: url(../Fonts/Fontin-Bold.ttf);
}

@font-face {
  font-family: "Fontin";
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: italic;
  src: url(../Fonts/Fontin-Italic.ttf);
}

body {
  font-family: "Fontin", serif;
}

Changed all the "Fontin" to "LexiaDaMa", saved and put the book on my reader, opened it with Adobe. It did not work. So I opened Zelda's file again, noticed that there was a "fonts" folder, so I opened the book again in Sigil, clicked on the "Fonts" folder, copied and pasted the LexiaDaMa font files in there. I also got adventurous and added

@font-face {
  font-family: "LexiaDaMa";
  font-weight: bold;
  font-style: italic;
  src: url(../Fonts/LexiaDaMa-BoldItalic.ttf);
}

saved and put the book on the device. Now it worked, and I was happy as a bunny.

Having said this, it took me much longer than I was hoping, so if there were a way to add these various bits of code as "tweaks" in Calibre once and for all, it would make my life soo much easier, letting me get on with reading (and perhaps get to know a bit more about epub in my non reading spare time )

[Billi]

Originally Posted by paola

Now it worked, and I was happy as a bunny.

Having said this, it took me much longer than I was hoping, so if there were a way to add these various bits of code as "tweaks" in Calibre once and for all, it would make my life soo much easier, letting me get on with reading (and perhaps get to know a bit more about epub in my non reading spare time )

I'm glad you figured it out so quickly and I'm glad it worked!
But will it really take that much time? You can copy the font-face part from your new css style (with the LexiaDaMa font) into a seperate txt file. Then if you want to change the font in your next book, open the txt-file and copy it, open sigil, paste into the css-file and then add the fonts to the fonts folder and save. I guess it will take you less than five minutes.
It's really nice to read with the one's favourite fonts!

[paola]

Originally Posted by Billi

I'm glad you figured it out so quickly and I'm glad it worked!
But will it really take that much time? You can copy the font-face part from your new css style (with the LexiaDaMa font) into a seperate txt file. Then if you want to change the font in your next book, open the txt-file and copy it, open sigil, paste into the css-file and then add the fonts to the fonts folder and save. I guess it will take you less than five minutes.
It's really nice to read with the one's favourite fonts!

your link to Zelda's file was crucial!

Yes, you are right that it wouldn't take me that long to repeat this. On the other hand, I do not know if there may be other bits of the style that call the font at other places. More importantly, it would be much better if the tweak on the image files could be done automatically upn Calibre conversion, as this way you do not have to go hunt for the files.

Above all, though, with many books, 5 mins per book can add up to hours, and if I can avoid that, it is no bad thing

[jackie_w]

@paola,

You have successfully gone the embedded fonts route (item 1 in my list above). It works great, the possible drawback is that every single epub contains the LexiaDaMa .ttf files, which could be a lot of disk space if you've got thousands of books on the reader.

You've already done the brainwork necessary for the "middle ground" option (item 3). The only differences are:

• you create a /system/fonts directory on your PB and put the LexiaDaMa .ttf files in there rather than in the epub. This way you only copy and store them once on the reader. Then you can stop thinking about it.
• you've already written the "magic css", its the 4 @font-face statements plus the body {font-family: "LexiaDaMa", serif;}. You just need to make a minor tweak to each @font-face so that:
  

  src: url(../Fonts/LexiaDaMa-BoldItalic.ttf);

  would become:
  

  src: url(res:///mnt/ext1/system/fonts/LexiaDaMa-BoldItalic.ttf);

As you've already seen, you can add the "magic css" to each epub's .css file using Sigil. However, if instead, you add it to your Calibre default preferences ExtraCSS, you can do it once and then forget about it. Every new conversion to epub will put this css into the epub automatically.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

src: url(res:///mnt/ext1/system/fonts/LexiaDaMa-BoldItalic.ttf);

[/LIST]As you've already seen, you can add the "magic css" to each epub's .css file using Sigil. However, if instead, you add it to your Calibre default preferences ExtraCSS, you can do it once and then forget about it. Every new conversion to epub will put this css into the epub automatically.

It doesn't look like this would work on a different manufacturer's device, in that I doubt that
/mnt/ext1/system/fonts is standard. So I would guess that the resultant epub would be "locked" to the PB readers. Is there no way to ask for a font without needing to specify the exact path, say through some kind of system default path?