Scribe -- reduce margins?

[talaivan]

The margins on the Scribe are too big (significantly bigger than on the Elipsa, for example). Is there any way to reduce them? I'm pretty sure there is not, but I thought someone might have found a way to do this. Also it would be nice if one could disable the font change when pinching out or in by mistake. Apparently this is also impossible. The Scribe is a beautiful machine with terrible software, IMO.

[Sirtel]

If you sideload from Calibre, you can reduce margins in the files themselves. To do that in bulk, convert them to AZW3/KFX and put the following code in the Look & Feel -> Styling -> Extra CSS:

html {
  margin-left: -40px;
  margin-right: -40px;
  break-inside: avoid !important
}

Adjust the numbers according to your preferences.

[talaivan]

Thanks! That worked -- much obliged.

[Sonnenfee]

Few days ago I have tried different values I personally like the -100px setting best, which looks like at the 3rd photo in this post:

margin-left/margin-right -100px

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sonnenfee

Few days ago I have tried different values I personally like the -100px setting best, which looks like at the 3rd photo in this post:

margin-left/margin-right -100px

How can you use -100px? That would make the text go past the edges of the screen.

This is what I used for a 300DPI Kindle.

html {
  margin-right: -45px;
  margin-left: -45px;
  break-inside: avoid !important;
}

[Sonnenfee]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How can you use -100px? That would make the text go past the edges of the screen.

No. Look at the picture.

[Sonnenfee]

See the attachment out of CSS. It works at the Scribe.
If the same works on a Kindle with 6"/6,8"/7" with 300 dpi I don't know, I haven't tried I'm using my 6,8" & 7" Kindle devices with KOReader.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How can you use -100px? That would make the text go past the edges of the screen.

This is what I used for a 300DPI Kindle.

html {
  margin-right: -45px;
  margin-left: -45px;
  break-inside: avoid !important;
}

You are correct. The -100px won't work on a 7" 300DPI Oasis. It likely won't work on your 6" 300DPI PW3 either. I tried and even -55px still works on the 7" without cutting off words. Since the margin appears to be a fixed size relative to the width of the page this workaround should do the trick:

html {
  margin-left: -6%;
  margin-right: -6%;
  break-inside: avoid !important;
}

I tested with -5% (still big margin), -10% (too much, cuts off text), -8% (goes all the way to the edge in portrait mode, cuts off text in landscape). It appears -6.5% -6% is the biggest offset that leaves a very small margin in portrait mode, and none in landscape mode.

Would be nice if you could test this out on your 6" PW3 and see if it gives the same result of tiny margin in portrait mode, (almost) none in landscape. If that is the case it might work on all 300DPI Kindles, possibly even on lower resolution ones.

ETA: I have tested with my own PW3 that I dug out of the closet, and my initial -6.5% does not work in landscape mode as the bezel prevents viewing all the way to the edge of the display. 6% works as advertised without having to tilt the device to look underneath the bezel.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

You are correct. The -100px won't work on a 7" 300DPI Oasis. It likely won't work on your 6" 300DPI PW3 either. I tried and even -55px still works on the 7" without cutting off words. Since the margin appears to be a fixed size relative to the width of the page this workaround should do the trick:

html {
  margin-left: -6.5%;
  margin-right: -6.5%;
  break-inside: avoid !important;
}

I tested with -5% (still big margin), -10% (too much, cuts off text), -8% (goes all the way to the edge in portrait mode, cuts off text in landscape). It appears -6.5% is the biggest offset that leaves a very small margin in portrait mode, and none in landscape mode.

Would be nice if you could test this out on your 6" PW3 and see if it gives the same result of tiny margin in portrait mode, (almost) none in landscape. If that is the case it might work on all 300DPI Kindles, possibly even on lower resolution ones.

I'll be able to try it on a PW3 and a PW5. Just not until about a week.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'll be able to try it on a PW3 and a PW5. Just not until about a week.

I have revived my own PW3, and tested, and edited post#8 to the new number.

ETA: I also tested on the KT and PW1, which are all different DPI, and the same setting with azw3(kf8), since they won't do kfx, works with the same results.

[Quoth]

Next test is to see does

html {
margin-left: -6.0%;
margin-right: -6.0%;
break-inside: avoid !important;
}

survive epub2 upload to KDP, and still be in a bought azw3 download.

I'd not hold my breath! I'd try it without the "break-inside: avoid !important;"

[Sonnenfee]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I'd try it without the "break-inside: avoid !important;"

That’s what I did by using -100px for margin-left/margin-right in the CSS without the above mentioned line, the result is shown at my linked picture. The size of the display of the Scribe can thus be used excellently.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Sonnenfee

That’s what I did by using -100px for margin-left/margin-right in the CSS without the above mentioned line, the result is shown at my linked picture. The size of the display of the Scribe can thus be used excellently.

Since different devices need different values for the offset, I tried to avoid that by going relative. Try this one on your Scribe, see if it works:

html {
  margin-left: -6%;
  margin-right: -6%;
}

The break-inside may or may not be necessary - for some fringe cases where the margins are being abused as layout support.

If it works on Scribe, then it will work universally - either for kf8 or kfx.

[talaivan]

It's very strange that Amazon does not allow smaller margins on books bought from them -- it seems to me that, on the Scribe at least, the smallest margins available are not very comfortable for reading. Kobo doesn't do this. It would probably take no more than an hour or so for one of their programmers to add a smaller margin setting (so there are 4 instead of 3) to the software. My guess is that the smaller devices are OK (or at least adequate) with the margins they have and that they just transferred that software to the Sage. It's annoying to have to jump through so many hoops to make a book comfortable to read on the Sage.

[Quoth]

About 5 minutes programming and week testing, maybe, to have a margin that doesn't add 6% to the ebook margins. It's plain silly. On the really old Kindles you could edit a prefs file (which setting was destroyed if you selected a margin on the GUI).

It's not the only daft thing Amazon has done with Kindles.