Clara Do you prefer EPUB or KEPUB?

[Derf]

For side loading ebooks on a Kobo, and using Calibre, do you convert to kepub? I saw that you only get reading stats with kepub, but you also get the book title at the top which takes up some valuable real estate. The latest firmware also has an ePub error at the top of the screen.

Pluses and minuses of each appreciated, and do you have a preference on which file type you use?

[ZodWallop]

On Kobo, I prefer KEPUB, mainly because Kobo's EPUB support is lackluster.

I like to read on breaks at work and it is helpful to know if the next chapter has 15 pages or 75. On my old Nook, that was no problem, but on Kobo if you want that sort of advanced functionality you need to use KEPUB*

The large header and footer can be done away with by implementing full screen reading. The fact that this has to be a patch that is applied rather than an officially supported option makes Kobo look bad (in my opinion).

I do wonder why they don't just add KEPUB features to EPUB. At any rate, since I sideload all my bookings and Calibre makes it a snap to convert an EPUB on my PC to a KEPUB on my Kobo, I just let it go.

*I'm assuming that is still the case. If it has been updated in current releases of the firmware, I am unaware of it.

[jackie_w]

This post is quite old but you may find some of it useful.

[geek1011]

I usually prefer kepub. I find the chapter chart and time remaining quite useful. I also highlight and take notes a lot, so the faster highlighting and the quick turn feature is is useful for me. I sometimes use footnotes, and it's nice to have them show as a pop-up. Even so, the kepub reader is not perfect due to its typography issues. Usually, I use kepub by default unless there is an issue.

[JSWolf]

I prefer ePub. I don't have to jump through hoops to get a good display. Also, typesetting works better with ePub. The difference in page turn speed is negligible. Also, highlighting with ePub has been improved.

True you don't get the stats, but I feel you get a better reading experience.

[DNSB]

My personal preference is epub. I find some of the quirks in the KEPUB renderer rather annoying, I don't need the title of the book at the top of the screen -- if I forget what book I'm reading, I have other problems to worry about. Using full screen mode to get around the header loses the information at the bottom of the screen again removing any advantage kepub has over epub in that area. My main use for hightlighting is for errors which I will edit and correct if they are too annoying.

What I do like about kepub is the zoomable graphics and the popup footnotes though relatively few of the books I read have much in the line of graphics or footnotes.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I do wonder why they don't just add KEPUB features to EPUB. At any rate, since I sideload all my bookings and Calibre makes it a snap to convert an EPUB on my PC to a KEPUB on my Kobo, I just let it go.

Would you prefer them to rewrite the code for Adobe's RMSDK renderer or rewrite the code for ACCESS' Netfront renderer? Either is going to be a non-trivial task and those developers will expect to be paid.

[rashkae]

I still prefer Kepub, but at this point, the only feature that kepub provides that I consider worthwhile is the font fall back for glyphs that are not in your default font. If I'm reading a book that has some unusual Unicode characters, or foreign language characters, the epub reader will just silently leave those out of the book (Unless you embed a font to handle it.).. the Kepub reader will display correctly so long as you have any font on the Kobo that can accommodate it.

[mathil]

I prefer KePub with its reading stats, the options in the page number display and the chapter chart (this one in particular I find very useful). I wish KePub had better typographic support but it's only with certain fonts that it's very bothersome -- I don't even notice it most of the time.

[RobertJSawyer]

I'm curious! In matters of typography, in what way is Kobo's handling of ePubs superior to Kepubs? Thanks!

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I prefer ePub. I don't have to jump through hoops to get a good display. Also, typesetting works better with ePub. The difference in page turn speed is negligible.

What hoops do you have to jump through? Do you mean the full screen patch, or is there something more?

I've been using kepub so long, I don't remember what else is different aside from the chapter page count.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Using full screen mode to get around the header loses the information at the bottom of the screen again removing any advantage kepub has over epub in that area.

When using fullscreen, the information at the bottom of the screen can be brought up with two taps: options, then <->. Using ePub, that info isn't available at all, is it?

Originally Posted by DNSB

Would you prefer them to rewrite the code for Adobe's RMSDK renderer or rewrite the code for ACCESS' Netfront renderer? Either is going to be a non-trivial task and those developers will expect to be paid.

I'm wondering if instead of creating a new format and renderer, they could have used that manpower to add those features to their ePub renderer in the first place.

I'm not a coding expert, but I do know that on the Nook you can see how many pages remain in a chapter using ePub, something the Kobo still can't do (as far as I know), so changes can be made without creating a new format.

[Ripplinger]

I prefer epubs because I don't like the top wasted space displaying the title every page. Yes, you can get rid of it with a patch, but that also removes the bottom page info, and I want to see page numbers.

I don't care about tracking my reading or their cute awards (if you ever have to factory reset your reader, all that is lost anyway) or how many pages are left in a chapter that kepub gives you. Even I had just 5 minutes on a break, I'd still read for those 5 minutes whether the chapter was ending or not. It's extremely seldom that a book contains images that I'd need to enlarge, so again, not something I care about.

I do wish epubs could display those special characters though if your selected font doesn't have them the way the kepubs can (my old Sony 350 would do that). But the few times that happens, I can manually switch to another font for that book.

[sjfan]

Kepub's gotten better at some typography issues (hyphenation usted to be horrible), but epub rendering still looks nicer; better justification & word spacing, more functional kerning, etc.

Having the actual reading part of the e-reader work better is more important to me than bells & whistles, so I go with epub for everything.

[sherman]

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

I'm curious! In matters of typography, in what way is Kobo's handling of ePubs superior to Kepubs? Thanks!

Better font kerning support, support for ligatures, and (I think) a more advanced line breaking algorithm (especially for justified text).

Unfortunately, Adobe appears to have abandoned their own renderer in favor of readium (for epub3 and beyond), so I doubt there will ever be new features and bug fixes to the 'legacy' renderer, as used by Kobo (and Sony, and Nook, and...).

I'm still rather annoyed that Adobe never supported font-variant: small-caps, which is why 'fake smallcaps' became so popular.