remembering font size

[franklekens]

Has anyone else noticed this, it seems such a strange bug to have persisted for so long in the firmware. At least it looks like a bug to me.

When I adjust the font size display in a book, my device (Aura as well as Ellipsa) generally remembers this. I mean adjust the display of it on the device, I'm not tinkering with the epub. And the device seems to remember this on a per book basis. That is, if I increase the font size of book A with two steps from its default, but actually decrease the font size of book B with one step, when I close those books, open another, and then later reopen book A or book B, the device will display it with the font sizes I adjusted it to.

But there's one exception that seems pretty structural. Suppose there are 4 books I already opened and for which I adjusted the font size to my liking. Then I open a new book, I open this for the first time. The font is too big so I decrease it by one or two steps.
I close this book. I re-open one of the other four books. And lo and behold: the font is too small. The decreasing by one or two step has carried over into this new book! I have to re-adjust it. When I do that, close it and go to any of the other books I had already opened and adjusted, all is fine.

But always with the first book I re-open after having opened and adjusted a new book for the first time, the adjustments to the new book seem to have carried over into this re-opened book. It seems pretty consistent -- and a little weird. To my taste.

(I can't be 100% sure on the always. Obviously, if it doesn't happen, it will slip beneath my perception threshold. But it happens often enough to make me feel it's pretty structural.)

Nothing serious, just a weird glitch to persist for so long. Surely this should be solvable on the firmware side?

(I simply use the standard Kobo firmware, no hacks or alternative reader apps.)

[anacreon]

I have noticed this problem for a while, and it annoys me. I spoke of it elsewhere, and as far as I remember, davidfor said that he had no problem like that.

[davidfor]

I haven't seen the problem. And trying today with a few books, I can't reproduce it.

Is it only happening when you reduce the font size? Is it only four books? Does it matter which of the previously opened books that you set the font size for? Have you finished any of the books? Or how quickly from one book to another? Anything else happen such as sleep, power off or connect to the PC?

My test today was to go to the unread list, sorted by Recent and opened the first book, set the font size to the smallest and closed the book. Then opened the next book and did the same increasing the font size by one and closed the book. Then I repeated that for about 10 books. Then I went to Reading, found the first of those books and opened it. The font size was what I had set it to. Then I opened some others, and they all seemed to open with the font that I had set them to.

The books were all epubs with simple code in them. They were actually all copies of the same sample book with different titles. Maybe that was too simple a test.

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The books were all epubs with simple code in them. They were actually all copies of the same sample book with different titles. Maybe that was too simple a test.

Mine are all kepubs, and I haven't noted the exact circumstances. I just sigh and adjust.

[ghira]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I haven't seen the problem. And trying today with a few books, I can't reproduce it.

Font size preferences in each book are supposed to be remembered? Hmm

I'm pretty sure I've had to change font sizes _again_ when going back into some books but I've not kept notes on when. I was unsure if it was every single time, or when I'd changed a font size in some other book in the meantime, or what, but having to change font sizes in the same book repeatedly is something I'm sure I've had to do.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ghira

Font size preferences in each book are supposed to be remembered? Hmm

If you change the font setting while reading a book, they are saved for that book. They are also saved as the new defaults for all new books or books that don't have their own settings saved.

I'm pretty sure I've had to change font sizes _again_ when going back into some books but I've not kept notes on when. I was unsure if it was every single time, or when I'd changed a font size in some other book in the meantime, or what, but having to change font sizes in the same book repeatedly is something I'm sure I've had to do.

I can't prove that it isn't always saved. I don't change font size often enough to be sure of exactly which books I have changed it for. Sideloaded books will probably have been edited and font sizes are normalized (remove the body text font and adjust others to be relative to that). The main reason I change font size is if I go from an epub to kepub. And as that is fairly random, I couldn't say for sure if had set the font size for any particular book.


The only other thing I can think of is how the font settings are stored. They are in the database. They will be removed when the book is removed. They will also be removed if the book is updated. If you use calibre, the latter can be avoided, but, if you just sideload a replacement, the book is removed from the database and loaded as new. Deleting a book from calibre will remove the settings, so if you delete and then resend, you will lose the settings.

I could see the firmware removing or ignoring old settings. But, I would expect that to be multiple months, not days, which is what I think @franklekens is seeing.

[mathil]

I have a ton of books opened at all times (definitely more than 10 right now...) because I use the 'Reading' tab as a way of setting an immediate TBR, and I've noticed the same thing - I'm reading a couple of those books at the same time and when I change the font size in one it will be changed in the other as well instead of remembering the old settings. All kepubs (some sideloaded, some from the Kobo store. I know this explanation isn't very detailed, I'll try and see if I can notice more details.

[ghira]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The only other thing I can think of is how the font settings are stored. They are in the database. They will be removed when the book is removed. They will also be removed if the book is updated. If you use calibre, the latter can be avoided, but, if you just sideload a replacement, the book is removed from the database and loaded as new. Deleting a book from calibre will remove the settings, so if you delete and then resend, you will lose the settings.

I could see the firmware removing or ignoring old settings. But, I would expect that to be multiple months, not days, which is what I think @franklekens is seeing.

I very occasionally use Calibre to edit epubs. Less than once a year. I have a mixture of sideloaded epubs, and books purchased from Kobo. I have virtually no sideloaded kepubs except for my recent experiments with Black Cat Weekly magazine. When I have had problems it has been when opening several books on the same day. e.g. I open a book, discover its font size is absurdly large or small, change it, open another book and have to change the font size in that as well. Presumably because the first change has "corrupted" the default for future books. But I am pretty sure that when returning to an earlier book the same day I have had to change the font size again. The next time something like this seems to be happening I shall pay more attention.

[Sirtel]

All my books have uniform font size, edited in Calibre. This thread and others like it are the reason why. I often read several books at once and it would be a major bother if I had to constantly fiddle with fonts and their sizes between books. Instead I set it once and that's it, unless I change fonts or sometimes enlarge the size because my eyes are tired.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by mathil

I have a ton of books opened at all times (definitely more than 10 right now...) because I use the 'Reading' tab as a way of setting an immediate TBR, and I've noticed the same thing - I'm reading a couple of those books at the same time and when I change the font size in one it will be changed in the other as well instead of remembering the old settings. All kepubs (some sideloaded, some from the Kobo store. I know this explanation isn't very detailed, I'll try and see if I can notice more details.

Well I tried the following:

1. Put a set of kepub test books on one device. These were all copies of same book with different metadata and filenames so they would be distinct on the device. All were kepubs.
2. When to the Unread list and opened the first book. Set the font size to the smallest setting. Closed the book.
3. Opened what was now the first book in the list. The font size was the what I had just set it to. Increased the font size by two. Closed the book.
4. Repeated the above for about 10 books.
5. Went to the reading list and started opening the above books. All had the font size that I had set in the books.
6. Then went and opened some new books but tried going down in size.
7. Again, reopening the books all showed the saved fonts.

I can't reproduce it. I'll admit the above is a little artificial because of the books I used and there was no time between any actions. It might need a sleep, or a connect to the PC or something unusual in one of the books. Or maybe other changes in the settings. I only changed the font size and have the font set to the publishers font, the margins and line spacing to the leftmost and justification off. And I have no patches installed.

And for completeness, the tests were done on my Glo HD running firmware 4.28.18220.

[ghira]

I have recently gone into some books I was partway through reading to find font sizes that were crazily big or small. But since I don't yet know how to make this happen on demand this is not very useful information, I know. These will have been books that have not been replaced since they were put on the kobo. Whether sideloaded or purchased, I'm not sure. This is the first time I recall noticing this for quite some time.

Davidfor says "If you change the font setting while reading a book, they are saved for that book. They are also saved as the new defaults for all new books or books that don't have their own settings saved." If I go into a book and like the font size as it is when I first open it, do I need to e.g. increase and then decrease it so that I am seen to have "changed" that book? What happens if I go into a book and change its font size to match what the default happens to have become since the last time I opened that book? I suppose these are the sorts of things I need to try.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ghira

Davidfor says "If you change the font setting while reading a book, they are saved for that book. They are also saved as the new defaults for all new books or books that don't have their own settings saved." If I go into a book and like the font size as it is when I first open it, do I need to e.g. increase and then decrease it so that I am seen to have "changed" that book? What happens if I go into a book and change its font size to match what the default happens to have become since the last time I opened that book? I suppose these are the sorts of things I need to try.

If you find you are frequently changing the font size for different books, then yes, you need to do this. Personally, I don't find it that useful. I don't find myself changing font sizes often enough for it to be more than a passing nuisance to change the font when I reopen the book.

[ghira]

I have resurrected this thread after several months so I guess this is not happening to me often. But if it's a good idea to increase then decrease the font on new books so that they will be "saved" like that even if I'm happy with the size as it was, I can try to remember to do that.

[Barruel]

I asked once in the firmware requests thread to save the font size per font and not as a global preference. I got ignored, but it makes sense for us switching fonts frequently.

Kobo eReader.conf already stores weight and sharpness for each font. It isn't a mad idea to make it store also their size and would make font switchers' lifes a lot easier. I, for instance, am harmonizing font sizes by directly editing the font files in FontForge. Having Nickel storing that would make font switching a breeze.

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that Kindles are already doing it.

[ghira]

I haven't really worked out how to make this happen on demand so I decided to open some books that I am part way through reading, but have not read recently, in the hope that enough new books have been added since I last read them that their settings might now be "wrong". Here are some I found with no effort at all. These are photographs of my Kobo Aura One. It should seem pretty clear that the same person is unlikely to have chosen all of these font settings.






_Some_ books I hadn't read for a while had font sizes that seemed plausible, but quite a lot were like this. I didn't take notes about the proprtion of "in progress" books with font sizes clearly larger or smaller than I would have chosen, but I'm thinking among those I checked yesterday (not read for months), a large minority or even a majority were like this.

My preferred font size would be larger than the "small" examples here and smaller than the "large" examples. I can of course understand that someone with worse vision than mine might want the "large" examples.