Kobo future firmware feature request thread

[hoichi]

Off the top of my head:
- Better Pocket support: bookmarks, highlighting, dictionaries etc. As it is, Pocket integration is useless for me, so I prefer to save ePubs with Readability.
- Ditto for PDFs. I use Aura HD to read screenplays and since English is not my mother tongue, I could use a dictionary.
- Better landscape mode support for PDFs. 3.2.0 is an obvious improvement, but it's not there yet.

Also, to cite a fellow member (on zoomed PDFs):

Originally Posted by arspr

The easiest way: instead of going to the upper left corner:
+ Keeping the horizontal position. So if you had zoomed to "kill" the margins you would not need to pan the new page in order to "center" your text again on each page turn.
+ Instead of always, (I mean when fixed in landscape of course), going to the upper part of the new page, only doing that when advancing to the next page. When returning to the previous one the logical position is the bottom of the page.

- And, may I add, when a PDF is zoomed, maybe go to the next page only if we're at the bottom already. When we're not, just skip down to a next portion of the page.

[armarni]

I think the ability to set a time period when the device is allowed to go into power down mode as opposed to standby mode would be a useful addition. (eg 23:00 to 07:00) This would be useful so you could have the ereader just go into sleep mode during the day whilst you are regularly using the device, but at night when you close the device it would power down while you slept.

[aliocha]

Will it be possible someday to browse through a book by selecting a page number instead of the awkward navigation bar ? If you try to flip through distant pages in a 2000+ pages book, it's simply impossible :/
Thanks for all.

[Athropos]

Don't know whether this has been suggested before, but setting some sort of an alarm while reading would be nice. When I'm concentrated reading, I don't pay attention to the current time. Being able to easily (as in "not going through 10 submenus") set an alarm, such as "alert me in 30mn" would allow the user to stop thinking about the current time without him missing his train for instance.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by aliocha

Will it be possible someday to browse through a book by selecting a page number instead of the awkward navigation bar ? If you try to flip through distant pages in a 2000+ pages book, it's simply impossible :/
Thanks for all.

That's the intent behind by-chapter navigation, which most decent publishers build into their ebooks. That'll at least get you to the right zone, without dealing with the weird question of which page numbering system to use.

Another already-supported option is to search for a key word or phrase. You'll get a list of all matches, and you can just tap the correct one from there.

[PeterT]

The other issue with going by page number is HOW to define said page number?

[Anak]

Originally Posted by PeterT

The other issue with going by page number is HOW to define said page number?

That is not an issue. The numbering of pages in digital publications for epubs is very clear but also far from perfect. Entering a page number instead of using a slider to go to a specific page gives the same result. It is the same 'calculated' page number or better said the same position or location in a book. Kobo readers use the "slider" method other ereaders allow manual input of the desired page number. Both methods work.
My personal experience is that the slider is very sensitive which makes it hard to slide exactly to the desired page number. But I have big fingers.

Your issue here, i guess, is that the page numbing of a fysical, paper book doesn't match with it's digital cousin.

page-map
Therefore Adobe developed an extension called page-map, documented in the Best Practices Guide, that provides a solution. To implement page-map, the creator includes a special page-map file in the ePub and references that file in the OPF metadata. This file gives a (page #) name to each pointer to a specific location within the content.

An other alternative is pageList.
The NCX spec provides an alternative to the page-map extension, the pageList. This aptly named "container for pagination information," provides a mechanism for giving a label (navLabel) to a point in the ePub (the pageTarget).

If page-map or pageList are not available then ADE falls back to its own synthetic page numbering:
"When page map is not available in the document, Adobe Digital Editions will synthesize a page-map based on the document content. The approach used isthe following:

• Determine a compressed byte length of each resource which is referenced in the spine, subtracting any known encryption overhead (IV size)
• Assume that there is a page for each 1024 bytes

General solution
A better general solution (which should also work with non-Adobe devices) is by using the proper IDs. Examples of exisiting IDs are:
Chapters (<a id="c0"/>)
Heading 2(<a id="c0-00"/>
Figures (<a id="fig0.0"/>)
Tables (<a id="tab0.0"/>)
Pages (<a id="page_0"/>)
Reference (<a id="ref_0"/>)

Some publishers already add IDs to their digital publications, such as page identification by adding <a id="page_0"/> tags. Then the page numbering of the physical and digital book do match. If not (or done properly) blame the publisher as it is not a device issue per se.

Some other ID examples, for:
Links
Chapters (<a href="Chapter00.html#c0">Caption</a>)
Figures (<a href="Chapter00.html#fig0.0">Caption</a>)
Tables (<a href="Chapter00.html#tab0.0">Caption</a>)
Pages (<a href="Chapter00.html#page_0">Caption</a>)
Reference (<a href="Chapter00.html#ref_0">Caption</a>)

Copyright
1st hierarchy <p class="cpytxt">
2nd hierarchy <p class="cpytxt1">
3rd hierarchy <p class="cpytxt2">
4th hierarchy <p class="cpytxt3">

Contents
1st hierarchy <p class="toc">
2nd hierarchy <p class="toc1">
3rd hierarchy <p class="toc2">
4th hierarchy <p class="toc3">

Index
1st hierarchy <p class="index">
2nd hierarchy <p class="index1">
3rd hierarchy <p class="index2">
4th hierarchy <p class="index3">

Note:

• NCX file needs to capture up to level 1 after Chapter title.
• All the entities need to captured in UNICODE
• Graphics size needs to maintain so it looks good in e-PUB
• All the links should be valid and linked properly

[speakingtohe]

I have a lot of programs for reading books and readers that go to page with a keyboard input. They seem to work just fine.

Helen

[Doonge]

Since I believe here is the place to request features for the new kobo firmware:

- Better css support, specifically :before, :after, :first-letter and :first-line.

- Better font management. Currently, and I'm very thankful for that, we can install custom font in our kobo, which are then listed in the font menu (changes body font rule). I'd like to install fonts that are listed differently on this list. I installed code fonts, dropcap font and symbol font, and I'd like not to see them bloating the kobo font list, since they are not body fonts (they are fit for headings, dropcases, code quotes, stuff like that).

Thanks for the work.

edit:
About page numbers (@Anak's post). Isn't it possible to number chapters (headings), paragraphs, and stuff like that? References can be of the form book X Chapter Y subsection Z paragraph ##. Or Figure ##.

[Anak]

Originally Posted by Doonge

About page numbers (@Anak's post). Isn't it possible to number chapters (headings), paragraphs, and stuff like that? References can be of the form book X Chapter Y subsection Z paragraph ##. Or Figure ##.

The ID/Links examples I mentioned are part of the "best practises" when constructing an epub. Reading systems should recognize these tags to interpret their meaning (c for chapter, fig for figures, page for pages, etc.

It has a similar function as <guide> section in the content.opf. It tells/informs the user agent what type of content a specific file contains.

<guide>
    <reference href="Text/cover.html" title="Cover Image" type="cover" />
    <reference href="Text/title.html" title="Title" type="title-page" />
    <reference href="Text/copy.html" title="Copyright" type="copyright-page" />
  </guide>

[Doonge]

Sorry, I understand that.

What I meant is, you don't have to insert extra html with id if you references stuff through html structure (supposing it is well structured, which is a big supposition).

When you references the "third paragraph" starting some chapter, this has a meaning.

It's just an alternative, sortof, though it's not practical because it's not used right now (and maybe never will).

[TheArtfulDodger]

Hello:

If this has already been discussed, then I apologize - a link would be most appreciated.

If not - I would appreciate seeing a list of the HTML tags that Kobo actually will honor - I cannot get such things as "page-break-before:" and "page-break-after:" to work and I am really having trouble, for example, keeping a picture together with it's caption!

I would certainly appreciate any information anyone has!

TIA,

Sparky

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by TheArtfulDodger

If not - I would appreciate seeing a list of the HTML tags that Kobo actually will honor - I cannot get such things as "page-break-before:" and "page-break-after:" to work and I am really having trouble, for example, keeping a picture together with it's caption!

None of those are HTML tags, which may explain your problem. Try looking for supported CSS properties and selectors.

[TheArtfulDodger]

Hello, Rev Bob:

Thanks for answering - but I'm really not much further along - what I was really looking for was the HTML, and CSS is really just a part of HTML - I think of CSS as a kind of HTML subroutine - the constructs that the Kobo family (and they might not be consistent across the entire Kobo line) recognize. If you do a Google search for "supported CSS properties and selectors", what comes up is a discussion of what browsers support what. If you do a similar search in Mobile Read | ePub - guess what - you get nothing!

So I am still looking for someone - and someone must have a list of what HTML constructs work with Kobo and which ones don't - and how to do various things needed to produce usable, readable material. I've been looking a long time without success. Most of what I know I've "learned" the hard way. But so far, despite trying dozens (literally) of everyone's idea of how to do a 'conditional page break' I haven't been successful!

Still hoping!

Sparky

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by TheArtfulDodger

Thanks for answering - but I'm really not much further along - what I was really looking for was the HTML, and CSS is really just a part of HTML

No, it's not. CSS is a completely separate spec, which in theory could be used with any XML or SGML language. Know your specs!

Originally Posted by TheArtfulDodger

the constructs that the Kobo family (and they might not be consistent across the entire Kobo line) recognize.

There's your second mistake: looking for Kobo-specific data before knowing the baseline.

Originally Posted by TheArtfulDodger

If you do a Google search for "supported CSS properties and selectors", what comes up is a discussion of what browsers support what. If you do a similar search in Mobile Read | ePub - guess what - you get nothing!

It would seem you are looking in the wrong place. I found this in a few seconds. Follow that thread and compare it to the referenced CSS spec, and you'll have a firm place to start.