Strange punctuation

[gafitz]

Hello.
There are instances where an epub in my ereader is properly formatted in all other respects except for quotes and apostrophes. So paragraphs and indents are correct and end of sentence punctuation is also correct, but quotes and apostrophes are question marks (?). So a sentence will read: ?I didn?t do it.?, he said. ?Did you??
When I open the epub in Sigil to do a search and replace or in Calibre reader, in neither instance does the program see the strange punctuation. In both these programs the above sentence reads: I didnt do it., he said. Did you?
Does anyone know why this happens and how to fix it?
Many thanks in advance and in hope.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by gafitz

Hello.
There are instances where an epub in my ereader is properly formatted in all other respects except for quotes and apostrophes. So paragraphs and indents are correct and end of sentence punctuation is also correct, but quotes and apostrophes are question marks (?). So a sentence will read: ?I didn?t do it.?, he said. ?Did you??
When I open the epub in Sigil to do a search and replace or in Calibre reader, in neither instance does the program see the strange punctuation. In both these programs the above sentence reads: I didnt do it., he said. Did you?
Does anyone know why this happens and how to fix it?
Many thanks in advance and in hope.

The wrong code page (encoding) specified or the Font you are using (on your device) does not support those characters.
Probably

“ ” ’

[gafitz]

Thanks for the reply.
While not understanding the technicalities of your answer (don't know what a code page is or how to access/change it on an ereader) I can understand your logic. However, I'm not sure that I follow it; your explanation allows me to understand why the punctuation is faulty on the ereader but doesn't explain why there is no visible punctuation in Calibre's built-in ereader.
Thanks again and hoping for an answer.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by gafitz

Thanks for the reply.
While not understanding the technicalities of your answer (don't know what a code page is or how to access/change it on an ereader) I can understand your logic. However, I'm not sure that I follow it; your explanation allows me to understand why the punctuation is faulty on the ereader but doesn't explain why there is no visible punctuation in Calibre's built-in ereader.
Thanks again and hoping for an answer.

Your reader is like me going to Montreal
I don't speak French.

Your reader only has certain alphabets (code pages) and either needs the font or needs to be told (inside the book), which of the existing ones to use.

Your computer is loaded with many more fonts.

[gafitz]

Thanks TheDucks, but.......
I know that my computer has lots more fonts etc. But the point of my question was not why my computer's Calibre built-in reader got the punctuation right but rather why it did not display any punctuation at all except for sentence ending punctuation.
The ereader got it wrong, yes, but it at least it knew that there should be punctuation. The Calibre reader was devoid of anything other than sentence ending punctuation and in places where there should have been punctuation, quotes, apostrophes etc, there was nothing.
My sense is that somewhere between the two punctuation protocols lies the answer to how I can solve my problem.
Thanks for your continued patience!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by gafitz

Thanks TheDucks, but.......
I know that my computer has lots more fonts etc. But the point of my question was not why my computer's Calibre built-in reader got the punctuation right but rather why it did not display any punctuation at all except for sentence ending punctuation.
The ereader got it wrong, yes, but it at least it knew that there should be punctuation. The Calibre reader was devoid of anything other than sentence ending punctuation and in places where there should have been punctuation, quotes, apostrophes etc, there was nothing.
My sense is that somewhere between the two punctuation protocols lies the answer to how I can solve my problem.
Thanks for your continued patience!

Nothing or Blanks? They are different.
In the Calibre viewer: Right click: Inspect to see the underlying code. abc def is a blank (or non-rendered character) between c and d . abcdef is nothing (what was there is gone)

[gafitz]

Neat!
I did a screen grab of two sentences in Inspect Mode and as they appear in the viewer. The first sentence has no indication of punctuation in the inspector and none appears in the viewer; in the second, all the correct punctuation is in place in the inspector but in the viewer, no punctuation.
Not a great way to spend your Sunday, but much appreciated.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by gafitz

Neat!
I did a screen grab of two sentences in Inspect Mode and as they appear in the viewer. The first sentence has no indication of punctuation in the inspector and none appears in the viewer; in the second, all the correct punctuation is in place in the inspector but in the viewer, no punctuation.
Not a great way to spend your Sunday, but much appreciated.

Wow!
as you surmised, #1 does not contain punctuation

#2. Those are straight (double) quotes, right?
They have to be some odd-alternate character that only looks like a quote

[jackie_w]

You could try running an epub-to-epub conversion with the Look&Feel - Transliterate unicode chars to ASCII box checked