Custom fonts for iBooks

[AlanHK]

I've got some ePubs with embedded fonts.
They work fine in the readers on my PC. And also work on my Kindle when I convert the ePub to AZW3. I don't have an Apple device to test iBooks, but was sent a screencap that shows the declared fonts aren't being applied.


I read this column: http://guidohenkel.com/2015/04/custom-fonts-in-ibooks/
Which says you need to include both this line:

<meta property="ibooks:specified-fonts">true</meta>

in the opf and an XML file com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml

However, when I do either, ePubCheck complains that the tag is "not allowed" and the xml file has an "invalid file extension".

So is the advice correct at all? Or is there another trick to using embedded fonts on iBooks? Preferably one that ePubcheck approves of, though that's not strictly necessary.

My CSS has this:

@font-face {
    font-family: "Garamond Premr Pro";
    font-style: normal;
    font-weight: normal;
    src: url("../Fonts/GaramondPremrPro.otf");
}

body, div, dl, dt, dd, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote {
    font-family: "Garamond Premr Pro", serif;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    border-width: 0;
}

But text with the <p> tag appears to be in a generic serif font, not the embedded one.

[Nabodita]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

I read this column: http://guidohenkel.com/2015/04/custom-fonts-in-ibooks/
Which says you need to include both this line:

<meta property="ibooks:specified-fonts">true</meta>

in the opf and an XML file com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml

AFAIK, you don't need to add that line in the opf file. The xml file should be unmanifested.

The com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml file is attached with this post. Place the xml file in the META-INF folder and iBooks will recognise the embedded fonts.

Cheers

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by Nabodita

AFAIK, you don't need to add that line in the opf file. The xml file should be unmanifested.

The com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml file is attached with this post. Place the xml file in the META-INF folder and iBooks will recognise the embedded fonts.

Cheers

I don't see any way to do that in Sigil.
If I import the file, it puts it into a "Misc" folder.
Of course I could use a zip tool to do it.
I think Sigil will lose any unmanifested files if you edit the epub and resave it.

I'll see if it works in the Misc folder.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

I don't see any way to do that in Sigil.

DiapDealer has written a dedicated plugin for this task.

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

DiapDealer has written a dedicated plugin for this task.

Excellent.

Wish I'd known about it a year ago...

Also, this: https://github.com/JayPanoz/Soma/wik...to-embed-fonts
says you can do this with just a change to the OPF. Is that correct?

inside the <package> tag:

prefix="ibooks: http://vocabulary.itunes.apple.com/rdf/ibooks/vocabulary-extensions-1.0/"

You should end up with something looking at least like this:

<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" prefix="ibooks: http://vocabulary.itunes.apple.com/rdf/ibooks/vocabulary-extensions-1.0/" unique-identifier="stuff" version="3.0">

Then, in <metadata>, add:

<meta property="ibooks:specified-fonts">true</meta>

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

Also, this: https://github.com/JayPanoz/Soma/wik...to-embed-fonts
says you can do this with just a change to the OPF. Is that correct?

AFAIK, it should be sufficient to use the .opf entries that are mentioned in the linked Github post.
However, I don't know when Apple introduced these metadata entries. I.e., it might be necessary to include com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml for older iBooks versions.
For more information, also see this post.

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

AFAIK, it should be sufficient to use the .opf entries that are mentioned in the linked Github post.
However, I don't know when Apple introduced these metadata entries. I.e., it might be necessary to include com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml for older iBooks versions.
For more information, also see this post.

According to that, you can use the OPF entries for EPUB3. For EPUB2, you need the XML file.

I always convert to EPUB3 if I'm making it for iBooks anyway, the TOC doesn't work properly with just EPUB2.