Fonts not being embedded (epub)

soundsfromsound · 10-02-2013, 02:15 PM

Hello.

I have written an ebook using LibreOffice and would like to convert it to epub while preserving/embedding fonts.

I have made certain that I selected "embed fonts" in LibreOffice and exported the ODT file into Calibre for conversion. When I prepared the epub for output in Calibre, I made sure to select embed fonts and subset, etc.

However, once Calibre converts my ebook from ODT to epub, and I transfer the epub to my Linux laptop for example, the fonts look generic and plain - completely unformatted. One step above a plain text document. When I 'unzipped' my epub I saw no mention anywhere of fonts.

What can I do to correct this and make sure fonts actually do get embedded in my final epub documents?

Thank you!

Adoby · 10-02-2013, 04:01 PM

I think it would be better if you export as html from Libre Office and then use Sigil to create the epub with the embedded fonts. That will give you much better control.

soundsfromsound · 10-02-2013, 05:06 PM

Thank you for replying! Hmm, I didn't consider that route. Can you tell me how I would go about doing that? I've never used Sigil before.

And isn't that more of a band-aid approach? Shouldn't LibreOffice-embedded fonts retain when Calibre converts to epub? It seems like it should.

Thanks!

Adoby · 10-02-2013, 05:30 PM

I don't really think that calibre is intended as a tool to use to create ebooks. Even though it can be used for that. Calibre strengths are to manage a collection of books, handle devices and convert between formats.

If you intend to publish or spread your book some other way, as I assume is the case, I strongly recommend that you learn and use Sigil instead. If you try to use calibre I suspect that you will encounter a lot of problems, or your readers might.

I really don't know if it is supposed to be possible to do what you tried to do with calibre, but even if it is, I would recommend that you use Sigil instead. It is the right tool.

Sigil is nice and easy to use. But very powerful as well. And the strength of Sigil is actually to create ebooks.

The best way to learn is most likely to just do it. Start with a small test book. Just a few pages. Learn how to export html from Libre Office and import in Sigil. How to embed fonts. How to adjust the layout. How to create table of contents. How to verify that the ebook is correct. And so on.

And if you get stuck there is a subforum for Sigil here...

soundsfromsound · 10-02-2013, 05:58 PM

I'll certainly head over to the subforum, thanks - but fyi - I installed Sigil on Windows 8 and the GUI won't even load. Nothing happens after I install and try to run it. No process appears in task manager, no GUI, nothing.
Disabled AV software, tried restarting, etc.

I hope I don't have to go chase around Qt files or dependencies just to make this open...

I have a copy of Jutoh but haven't really tried it much, I wanted to stick with FLOSS software ideally.

Adoby · 10-02-2013, 06:13 PM

Sigil works fine on Linux.

kovidgoyal · 10-02-2013, 11:13 PM

Font embedding is not supported by the library calibre uses for ODT. It is supported for docx however, so you can try saving your document in docx instead, if libreoffice is capable of that.

soundsfromsound · 10-03-2013, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adoby

Sigil works fine on Linux.

Touche

I'll see if I can install it on Debian.
Thanks again for your help.

http://code.google.com/p/sigil/wiki/RunningFromSource
Do I really have to compile from source lol

I'll try over at the Sigil subforum for help... thanks again!

Just FYI: I got Sigil to install beautifully on my Debian box. Time to dig in!

soundsfromsound · 10-03-2013, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Font embedding is not supported by the library calibre uses for ODT. It is supported for docx however, so you can try saving your document in docx instead, if libreoffice is capable of that.

Ah, OK that makes sense now. Thanks for clearing that up. Just curious, any chance that ODT will be supported soon for embeddings? I hate using MS Office and was ideally wanting to stay with FLOSS software & formats.

Thanks for all your work on calibre, it's simply the best!

kovidgoyal · 10-03-2013, 12:48 AM

You'd have to ask the maintainers of odfpy (the library calibre uses). Someday I might write my own ODT->HTML conversion library, but it is not high on my list of priorities.

DoctorOhh · 10-03-2013, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soundsfromsound

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Font embedding is not supported by the library calibre uses for ODT. It is supported for docx however, so you can try saving your document in docx instead, if libreoffice is capable of that.

Ah, OK that makes sense now. Thanks for clearing that up. Just curious, any chance that ODT will be supported soon for embeddings? I hate using MS Office and was ideally wanting to stay with FLOSS software & formats.

Forget MS Office, I'm curious did you do as suggested and try saving as docx from Libre Office?

soundsfromsound · 10-04-2013, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

Forget MS Office, I'm curious did you do as suggested and try saving as docx from Libre Office?

I did try docx, yes. When I saved the book in LibreOffice as docx, fonts were indeed embedded. However, when calibre converted it to epub, even with fonts-embedded options enabled, all of the fonts did not carry over. Two fonts did, out of 5 or so total that were used in the docx.

The docx - to - epub did display all fonts correctly however on the SOURCE machine (i.e. the computer that was used to write the book and it had all fonts installed in the first place), which was very nice.

But no, calibre is not embedding all fonts from docx to epub from my experience. At least none of my Linux machines were able to view fonts "embedded" by this process. I don't have access to a Windows computer that isn't the one with all the fonts installed on it.

Have a good weekend!

kovidgoyal · 10-04-2013, 01:11 AM

Font embedding in docx most definitely works, see the sample docx document for an example: http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conv...word-documents

soundsfromsound · 10-04-2013, 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Font embedding in docx most definitely works, see the sample docx document for an example: http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conv...word-documents

Since font embedding does not seem to work in my examples here, is it possible that there is a font-setting in calibre I'm either missing, or some error is occurring behind the scenes that I can't see?

Can you tell me what settings in calibre must be enabled or configured to guarantee 100% font embedding using docx? If I am able to get this working it would be fantastic!

Thanks.

kovidgoyal · 10-04-2013, 01:42 AM

There is no setting needed. Embedded fonts in the input document are always embedded in the output document, unless you have asked calibre to subset embedded fonts, in which case unused fonts are removed.

10-02-2013, 02:15 PM	#1
soundsfromsound Enthusiast Posts: 31 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2013 Device: none	Fonts not being embedded (epub) Hello. I have written an ebook using LibreOffice and would like to convert it to epub while preserving/embedding fonts. I have made certain that I selected "embed fonts" in LibreOffice and exported the ODT file into Calibre for conversion. When I prepared the epub for output in Calibre, I made sure to select embed fonts and subset, etc. However, once Calibre converts my ebook from ODT to epub, and I transfer the epub to my Linux laptop for example, the fonts look generic and plain - completely unformatted. One step above a plain text document. When I 'unzipped' my epub I saw no mention anywhere of fonts. What can I do to correct this and make sure fonts actually do get embedded in my final epub documents? Thank you!

10-02-2013, 05:30 PM	#4
Adoby Handy Elephant Posts: 1,736 Karma: 26785668 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Southern Sweden, far out in the quiet woods Device: Thinkpad E595, Ubuntu Mate, Huawei Mediapad 5, Bouye Likebook Plus	I don't really think that calibre is intended as a tool to use to create ebooks. Even though it can be used for that. Calibre strengths are to manage a collection of books, handle devices and convert between formats. If you intend to publish or spread your book some other way, as I assume is the case, I strongly recommend that you learn and use Sigil instead. If you try to use calibre I suspect that you will encounter a lot of problems, or your readers might. I really don't know if it is supposed to be possible to do what you tried to do with calibre, but even if it is, I would recommend that you use Sigil instead. It is the right tool. Sigil is nice and easy to use. But very powerful as well. And the strength of Sigil is actually to create ebooks. The best way to learn is most likely to just do it. Start with a small test book. Just a few pages. Learn how to export html from Libre Office and import in Sigil. How to embed fonts. How to adjust the layout. How to create table of contents. How to verify that the ebook is correct. And so on. And if you get stuck there is a subforum for Sigil here... Last edited by Adoby; 10-02-2013 at 05:34 PM.

10-02-2013, 05:58 PM	#5
soundsfromsound Enthusiast Posts: 31 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2013 Device: none	I'll certainly head over to the subforum, thanks - but fyi - I installed Sigil on Windows 8 and the GUI won't even load. Nothing happens after I install and try to run it. No process appears in task manager, no GUI, nothing. Disabled AV software, tried restarting, etc. I hope I don't have to go chase around Qt files or dependencies just to make this open... I have a copy of Jutoh but haven't really tried it much, I wanted to stick with FLOSS software ideally. Last edited by soundsfromsound; 10-02-2013 at 06:01 PM.

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10-02-2013, 04:01 PM	#2
Adoby Handy Elephant Posts: 1,736 Karma: 26785668 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Southern Sweden, far out in the quiet woods Device: Thinkpad E595, Ubuntu Mate, Huawei Mediapad 5, Bouye Likebook Plus	I think it would be better if you export as html from Libre Office and then use Sigil to create the epub with the embedded fonts. That will give you much better control.

10-02-2013, 05:06 PM	#3
soundsfromsound Enthusiast Posts: 31 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2013 Device: none	Thank you for replying! Hmm, I didn't consider that route. Can you tell me how I would go about doing that? I've never used Sigil before. And isn't that more of a band-aid approach? Shouldn't LibreOffice-embedded fonts retain when Calibre converts to epub? It seems like it should. Thanks!

10-02-2013, 06:13 PM	#6
Adoby Handy Elephant Posts: 1,736 Karma: 26785668 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Southern Sweden, far out in the quiet woods Device: Thinkpad E595, Ubuntu Mate, Huawei Mediapad 5, Bouye Likebook Plus	Sigil works fine on Linux.

10-02-2013, 11:13 PM	#7
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,853 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Font embedding is not supported by the library calibre uses for ODT. It is supported for docx however, so you can try saving your document in docx instead, if libreoffice is capable of that.

10-03-2013, 12:48 AM	#10
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,853 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	You'd have to ask the maintainers of odfpy (the library calibre uses). Someday I might write my own ODT->HTML conversion library, but it is not high on my list of priorities.

10-04-2013, 01:11 AM	#13
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,853 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Font embedding in docx most definitely works, see the sample docx document for an example: http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conv...word-documents

10-04-2013, 01:42 AM	#15
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,853 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	There is no setting needed. Embedded fonts in the input document are always embedded in the output document, unless you have asked calibre to subset embedded fonts, in which case unused fonts are removed.

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