Adjusting word spacing for justified text – kepub

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by CyberPaul

How do they know of those improvements of nobody tells them?

A bit of logic says that the person(s) maintaining the various Kobo plugins that create kepub are well aware of Jackie's changes.

But if you'd like to draw their attention you can always post in the respective plugins threads here on MR. Kobo Touch Extended, Kobo Utilities, and Kepub Output are the three that are generally used.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by CyberPaul

How do they know of those improvements of nobody tells them?

If you are feeling so enthused, feel free to post in the KoboTouch Extended Driver and Kepub Output plugin forums. Contrary to @mglitch's suggestion, do not post in the Kobo Utilities thread as the Kobo Utilities do not have anything to do with converting epub to kepub.

As for "improvements", there are almost always tradeoffs. I know that I prefer epub to kepub for most ebooks simply due to the glitches that the kepub renderer exhibits.

[jackie_w]

I'm late back to this thread but most of what I would have replied has already been said by @MGlitch and @DNSB.

I was very late to deciding to try sideloaded kepubs via KTE so I didn't follow the early discussions in its main thread. However, I'm pretty sure KTE's original aim was to try to create kepubs with internals exactly like what you'd get if you'd purchased from the Kobo store. I think it succeeded at this pretty well.

Over time tinkerers like me investigate what value each of the several "kepubification" changes actually offer. Is it actually necessary? Can it be improved without breaking something else? For kobospans the answers are 'Yes' and a more cautious 'Yes for my books on my Kobos'. I edit all my books to some fairly strict standards and I don't use annotations so I'm not a typical user. Will users who just Buy-Sideload-Read (aka the majority) see enough improvement to make it worth the KTE devs' time to implement/support the change?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I'm late back to this thread but most of what I would have replied has already been said by @MGlitch and @DNSB.

I was very late to deciding to try sideloaded kepubs via KTE so I didn't follow the early discussions in its main thread. However, I'm pretty sure KTE's original aim was to try to create kepubs with internals exactly like what you'd get if you'd purchased from the Kobo store. I think it succeeded at this pretty well.

Yes, that was one of the original aims of the extended driver. As we did not really know what was happening, it was thought best to duplicate what came from the store. Especially if there were any problems, it could be because we did not follow the (unpublished) kepub standards.

Over time tinkerers like me investigate what value each of the several "kepubification" changes actually offer. Is it actually necessary? Can it be improved without breaking something else? For kobospans the answers are 'Yes' and a more cautious 'Yes for my books on my Kobos'. I edit all my books to some fairly strict standards and I don't use annotations so I'm not a typical user. Will users who just Buy-Sideload-Read (aka the majority) see enough improvement to make it worth the KTE devs' time to implement/support the change?

And that's were we stand. I have a copy of @jackie_w code and am thinking about it when I have time (@jackie_w: Sorry, I haven't gotten back to you.). I have to decide how practical it is to offer both versions of the kepubification. I will not be removing the current version that matches what Kobo does. If I do anything, it will be adding the single-KoboSpan per paragraph method as an option. Then it will be up to the actual owner of the driver to accept or not.

[MGlitch]

Ah my apologies I’d thought Kobo Utilities also offered conversion.

Posting in that thread would be a mistake as it doesn’t offer it.

[Deobulakenyo]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Aside from all the hyphenation and left align stuff, back to your original question ...

Have you experimented with adding this to your CSS file for kepubs?:

word-spacing: -0.05em;

trying different values for the red bit.

If you find it helps, both calibre drivers (KoboTouch, KoboTouchExtended) already make it easy to auto-add during the calibre send-to-device process.

In fact, it may even be suitable as a new kobopatch if enough users think it does help kepub word-spacing.

Here's a comparison of what it looks like without/with the word-spacing tweak on my KA1:

thanks for this.

[JeanPierre]

I think more people ought to try ragged right (left-aligned) KEPUBs with optimizeLegibility enabled. In Calibre's common options for conversion I've had the justification fixed to left align since I started using it to convert EPUBs for my Kobo. You should find it easier to read long-form text this way, since the consistent inter-word spacing results in more consistent saccades.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JeanPierre

I think more people ought to try ragged right (left-aligned) KEPUBs with optimizeLegibility enabled. In Calibre's common options for conversion I've had the justification fixed to left align since I started using it to convert EPUBs for my Kobo. You should find it easier to read long-form text this way, since the consistent inter-word spacing results in more consistent saccades.

No way. I can live without kerning and ligatures. I cannot live with left-aligned text on a (relatively) small screen of an eink reader.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by JeanPierre

I think more people ought to try ragged right (left-aligned) KEPUBs with optimizeLegibility enabled. In Calibre's common options for conversion I've had the justification fixed to left align since I started using it to convert EPUBs for my Kobo. You should find it easier to read long-form text this way, since the consistent inter-word spacing results in more consistent saccades.

Using my Hyphenation dictionary along with the spacing patch and optimizeLegibility works better then I expected when fully justified. So I see no reason for left justify.

The better Hyphenation dictionaries.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=252405

[MGlitch]

One reason I love my Sage is the larger screen why would I give up screen real estate by going ragged right? Especially when with patches and Jon’s hyphenation dictionary I get such a wonderful result.

[Deobulakenyo]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Using my Hyphenation dictionary along with the spacing patch and optimizeLegibility works better then I expected when fully justified. So I see no reason for left justify.

The better Hyphenation dictionaries.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=252405

Can this be uninstalled for whatever reason?

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by Deobulakenyo

Can this be uninstalled for whatever reason?

It’d be uninstalled by updating the firmware, even reapplying the current update would do it.

[Deobulakenyo]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

It’d be uninstalled by updating the firmware, even reapplying the current update would do it.

Thank you.

[Lykke]

I have actually come to prefer left-aligned text most of the time. And it does not increase book length compared to justified text.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

One reason I love my Sage is the larger screen why would I give up screen real estate by going ragged right? Especially when with patches and Jon’s hyphenation dictionary I get such a wonderful result.

For the most part, I prefer the even word spacing of left justified to the variable word spacing of fully justified. I've read books in both and the difference in words on the page are not enough to make the lack of micro-justication bearable.