Calibre viewer font behaviour

Gorgoth · 12-06-2019, 05:41 AM

Hello,

I just started converting my Kindle books with Calibre and have been stuck on the first book for several hours now trying to figure out font behaviour. Input format is AZW3 and the target I'm using is PDF.

My problem is that the font is different when I view the resultant PDF in an external viewer like Foxit and with the built-in viewer. It seems the original e-book doesn't have any fonts embedded (checked by unpacking it), but I see some fonts are defined in its stylesheet.

So at this point I'd like to know whether what I'm seeing in the built-in viewer is a default font (Since there's no embedded font), and if so what is that default font.

Does the built-in viewer respect the font-family defined in the stylesheet at all? Or it just cares about embedded fonts which in the case there're none present it uses a default font.

Mind you I saw a few posts here asking about the font behaviour but in the answers the name of the default font wasn't mentioned.

I'd like to recreate what I see in the built-in viewer as best as I can when converting to PDF.

Thank you.

kovidgoyal · 12-06-2019, 06:24 AM

The builtin viewer is not a pdf viewer (it converts the pdf to html to view it), dont use it to preview pdfs, use a dedicated pdf reader for that.

theducks · 12-06-2019, 11:29 AM

Preferences: Behavior: Use Internal Viewer for: <Remove the tick next to PDF> (or any other format that you don't want Calbres viewer for. Your OS must have a default viewer for that format)

Gorgoth · 12-07-2019, 06:58 PM

Maybe I wasn't clear in my post, I use a dedicated PDF viewer already (Foxit, as stated in my post). I don't want to use the built-in viewer as my default PDF viewer, I simply want to know what its default font is, just that.

And what about my second question about the font-family defined in the stylesheet of AZW3?

kovidgoyal · 12-07-2019, 07:47 PM

The builtin viewr is a browser (chrome), its font behavior is exactly the same as a browsers. If the stylesheet specifies a font that is not embedded it will be searched for ont he system and the nearest match will be used.

Gorgoth · 12-11-2019, 09:18 AM

Thank you for the explanation.
So is there any way to have this same behaviour when converting to PDF?
I mean automatically embedding the fonts specified in the stylesheet? And if not found on the system using the nearest match like the viewer?

kovidgoyal · 12-11-2019, 09:41 AM

That is exactly what happens since converting to PDF uses the same browser engine as the viewer.

Gorgoth · 12-12-2019, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

That is exactly what happens since converting to PDF uses the same browser engine as the viewer.

Then there must be something wrong with the way I'm doing it, because the converted PDF only has Arial as its embedded font which is quite different than what is specified in the stylesheet, and as a result the PDF looks very different compared to the original AZW3.

I currently specify the font family under "Look & feel" manually to get the PDF to look like the original file.

Is this the default behaviour or should I enable it somewhere?

kovidgoyal · 12-12-2019, 02:51 PM

Hard to say, post a sample azw3/epub book showing the problem, and I can tell you more.

Gorgoth · 12-12-2019, 05:21 PM

Sorry, I'm a bit confused.
By sample you mean cutting the book? If so, how can I prepare a sample? And should I just upload it here or send it to you directly? Wouldn't that violate any rules?

theducks · 12-12-2019, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gorgoth

Sorry, I'm a bit confused.
By sample you mean cutting the book? If so, how can I prepare a sample? And should I just upload it here or send it to you directly? Wouldn't that violate any rules?

You open a Bug report at the Calibre site. Then make a PRIVATE attachment

Gorgoth · 12-14-2019, 03:57 PM

Uploaded the file here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/1856363

12-06-2019, 05:41 AM	#1
Gorgoth Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2019 Device: none	Calibre viewer font behaviour Hello, I just started converting my Kindle books with Calibre and have been stuck on the first book for several hours now trying to figure out font behaviour. Input format is AZW3 and the target I'm using is PDF. My problem is that the font is different when I view the resultant PDF in an external viewer like Foxit and with the built-in viewer. It seems the original e-book doesn't have any fonts embedded (checked by unpacking it), but I see some fonts are defined in its stylesheet. So at this point I'd like to know whether what I'm seeing in the built-in viewer is a default font (Since there's no embedded font), and if so what is that default font. Does the built-in viewer respect the font-family defined in the stylesheet at all? Or it just cares about embedded fonts which in the case there're none present it uses a default font. Mind you I saw a few posts here asking about the font behaviour but in the answers the name of the default font wasn't mentioned. I'd like to recreate what I see in the built-in viewer as best as I can when converting to PDF. Thank you.

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12-06-2019, 06:24 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,859 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	The builtin viewer is not a pdf viewer (it converts the pdf to html to view it), dont use it to preview pdfs, use a dedicated pdf reader for that.

12-06-2019, 11:29 AM	#3
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,804 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Preferences: Behavior: Use Internal Viewer for: <Remove the tick next to PDF> (or any other format that you don't want Calbres viewer for. Your OS must have a default viewer for that format)

12-07-2019, 06:58 PM	#4
Gorgoth Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2019 Device: none	Maybe I wasn't clear in my post, I use a dedicated PDF viewer already (Foxit, as stated in my post). I don't want to use the built-in viewer as my default PDF viewer, I simply want to know what its default font is, just that. And what about my second question about the font-family defined in the stylesheet of AZW3?

12-07-2019, 07:47 PM	#5
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,859 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	The builtin viewr is a browser (chrome), its font behavior is exactly the same as a browsers. If the stylesheet specifies a font that is not embedded it will be searched for ont he system and the nearest match will be used.

12-11-2019, 09:18 AM	#6
Gorgoth Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2019 Device: none	Thank you for the explanation. So is there any way to have this same behaviour when converting to PDF? I mean automatically embedding the fonts specified in the stylesheet? And if not found on the system using the nearest match like the viewer?

12-11-2019, 09:41 AM	#7
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,859 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	That is exactly what happens since converting to PDF uses the same browser engine as the viewer.

12-12-2019, 02:51 PM	#9
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,859 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Hard to say, post a sample azw3/epub book showing the problem, and I can tell you more.

12-12-2019, 05:21 PM	#10
Gorgoth Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2019 Device: none	Sorry, I'm a bit confused. By sample you mean cutting the book? If so, how can I prepare a sample? And should I just upload it here or send it to you directly? Wouldn't that violate any rules?

12-14-2019, 03:57 PM	#12
Gorgoth Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2019 Device: none	Uploaded the file here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/1856363