Shine 5: Is there a way to adjust letter spacing?

[Falkor]

Does anyone know a way to adjust the letter-spacing on the Shine 5? The CSS letter spacing property seems to be ignored, even when set with '!important'.

I get really narrow spacing with the default renderer, which makes the text difficult to read. I've checked in Photoshop and it will render the text similarly with the letter spacing set to -25, which is way lower than I'm comfortable with.

I've activated the RMSDK renderer in the config file and it renders the font much better (pretty much equal to letter spacing set to 0 in Photoshop). As a bonus, many features that are broken in the default renderer work fine in RMSDK, e.g. embedded fonts, page breaks, font weight adjustment…
Unfortunately I can't use RMSDK for everything, because it can't open files with LCP DRM.

I have attached two screenshots with the same text, comparing the renderers. The font used is EB Garamond. The issues with chapter title in RMSDK are caused by some compatibility issues with standardebooks.org's 'compatible' ePubs, but that's an easy fix.

[iridium184]

I observed the same on my Tolino Shine 5. I contacted the seller of the device with a longer list of software bugs. They responded to that list, for some of them (e.g. Missing sentences at chapter ends), they mentioned that these issues would be "known to the software developers and a fix is work in progress". For incorrect letter spacing, they mentioned that they "relayed that feedback to the developers".

I'd suggest others do the same - I guess they are unlikely to fix that issue if I'm the only one complaining .

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

Does anyone know a way to adjust the letter-spacing on the Shine 5? The CSS letter spacing property seems to be ignored, even when set with '!important'.

I get really narrow spacing with the default renderer, which makes the text difficult to read. I've checked in Photoshop and it will render the text similarly with the letter spacing set to -25, which is way lower than I'm comfortable with.

I've activated the RMSDK renderer in the config file and it renders the font much better (pretty much equal to letter spacing set to 0 in Photoshop). As a bonus, many features that are broken in the default renderer work fine in RMSDK, e.g. embedded fonts, page breaks, font weight adjustment…
Unfortunately I can't use RMSDK for everything, because it can't open files with LCP DRM.

I have attached two screenshots with the same text, comparing the renderers. The font used is EB Garamond. The issues with chapter title in RMSDK are caused by some compatibility issues with standardebooks.org's 'compatible' ePubs, but that's an easy fix.

What you are getting is kerning. That's why the letters look close together. Obviously letter spacing does not work in RMSDK.

As for StandardEbooks, their code is garbage and that's why it's not working as is. There is no reason for them to use such convoluted complicated code on eBooks that do not have any sort of complicated formatting. Their eBooks should be compatible with both ePub2 and ePub3. But they do it oh so very wrong.

[Falkor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What you are getting is kerning. That's why the letters look close together. Obviously letter spacing does not work in RMSDK.

As for StandardEbooks, their code is garbage and that's why it's not working as is. There is no reason for them to use such convoluted complicated code on eBooks that do not have any sort of complicated formatting. Their eBooks should be compatible with both ePub2 and ePub3. But they do it oh so very wrong.

Kerning is the spacing between individual letterforms, while letter-spacing or tracking is the overall spacing of characters. Letter-spacing is what's the issue here.

Neither RMSDK nor the default renderer do anything when I set letter-spacing in CSS.

This works fine in Calibre, Thorium, Sigil and Apple Books:

CSS:
.spacing {
  letter-spacing:0.5em;
  }

HTML:
<span class="spacing">text</span>

(see attached screenshot –*it's applied to the word "consectetuer")

Both renderers seem to apply kerning by default. In the default renderer it can be deactivated with CSS, in RMSDK it can't. Deactivating kerning in the default renderer doesn't fix my problem. It's definitely a letter-spacing issue.

Originally Posted by iridium184

I observed the same on my Tolino Shine 5. I contacted the seller of the device with a longer list of software bugs. They responded to that list, for some of them (e.g. Missing sentences at chapter ends), they mentioned that these issues would be "known to the software developers and a fix is work in progress". For incorrect letter spacing, they mentioned that they "relayed that feedback to the developers".

I'd suggest others do the same - I guess they are unlikely to fix that issue if I'm the only one complaining .

So I'm not the only one noticing this issue. I also sent them a complaint.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

Kerning is the spacing between individual letterforms, while letter-spacing or tracking is the overall spacing of characters. Letter-spacing is what's the issue here.

Neither RMSDK nor the default renderer do anything when I set letter-spacing in CSS.

This works fine in Calibre, Thorium, Sigil and Apple Books:

CSS:
.spacing {
  letter-spacing:0.5em;
  }

HTML:
<span class="spacing">text</span>

(see attached screenshot –*it's applied to the word "consectetuer")

Both renderers seem to apply kerning by default. In the default renderer it can be deactivated with CSS, in RMSDK it can't. Deactivating kerning in the default renderer doesn't fix my problem. It's definitely a letter-spacing issue.



So I'm not the only one noticing this issue. I also sent them a complaint.

It's not an issue you will ever get fixed. Letter spacing does not work in the version of RMSDK that is being used on your Pocketbook. I don't know if letter spacing works on the current ADE. So it's not something Pocketbook is going to fix. You would need to get Adobe to fix it and Pocketbook to update RMSDK. It's a losing battle.

Letter spacing does nothing in RMSDK. calibre, Sigil, Thorium, and Books do support letter spacing.

[Falkor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's not an issue you will ever get fixed. Letter spacing does not work in the version of RMSDK that is being used on your Pocketbook. I don't know if letter spacing works on the current ADE. So it's not something Pocketbook is going to fix. You would need to get Adobe to fix it and Pocketbook to update RMSDK. It's a losing battle.

Letter spacing does nothing in RMSDK. calibre, Sigil, Thorium, and Books do support letter spacing.

Luckily the letter spacing in RMSDK is fine. It's the narrower spacing in the Tolino's default render that is a problem for me.

Being able to adjust it would be a nice feature – but if they just set the spacing wider withou making it adjustable in CSS, it would still do the trick for me.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

Luckily the letter spacing in RMSDK is fine. It's the narrower spacing in the Tolino's default render that is a problem for me.

Being able to adjust it would be a nice feature – but if they just set the spacing wider withou making it adjustable in CSS, it would still do the trick for me.

Can you show the difference with the same page, same font, same font size with RMSDK and the other reading app? Thanks.

[Falkor]

It's tricky. With the same settings, font size is much smaller in the default renderer. The sample in the first post is as close as I have managed to make them.

Here are the same samples in comparison with two different letter spacing settings in photoshop:

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

It's tricky. With the same settings, font size is much smaller in the default renderer. The sample in the first post is as close as I have managed to make them.

Here are the same samples in comparison with two different letter spacing settings in photoshop:

That's Photoshop. That's not the screen grabs of the different reading apps on your Tolino.

[Falkor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That's Photoshop. That's not the screen grabs of the different reading apps on your Pocketbook.

It's a Tolino, not a pocketbook.

The top and bottom line were cut out of the screenshots in first post of this thread and have not been altered.

The are the same font on the same page displayed in two different renderers. The font sizes are similar. I tried to match them, but it was impossible.

I've attached another sample to this message, but the font size is not a perfect match either.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

It's a Tolino, not a pocketbook.

The top and bottom line were cut out of the screenshots in first post of this thread and have not been altered.

The are the same font on the same page displayed in two different renderers. The font sizes are similar. I tried to match them, but it was impossible.

I've attached another sample to this message, but the font size is not a perfect match either.

My mistake. Given it's a Tolino owned by Kobo, RMSDK is (IMHO) never going to be updated and it will never support letter spacing. The version of RMSDK used is old.

I don't know what the other Reader is on the Tolino, but if it's webkit based, it shoulsd support letter spacing.

[Falkor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

My mistake. Given it's a Tolino owned by Kobo, RMSDK is (IMHO) never going to be updated and it will never support letter spacing. The version of RMSDK used is old.

I don't know what the other Reader is on the Tolino, but if it's webkit based, it shoulsd support letter spacing.

I just tried the following:

.hellothere {
  display: none;
  }

@supports (letter-spacing:2em) {
.hellothere {
  display: block;
  
  }
  }

<p class="hellothere">Hi, I support letter-spacing.</p>

And guess what: letter-spacing is supported. It just doesn't do anything on the device.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

I just tried the following:

.hellothere {
  display: none;
  }

@supports (letter-spacing:2em) {
.hellothere {
  display: block;
  
  }
  }

<p class="hellothere">Hi, I support letter-spacing.</p>

And guess what: letter-spacing is supported. It just doesn't do anything on the device.

Given it didn't do anything means it's not supported. It has to work to be supported.

[Falkor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Given it didn't do anything means it's not supported. It has to work to be supported.

"@supports" seems to be working, though. I also tested with initial-letter, which turned out to be unsupported.

Maybe letter-spacing is supported but broken

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Falkor

"@supports" seems to be working, though. I also tested with initial-letter, which turned out to be unsupported.

Maybe letter-spacing is supported but broken

Letter spacing is not supported. It's not broken. If it was supported, it would work.