htmldoc settings

[geekraver]

Here are some initial htmldoc settings that I find give reasonable results for PDF files on the Sony:

--fontsize 18
--left 2mm --right 2mm --top 2mm --bottom 2mm
--gray
--size 6.5x8in

If others improve on them please post here!

[geekraver]

I've settled on these settings for now. I find the Helvetica font more readable than Ariel or Times, which look a bit washed out.

--textfont Helvetica
--fontsize 18
--left 1mm --right 1mm --top 1mm --bottom 1mm
--gray
--size 6.5x8in
--header ...
--footer ...
--textcolor black

[Michele]

Are these settings used to alter the format of pdf files to fit the reader?

If so, how/where are the settings applied to a pdf file?

[geekraver]

Originally Posted by Michele

Are these settings used to alter the format of pdf files to fit the reader?

If so, how/where are the settings applied to a pdf file?

No, these were used to convert HTML documents into PDFs. I'm mostly interested in technical stuff that I get online, not fiction, which I haven't had time for since becoming a parent and working at Microsoft for the past five years (I did have a life once, and maybe one day I will again).

Anyway, the key thing I believe is the use of Helvetica fonts. I don't know the correct typographic terms but you want to avoid fonts that have any form of decorative noise, like horizontal parts at the top or bottom of lower-case Ls, for example. Also fonts that have different thicknesses depending on the slope of lines. Instead you want simple fonts with uniform thickness. That way the effect is very black and readable, vs gray.

[ojleblanc]

Originally Posted by geekraver

... the key thing I believe is the use of Helvetica fonts. I don't know the correct typographic terms but you want to avoid fonts that have any form of decorative noise, like horizontal parts at the top or bottom of lower-case Ls, for example. Also fonts that have different thicknesses depending on the slope of lines. Instead you want simple fonts with uniform thickness. That way the effect is very black and readable, vs gray.

Geekraver,

Am I correct in concluding that Helvetica fonts are commercial only; you have to buy them? If so, would you (or someone) be willing to post an image of a book/document on the Reader with this font? I'd love to see how effective it is before I considering buying the font.

I found a font that About.com says is similar to Helvetica bold. Not sure if that makes it too thick, however. It's called Coolvetica, and can be found here:
http://desktoppub.about.com/library/...coolvetica.htm

TIA

[geekraver]

Originally Posted by ojleblanc

Geekraver,

Am I correct in concluding that Helvetica fonts are commercial only; you have to buy them? If so, would you (or someone) be willing to post an image of a book/document on the Reader with this font? I'd love to see how effective it is before I considering buying the font.

I found a font that About.com says is similar to Helvetica bold. Not sure if that makes it too thick, however. It's called Coolvetica, and can be found here:
http://desktoppub.about.com/library/...coolvetica.htm

TIA

I'm just using the Helvetica setting in HTMLDoc; presumably Helvetica is built in to the PDF viewer, so if you're using PDFs I don't understand why you would need to buy the font.

Anyway, I'll try post a pic soon.

[da_jane]

I am having a terrible time making an html readable on the Sony reader. I tried a) using PDF Creator on my Adobe Acrobat 7.0. I modified the settings, etc., but the font is not very dark and it's not a serif font like I would like.

I then copied the file to RTF and change the font to Georgia with 12 pt and that doesn't look very good either.

[geekraver]

Here's a sample of one of my htmldoc formatted books. Sorry for the photo quality; the LCD on my camera is busted which makes taking photos a challenge as I never know what the settings are. But as you can see its very readable; any blur is the fault of the camera and me, not the reader.

[ojleblanc]

Thanks, geekraver. This is very nice, indeed. I created a version of Wuthering Heights using BookDesigner with Verdana font size 18. It is quite readable, too, but I want to try the Helvetica font. I'll post a pic of my efforts later this evening.

[Slava]

I've just compiled HTMLDOC under Windows/Cygwin, which was as simple as it gets. Going to try and generate some docs tonight.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by da_jane

I then copied the file to RTF and change the font to Georgia with 12 pt and that doesn't look very good either.

I'm finding that I need a minimum 16pt font (I use arial) for an RTF to be comforatbly readable.

[Slava]

Here is an example of what you can do with cygwin, wget and hmtldoc

Steps 1 & 2 are only for Windows users

1. Get Cygwin
2. Select and install GCC and WGET options
3. Download htmldoc sources
4. If you plan to convert Russian html pages, you will need to download additional fonts.
5. Compile and install htmldoc

You will have to experiment with different pages and parameters. HTMLDOC seems to be quite picky about html, but it gives you some nice options.

Lets take Outbrash

Download the html first

wget -O outbrash.html http://www.outblush.com/women/home/

Now convert it to PDF

$ htmldoc --webpage  --gray --fontsize 14 --textfont helvetica --header . --footer . --left 2mm --right 2mm --top 5mm --bottom 5mm --size 5.24x6.69in -f outbrash.pdf outbrash.html

[ChrisAllenFiz]

Why are you using a page size much bigger than the reader.Isn`t it optimal to aim for exactly the size of the screen?

[Slava]

Chris,

I took page size from Sony Reader manual. So far it works pretty good for all my conversions.

[ChrisAllenFiz]

Originally Posted by Slava

Chris,

I took page size from Sony Reader manual. So far it works pretty good for all my conversions.

hmm.. in the pictures the actual size seems to be ~122x90mm. Might be worth trying for comparison.

I wish Sony would give out this sort of information. This and the directory structure problem shows that they don`t really care about third party non DRM content