Summary of Modified Fonts

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by errenay

OK, I understand. However, any PM concerning this issue would be helpful

Read this thread and it will tell you what you need to know.

[errenay]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Read this thread and it will tell you what you need to know.

OK, I've found it elsewhere.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Bookerly has been updated in the in newest 5.7.2 Kindle firmware.

There is a definitive improvement in this font from the earlier versions.

[shamanNS]

@drjd: Just tested both v1.010 (from fw 5.6.5) and v1.1020 (from fw 5.7.2.1) version of Bookerly on my PW3 with fw 5.6.5 and I don't see a single difference. Tested on azw3/KF8 book, so can't speak for how things might have been improved for kerning and ligatures when using kfx books.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

@drjd: Just tested both v1.010 (from fw 5.6.5) and v1.1020 (from fw 5.7.2.1) version of Bookerly on my PW3 with fw 5.6.5 and I don't see a single difference. Tested on azw3/KF8 book, so can't speak for how things might have been improved for kerning and ligatures when using kfx books.

Ah.. as you can see I am not in the Kindle camp , I may not be able to comment on the difference of performance on azw3/KF8 books and KFX books. Just out of curiosity, I extracted the said font from FW's and tried on my Kobo Glo. On the epubs and Kepubs formats, I could see a visible difference in smoothness and ligature in these versions.
However, I feel better with Charis SIL Modified on my Kobo (thanks to JSWolf!), and will stick with it. I've removed the Bookerly.

[anacreon]

I'm not clear how fonts work.

I wanted to try some new fonts, and experimented with some I found in Windows: kept Candara (a bit thin) and Calibri, which I like, eliminated Book Antiqua, Cambria, Constantia, Trebuchet (for being too thick mostly), Sitka (because it didn't appear in the drop down menu), wanted more.

So I came back to this thread, where I've not been for a while, and found Clear sans, which I like. I then tried the "medium" version, thinking it was enough to eliminate the Regular and Italic and rename the Medium and Medium Italic, but found out that it came as two lines in the drop down font list on the Kobo: Clear Sans (which was the Medium version) and Clear Sans Medium (which was the Regular version). Since the Medium version was too thick for me, I returned to just the Regular version, but some books I had tried with the medium refused to update the Clear Sans fonts, even after going through another one, and I had to turn off the device to clear it. How come?

EDIT another question: Is there a way to eliminate Kobo's own fonts at least from the drop-down menu to have a shorter list? I'm not interested at all in Kobo Nickel, Ryumin, or Open Dyslexic.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by anacreon

So I came back to this thread, where I've not been for a while, and found Clear sans, which I like. I then tried the "medium" version, thinking it was enough to eliminate the Regular and Italic and rename the Medium and Medium Italic, but found out that it came as two lines in the drop down font medium on the Kobo: Clear Sans (which was the Medium version) and Clear Sans Medium (which was the Regular version). Since the Medium version was too thick for me, I returned to just the Regular version, but some books I had tried with the medium refused to update the Clear Sans fonts, even after going through another one, and I had to turn off the device to clear it. How come?

Are you using ePub or KePub?

I have seen a problem in ePubs with selecting fonts where there is another font installed that has a name that begins with the name of the first font, I think Clear Sans and Clear Sans Medium would be an example of this.

If you want both fonts installed at the same time then I think the only solution is to rename one of them (and I mean change the internal family name with a font editor, not just the filename.)

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Are you using ePub or KePub?

I have seen a problem in ePubs with selecting fonts where there is another font installed that has a name that begins with the name of the first font, I think Clear Sans and Clear Sans Medium would be an example of this.

If you want both fonts installed at the same time then I think the only solution is to rename one of them (and I mean change the internal family name with a font editor, not just the filename.)

Thank you for your answer. I read only kepubs, and am only looking at different versions of one font to choose which looks better on my kobo, so I don't think I'll try learning a font editor which I'd forget soon since I would use it so seldom.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Thank you for your answer. I read only kepubs, and am only looking at different versions of one font to choose which looks better on my kobo, so I don't think I'll try learning a font editor which I'd forget soon since I would use it so seldom.

Okay on rereading your original post I think the problem might just be that you changed the font filename. That won't usually work as the internal family name needs to change to match, and the only way to do that is with a font editor.

Edit: I used fontforge to edit ClearSans-Medium.ttf, ClearSans-MediumItalic, ClearSans-Bold.ttf and ClearSans-BoldItalic and changed the internal font family name to Clear Sans Medium and the filenames to ClearSansMedium.ttf, ClearSansMedium-Italic.ttf, ClearSansMedium-Bold.ttf and ClearSansMedium-BoldItalic.ttf and it seems to work okay alongside the regular version with both ePub and KePub.

[anacreon]

I've been exploring Font Squirrel, and I like Noto Sans (2410 glyphs), Lato (3031 glyphs, 18 styles). I think I would like Caudex too (2542 glyphs, good for Greek and Medieval) but every style turns to italics on my kobo (I tried several kepubs, including a Calibre generated catalog) while it looks fine on my PC. Any idea what the problem can be?

[drjd]

Originally Posted by anacreon

EDIT another question: Is there a way to eliminate Kobo's own fonts at least from the drop-down menu to have a shorter list? I'm not interested at all in Kobo Nickel, Ryumin, or Open Dyslexic.

You may try this method. This worked for me to remove some fonts:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...8&postcount=64

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I think I would like Caudex too (2542 glyphs, good for Greek and Medieval) but every style turns to italics on my kobo (I tried several kepubs, including a Calibre generated catalog) while it looks fine on my PC. Any idea what the problem can be?

I downloaded Caudex here,

The problem with this font is that its PANOSE profile is incorrect. Not all programs use PANOSE, the ePub reader ignores it and is unaffected, but the KePub reader requires the parts it uses to be correct.

When I reset the PANOSE profile to the default using fontforge it worked fine. (Edit: Actually all that was needed was to correct the weight and letterform fields: to change weight from Book to Bold for Caudex-Bold and Caudex-BoldItalic, and change letterform from Normal/Weighted to Obique/Weighted for Caudex-Italic and Caudex-BoldItalic.)

Edit: I also corrected the Style (Subfamily) TTF name in Caudex-BoldItalic.ttf from Bold to BoldItalic.

Edit: A common sign that the PANOSE profile is incorrect is that the font shows in the font selection menu as bold or italic.

[anacreon]

I'm updating the Aura H2O fonts to those on my main reader, the Glo HD, and I'm very surprised to note that the two mysterious fonts that appeared in the middle of my sideloaded ones on the Glo HD (KBJ-TsukuMin PR5N RB and KBJ-UDKakugo PR6N M) are not in the Aura H2O list.

Both readers are on the 3.15.0 F/W, mark 5 or 6 as device appropriate. I don't understand why Kobo has different fonts for not so different devices.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I'm updating the Aura H2O fonts to those on my main reader, the Glo HD, and I'm very surprised to note that the two mysterious fonts that appeared in the middle of my sideloaded ones on the Glo HD (KBJ-TsukuMin PR5N RB and KBJ-UDKakugo PR6N M) are not in the Aura H2O list.

Both readers are on the 3.15.0 F/W, mark 5 or 6 as device appropriate. I don't understand why Kobo has different fonts for not so different devices.

Did you update the GloHD to a later firmware at some point and then downgrade to 3.15.0?

The Kobo Tsukushi Mincho and Kobo UD Kakugo fonts are not in firmware3.15.0, they were added in a later version (Edit: version 3.19.5613) to replace Ryumin and Gothic.

If you upgrade, then the old Ryumin and Gothic fonts will be deleted and the new fonts added, but if you downgrade then I don't think the new fonts will be deleted (because the old firmware doesn't know about them) and so you might end up with both sets installed.

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Did you update the GloHD to a later firmware at some point and then downgrade to 3.15.0?

The Kobo Tsukushi Mincho and Kobo UD Kakugo fonts are not in firmware3.15.0, they were added in a later version (Edit: version 3.19.5613) to replace Ryumin and Gothic.

If you upgrade, then the old Ryumin and Gothic fonts will be deleted and the new fonts added, but if you downgrade then I don't think the new fonts will be deleted (because the old firmware doesn't know about them) and so you might end up with both sets installed.

That must be it, thanks for the explanation. I had stopped upgrading before the 3.19, but I remember now I once had to reboot, which was probably after the 3.19, and then of course downgrade.