png or text?

[lumpynose]

The inside title page for a book I'm working on has an image at the top of the page that's 4 letters in all caps. It's in a grungy font. The image is 778 x 234 pixels. I found a similar font and to make it the same size it's 8em.

I'm guessing that it would be better to use text instead of the png since the text will always scale nicely?

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

The inside title page for a book I'm working on has an image at the top of the page that's 4 letters in all caps. It's in a grungy font. The image is 778 x 234 pixels. I found a similar font and to make it the same size it's 8em.

I'm guessing that it would be better to use text instead of the png since the text will always scale nicely?

A lot of commercial (and otherwise) books use a sometimes poor scan of the title page. If that is set to fill the screen it is reasonable enough.

But I do think text would be preferable. If the font is reasonably close, I don't see that it would be objectionable.

[Doitsu]

You could also convert text to an SVG image with Inkscape following GrannyGrump's very detailed tutorial.

Alternatively, you could even reference an embedded font in an .svg image. Note that my test file won't display correctly with Sigil, but it'll display fine with ADE 2.0.1 and higher. (I've attached an ADE 2.0.1 screen shot.)

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

You could also convert text to an SVG image with Inkscape following GrannyGrump's very detailed tutorial.

Alternatively, you could even reference an embedded font in an .svg image. Note that my test file won't display correctly with Sigil, but it'll display fine with ADE 2.0.1 and higher. (I've attached an ADE 2.0.1 screen shot.)

Just wondering - What benefit does an SVG image of title/text have over the text itself?

[lumpynose]

I assumed that Doitsu was thinking of the more general case of oddball text that wouldn't display properly.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Just wondering - What benefit does an SVG image of title/text have over the text itself?

• It can be smaller in terms of file size than an embedded font
• It can work when "publishers fonts" are not allowed, either by user option or limitations of the reader app or format.

Though it does require a format and reader app that supports SVG, not all do. JPEGs are the most universal.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by dwig

• It can be smaller in terms of file size than an embedded font
• It can work when "publishers fonts" are not allowed, either by user option or limitations of the reader app or format.

Though it does require a format and reader app that supports SVG, not all do. JPEGs are the most universal.

The first is definitely true due to the grunge effect adding lots of lines to the letters. The font after converting to opentype is 7.8 meg, the truetype is 1 meg. So I'll need to get rid of the glyphs I'm not using. And maybe research how to make smaller opentype files with FontForge. The license.txt file says "This font is free for both personal and commercial use" with no mention of any limits or devices. It's FFF Tusj Bold.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

So I'll need to get rid of the glyphs I'm not using.

You could use Calibre Polish or my SubsetFonts Sigil plugin to subset fonts. (Obviously, you'll also need to create a test book that contains only the characters that you need and then transfer the subset font to the actual book.)

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

You could use Calibre Polish or my SubsetFonts Sigil plugin to subset fonts. (Obviously, you'll also need to create a test book that contains only the characters that you need and then transfer the subset font to the actual book.)

Ok, great; thanks. I'll definitely give that a shot.