CE characters not displaying

[citac]

Can somebody please tell me what I'm doing wrong with this file? It is really simple, just the basic formatting, no styles or anything since it's pure text.

I started with a clean html file (I use HTMLPad 2010 as my editor), broke the imported file into a lot of small chapters, ran it through epub check and it validated, but I still can't get Central European characters to show up. I tried adding a lang declaration, but Sigil deletes everything it doesn't like.

Font embedding didn't work for me - I tried that before, closely following instructions from some very kind people here who offered to help me, but it never worked; only about half of characters would show up, and the others would still be represented by ???.

I am not experienced enough with epub to recognize errors on sight, so I would appreciate some advice. This is a collection of lectures I attended, and am trying to study for my exam. The whole reason I bought a reader (Astak EZReader 6") was so I could stop carrying a massive number of printouts to and from work. I'm going crazy here.

[Valloric]

There's a FAQ item for this. Basically, ADE does not have the required characters in its default font. You'll need to embed a font.

Da je zajebano što ne možemo vidjeti naše dijakritike po defaultu, je. Ali objasni ti ljudima u Adobeu da su budale.

[citac]

Originally Posted by Valloric

There's a FAQ item for this. Basically, ADE does not have the required characters in its default font. You'll need to embed a font.

Da je zajebano što ne možemo vidjeti naše dijakritike po defaultu, je. Ali objasni ti ljudima u Adobeu da su budale.

I tried embedding but couldn't get it to work the first time. I can't afford to spend a lot of time on it since the exam is not that far away but I'll return to the FAQ, it will be useful in the future.

Ne mogu ti opisati koliko me nervira ta njihova glupost! Kratkovidni idioti. A imam puno zabilješki koje bih trebala prekucati i konvertovati...

[edit]

Sigil currently doesn't have official support for font embedding due to a bug in the Qt framework. This will be solved in time.

So... how much time are we talking about?

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by citac

I tried embedding but couldn't get it to work the first time. I can't afford to spend a lot of time on it since the exam is not that far away but I'll return to the FAQ, it will be useful in the future.

Font embedding is not difficult. Here are the things one needs to do (examples taken from the wonderful Three Men in a Boat epub):

1. Add the font file(s) (TTFs or OTFs) to the book by right-clicking anywhere in the Book Browser, selecting "Add existing items" and then selecting the files to add.

2. Add @font-face style rules to your CSS that reference the fonts you just added. This makes the fonts available to the rest of the style rules.

Here's an example of what it should look like:

 @font-face {
   font-family: "Fontin";
   font-weight: normal;
   font-style: normal;
   src: url(../Fonts/Fontin-Regular.ttf);
 }
 
 @font-face {
   font-family: "Fontin";
   font-weight: bold;
   font-style: normal;
   src: url(../Fonts/Fontin-Bold.ttf);
 }
 
 @font-face {
   font-family: "Fontin";
   font-weight: normal;
   font-style: italic;
   src: url(../Fonts/Fontin-Italic.ttf);
 }

3. Add a style to the CSS that assigns the new font family to some part of the book; here the font is assigned to the book's "body", which basically means everything unless specified otherwise:

body {
  font-family: "Fontin", serif;
}

Note that the style rule that uses a new font family name has to come after the @font-face rules that declare it. Also note that because of a Qt bug, font variants (bold, italic etc.) for embedded fonts may or may not actually show up in Sigil's Book View. But the "normal" version of the font should. And of course, all the variants should display just fine in Adobe Digital Editions.

That's it. This was just an overview, take a look a the Three Men in a Boat epub book that I linked to previously. It's available for download (for free) right here on MobileRead and it opens just fine in Sigil.

Hm... I should probably put this in the FAQ.

Originally Posted by citac

Ne mogu ti opisati koliko me nervira ta njihova glupost! Kratkovidni idioti. A imam puno zabilješki koje bih trebala prekucati i konvertovati...

To ti je ono kad ameri misle da se cijeli svijet vrti oko njih... što da ti kažem, sve već znaš...

Originally Posted by citac

So... how much time are we talking about?

You'll have to ask the Qt guys. It's up to them.

[charleski]

I embedded Charis in your epub so it will show all the characters (I'm not a great fan of Charis, but it's the only free full Unicode font I know of that also has a bold version). You should be able to see everything now.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by charleski

but it's the only free full Unicode font I know of that also has a bold version).

FreeFont: http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/

[citac]

Originally Posted by charleski

I embedded Charis in your epub so it will show all the characters (I'm not a great fan of Charis, but it's the only free full Unicode font I know of that also has a bold version). You should be able to see everything now.

I uploaded it - it's fantastic! I was worried about the file size, but I don't seem to have any problems opening it. Page turns are pretty fast.

One thing I can't seem to figure out is how to use the catalog? I can go to it, and expand the headings, but can't seem to get them to take me to that particular page. I'm using the latest lbook firmware.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by citac

I uploaded it - it's fantastic! I was worried about the file size, but I don't seem to have any problems opening it. Page turns are pretty fast.

One thing I can't seem to figure out is how to use the catalog? I can go to it, and expand the headings, but can't seem to get them to take me to that particular page. I'm using the latest lbook firmware.

With Lbook (Astak...) you navigate (tab?) FORWARD with the Zero key. The selection gets a very subtle second underline.
Press the "Enter(menu) key.

[citac]

Valloric - thank you for the code. I think I had placed body before the @font-face the first time I tried it. Once I have some more free time on my hands I'll sit down and try do do some epub editing.

[citac]

Originally Posted by theducks

With Lbook (Astak...) you navigate (tab?) FORWARD with the Zero key. The selection gets a very subtle second underline.
Press the "Enter(menu) key.

OK, I just tried it: pressing OK while the book is open gets me to the catalog, and the first level. In order to open it, I have to press the 1 key. I get three pages of links, numbered 1-8. If I press 1 again to open the first link it takes me back to the highest level. If I press 0, I go to the next page. The chapter I want to open is on page three, and has two sub headings. It's number 5 on the list. When I open it up by pressing 5 and try to use the 0 key and OK it, I get the flashing no access symbol. I'm confused.

I just tried something else: I opened the heading I wanted, then double pressed the corresponding key; that opened it. It can't be too fast or it takes me back a level. But then the next time I tried the same thing it didn't, so I just pressed it once, with a bit more force. That seemed to work. Very odd. I think I'll just have to work out on my own what functions and what doesn't.

[citac]

Originally Posted by Jellby

FreeFont: http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/

That does look like a nice font, thank you. I might try using it for another project.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by citac

OK, I just tried it: pressing OK while the book is open gets me to the catalog, and the first level. In order to open it, I have to press the 1 key. I get three pages of links, numbered 1-8. If I press 1 again to open the first link it takes me back to the highest level. If I press 0, I go to the next page. The chapter I want to open is on page three, and has two sub headings. It's number 5 on the list. When I open it up by pressing 5 and try to use the 0 key and OK it, I get the flashing no access symbol. I'm confused.

I just tried something else: I opened the heading I wanted, then double pressed the corresponding key; that opened it. It can't be too fast or it takes me back a level. But then the next time I tried the same thing it didn't, so I just pressed it once, with a bit more force. That seemed to work. Very odd. I think I'll just have to work out on my own what functions and what doesn't.

you are using the built in Catalog, not Calibre's Catalog. Gotcha now.


Using the "catalog key (7) here.
you see the top level (h1 ?) (the page indicator t the bottom sas how many screens make up this level

Press the number
You now see all the items UNDER that first level tag (h2 ?), but you dont see lever 2 for any other H1 tags.
Again, you may have 1 of n pages shown at the bottom.
page turn (up-down) changes pages (9 and 0 are page turn keys at this point)

Press the number.

The Return (exit) key backs out of the current layer

The 0 key changes function to navigate to the next hyperlink (within a document (example the Calibre Catalog: Authors that begin with "A". That is a page within the document. (you will not see numbers exactly like the normal menu) That is when the 0 key steps thru the underlined (link) items.

Catalog work like this on the Lbook (Astak)

The Book is the trunk (the Menu is part of the trunk)
You can only see other "trunk" branches (h1)at the trunk level
When you step onto the branch, you can see the path back (1)
and the path(s) forward (2-7) (h2 ?)
Once you step onto the next branch, you can see the return (1) and more branches (h3 ?)

The return key (1 to N layers) is the bail out key Pressing a number may show the next level (+ symbol next to the number) OR Jump to the place in the document.
Now if you are designing a document:
h3 is for the Chapter (start), but to be consistant
we really use h4 anchors: #start, #onethird, #twothirds
Now the branch looks balanced(theoretically, the H3 takes you visually to the same point as h4 #start)

[citac]

Originally Posted by theducks

you are using the built in Catalog, not Calibre's Catalog. Gotcha now.

Yes, I've come to the realization that Calibre simply isn't for me. I understand now why it does things the way it does, but I dislike it. Maybe some time in the future I'll reinstall it but use it just for conversion purposes on occasion.

Catalog work like this on the Lbook (Astak)

The Book is the trunk (the Menu is part of the trunk)
You can only see other "trunk" branches (h1)at the trunk level
When you step onto the branch, you can see the path back (1)
and the path(s) forward (2-7) (h2 ?)
Once you step onto the next branch, you can see the return (1) and more branches (h3 ?)

The return key (1 to N layers) is the bail out key Pressing a number may show the next level (+ symbol next to the number) OR Jump to the place in the document.
Now if you are designing a document:
h3 is for the Chapter (start), but to be consistant
we really use h4 anchors: #start, #onethird, #twothirds
Now the branch looks balanced(theoretically, the H3 takes you visually to the same point as h4 #start)

That's what I discovered as I spent more time with it. I used to have a bunch of smaller files which I would go through, then go to the next file in the folder and so on. This one was larger, and the first time I realized I would have to use some sort of navigation structure within the file. If I remember correctly, I've got h1 for the title, h2 for the chapters, h3 for sections, and an occasional h4 for subsections. I tried to keep it as simple as possible.

What are #start, #onethird, #twothirds??

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by citac

Yes, I've come to the realization that Calibre simply isn't for me. I understand now why it does things the way it does, but I dislike it. Maybe some time in the future I'll reinstall it but use it just for conversion purposes on occasion.



That's what I discovered as I spent more time with it. I used to have a bunch of smaller files which I would go through, then go to the next file in the folder and so on. This one was larger, and the first time I realized I would have to use some sort of navigation structure within the file. If I remember correctly, I've got h1 for the title, h2 for the chapters, h3 for sections, and an occasional h4 for subsections. I tried to keep it as simple as possible.

What are #start, #onethird, #twothirds??

Actually Calibre can generate a multi-level TOC and EZ Reader (Hanlin) will use it exactly the same way and any other multi-level TOC. It is the same as Sigil or anyone else, it is the toc.ncx file in ePUB. The way it is generated is different but the results work the same.

This is different from following a link inside the document. Somehow this is being mixed up in the discussion. Links inside the document can be followed as well but they have nothing to do with content generation, they may look like an inline TOC but this is because you know what it looks like. The reading program treats them entirely different.

Dale

[theducks]

Originally Posted by citac

Yes, I've come to the realization that Calibre simply isn't for me. I understand now why it does things the way it does, but I dislike it. Maybe some time in the future I'll reinstall it but use it just for conversion purposes on occasion.



That's what I discovered as I spent more time with it. I used to have a bunch of smaller files which I would go through, then go to the next file in the folder and so on. This one was larger, and the first time I realized I would have to use some sort of navigation structure within the file. If I remember correctly, I've got h1 for the title, h2 for the chapters, h3 for sections, and an occasional h4 for subsections. I tried to keep it as simple as possible.

What are #start, #onethird, #twothirds??

Anchor points
<a href="chapter1.html#start" ...
<a href="chapter1#onethird" ...
<a href="chapter1#twothirds" ...

see http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html40...ks.html#h-12.2
Note the use of the hash mark to take you to section 12.2