Clara 2E No centered text, kepub ebook.

[Jane Eyre]

Hello, guys
I have an odd issue with centered text in a epub changed into a kepub ebook by means of "kepub output" Calibre plug in.

In my style sheet I've got this simple class:

.center
{
text-align: center;
text-indent:0;
font-style:italic;
}

I write my epubs directly into Sigil; the preview shows the text as I like it, in the middle of the page, but when I open my converted kepub in my Clara, nothing..it ignores it. Why?

[icallaci]

I've encountered a similar problem. If I give the class a margin-left and margin-right of auto or a specific %, that usually fixes it. It doesn't happen all the time, so I'm not sure what circumstances trigger it (divs but not ps, for example). Someone else probably has better insight about this than I do.

[Sirtel]

Do you have a justification option selected on your Clara? That would also justify centered text in kepubs. If you select "off" for justification, will the centered text display correctly?

[chrisridd]

This sounds like the feature that this patch to libnickel changes:

Un-Force user text-align in div,p tags in KePubs:
  - Enabled: yes
  - Description: |
      This patch allows the text alignment set by the publisher in the kepub
      stylesheet to override the alignment selected by the reader from the device.
    #     div, p { text-align: %1 !important; }
    # --> body   { text-align: %1 !important; }
  - FindBaseAddressString: "div, p { text-align: %1"
  - ReplaceString:
      Find:    "div, p {"
      Replace: "body   {"
      MustMatchLength: yes

You could experiment using an element that isn't a div or p.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Do you have a justification option selected on your Clara? That would also justify centered text in kepubs. If you select "off" for justification, will the centered text display correctly?

This sounds exactly like the aforementioned bug.

[Jane Eyre]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

If you select "off" for justification, will the centered text display correctly?

Yes, it does. Exactly.

[icallaci]

Interesting. I have justification set to off, but I also have the "Un-Force user text-align in div,p tags in KePubs" patch enabled. Maybe that's what messes up centered images, although it doesn't seem to affect text in my case. One of these days, I'll have to experiment. I've been using margin-left/right: auto in the css, which seems to take care of it.

Edit: I just checked to see which patches I have enabled, and "Un-Force user text-align" isn't one of them. I must have stopped using that one at some point. I haven't noticed a problem with centering lately either, so who knows?

[Quoth]

margin-left and margin-right is best at zero (0) for centred anything in CSS

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Quoth

margin-left and margin-right is best at zero (0) for centred anything in CSS

Yes. Unfortunately I've seen lots of ebooks (mostly self-published) where there is centered text with a left or right margin >0 (not both margins, no, one of them) or a text indent >0. No piece of code is stupid enough not to use, it seems.

[Jane Eyre]

I did a little more testing..I can confirm you that just kepub format ignores

text-align: center;

when justification is on. The same book, as an epub standard, works well. I have no need to switch justification off
At this point, epub are better than kepub with a kobo.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Jane Eyre

I did a little more testing..I can confirm you that just kepub format ignores

text-align: center;

when justification is on. The same book, as an epub standard, works well. I have no need to switch justification off
At this point, epub are better than kepub with a kobo.

That depends. I have justification always switched off with both epubs and kepubs, because I specify the justification in the css of the book; so for me there's no need to switch justification ON.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Jane Eyre

I did a little more testing..I can confirm you that just kepub format ignores

text-align: center;

when justification is on. The same book, as an epub standard, works well. I have no need to switch justification off
At this point, epub are better than kepub with a kobo.

There's nothing mysterious happening here. Every reading app I've ever used (Sony, Kobo, PocketBook, Android) applies its own version of simple override CSS when you choose that reading app's "alignment option".

The Kobo Adobe reading app, used for standard epub, applies override CSS:

body {text-align: %1 !important;}

and the Kobo kepub reading app applies override CSS:

div, p { text-align: %1 !important;}

where %1 is the value you selected in the Kobo's [Aa] menu Justification buttons.

So if your epub's HTML/CSS for scenebreaks is something like:

<p class="center">***</p>

.center {text-align: center}

then the scenebreaks in an epub will be centred no matter what alignment option you set in the [Aa] menu. However the same code in a kepub will not be centred if you set the alignment in the [Aa] menu to anything other than 'Off' (i.e. don't apply alignment override CSS).

There are similar (but not the same) CSS override differences between the epub and kepub reading apps for the other settings in the [Aa] menu, namely font-family and line-height.

Whatever Kobo chooses as default CSS overrides some users will be upset. These users are at liberty to use existing kobopatches to change override CSS to something more (or less) heavy-handed.

[Jane Eyre]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

The Kobo Adobe reading app, used for standard epub, applies override CSS:

body {text-align: %1 !important;}

and the Kobo kepub reading app applies override CSS:

div, p { text-align: %1 !important;}

where %1 is the value you selected in the Kobo's [Aa] menu Justification buttons.

So if your epub's HTML/CSS for scenebreaks is something like:

<p class="center">***</p>

.center {text-align: center}

then the scenebreaks in an epub will be centred no matter what alignment option you set in the [Aa] menu. However the same code in a kepub will not be centred if you set the alignment in the [Aa] menu to anything other than 'Off' (i.e. don't apply alignment override CSS).

I know nothing about %1 in css. I don't use that in my sheets, but if it was something similar setted in my purchased ebooks, I've no idea.

Originally Posted by jackie_w

These users are at liberty to use existing kobopatches to change override CSS to something more (or less) heavy-handed.

For God's sake no! Gosh.. no no. I 've never put myself in quicksands with patches, hacking or some similar stuff.

[chrisridd]

So the cleanest solution seems to me to use another HTML element that doesn't match the default non-patched kepub stylesheet, and then style that to be centred. For example:

<span class="centred">***</span>
...

span.centred {
    display: block;
    text-align: center;
    /* etc */
}

Pick another element if abusing <span> offends, but you get the idea.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by Jane Eyre

I 've never put myself in quicksands with patches, hacking or some similar stuff.

It's not that hard, and it greatly enhances your ability to customise the device to your liking, which is one of Kobo's strengths.