Chinese epub support for Kobo Aura HD?

[diftcsx]

Hello, I’m sorry if this has been asked before, but is there a way to read Chinese epubs on the Kobo Aura HD without doing anything to the device itself? I have a Sony Reader PRS-T1, and to read Chinese epubs on that, I copy and pasted a code into the ‘Extra CSS’ box of the ‘Look & Feel’ section of converting ebooks in Calibre and then the Chinese characters showed up in the epubs. However, the same files do not work on the Kobo Aura HD, and I was wondering if there is a different code or a similar method to get Chinese characters to show up in epubs on the Kobo Aura HD?

Help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

[booxEinker]

Are you sure you have Chinese fonts in your HD?

If not, put them in "fonts" folder, then select that font. That's it.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by diftcsx

Hello, I’m sorry if this has been asked before, but is there a way to read Chinese epubs on the Kobo Aura HD without doing anything to the device itself? I have a Sony Reader PRS-T1, and to read Chinese epubs on that, I copy and pasted a code into the ‘Extra CSS’ box of the ‘Look & Feel’ section of converting ebooks in Calibre and then the Chinese characters showed up in the epubs. However, the same files do not work on the Kobo Aura HD, and I was wondering if there is a different code or a similar method to get Chinese characters to show up in epubs on the Kobo Aura HD?

Help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

You might want to check the Modified Fonts sticky for more information (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=204363).

Basic procedure is to create a folder called 'fonts' (without the quotes and it is case sensitive) in the root of the Aura's internal storage. Then add a font with Chinese characters -- I use Code2000 or if you have a Windows computer, Microsoft's Arial Unicode MS can be used. The font file name is critical as it must match the internal font family name -- the sticky has more information on this. After you have the font copied to the Aura, you must power cycle the Aura. Open the ebook, use the menu to select your new font and happy reading.

The creator of Code2000 is no longer doing any support and the original website is gone so while finding the file is fairly easy, I've attached it to this message. It also has a minor advantage in that the font file name is already correct so no renaming is needed.

Regards,
David

[diftcsx]

Thank you! I'll try that.

[diftcsx]

I've tried adding Chinese fonts to a font folder in the Aura's internal storage and they do show up on the ereader, but the characters are still all squares. I've looked around the modified fonts sticky and other places but I don't quite understand how to make it work...? I'm sorry, I'm not very familiar with ereaders.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by diftcsx

I've tried adding Chinese fonts to a font folder in the Aura's internal storage and they do show up on the ereader, but the characters are still all squares. I've looked around the modified fonts sticky and other places but I don't quite understand how to make it work...? I'm sorry, I'm not very familiar with ereaders.

I'll try to do this as a step by step guide.

Step 1: Create a folder called fonts in the root of the Aura's internal storage. As usual with Linux, the name is case sensitive.

Step 2: Copy the font file you want to use into that folder. Make sure the font file name matches the internal font name -- I like Code2000 since the name already matches. Oddly, the font file names are not case sensitive.

Step 3: Once you have the fonts directory created and the correctly named font files copied into place, safely remove the Kobo from the computer. Then hold the power switch until the Aura says powered off. This must be done before you can use the font. Once the Aura is powered off, power it back on and wait for it to reboot.

Step 4: Open the ebook you want to read and tap the middle bottom of the screen. You should see a menu on the bottom of the screen. Tap the Aa icon. This brings up the font selection screen. Use the drop down to locate the font you want to use and select it. If you have the correct font, the screen will take a few seconds with updating font at the top the screen and then display your ebook correctly.

I've attached a couple of screen captures from A Dream of Red Mansions by Xueqin Cao courtesy of Gutenberg. A couple of them use the Code2000 font, the other uses Microsoft's Arial MS Unicode font. I've also attached a screen shot of the root directory of my Aura, the contents of the fonts directory and Windows Fontviewer with CODE2000.ttf open.

I hope this is of some help to you.

Regards,
David

[PeterT]

Step 2a: Safely disconnect the Kobo from the PC

Step 3a: Power the Kobo back on

[jshzh]

Edited again: all squares in Chinese book titles under native koko system came back after a reboot. I didn't change any settings!

Edited: Most problems disappeared suddenly - probably because I added a new book and the device re-scanned everything? But in the "history" list under Koreader, all non-English titles remain as question marks :-(

Hi there,

I tried this method to get rid of the squares in Chinese book titles in the native kobo system (Aura HD) - unfortunately - only to find out that everything in Chinese book titles turned into squares, including the Chinese characters that had been properly shown before. Titles/books in traditional Chinese disappeared completely from the library. Under the Koreader system, Chinese books titles in "history" also turned into question marks while appearing to be normal in "FileManager".

I wonder if any of you, who read Chinese, will be kind enough to help me figure out what went wrong: I created a "fonts" holder under Kobo, first put the font file mentioned in the above link - then also tried coping all Chinese font types from Koreader to this new holder (so I have two identical "fonts" holders of many fonts under two separate systems), but it didn't work either ways for the KOBO native system and "history" list in Koreader.

Please help. Thank you!

[tshering]

removed

[jshzh]

Edited again: all squares in Chinese book titles under native koko system came back after a reboot. I didn't change any settings! Confused

[tshering]

I am not sure if I understand exactly what you did. If you followed the "method" of the link you referred to, you did two things.
1) you copied the KoboRoot.tgz from the linked page to the .kobo folder of your device.
2) you copie KGothic MB101.ttf from the linked page to the fonts folder in the root of your device.

By step 1 you invalidated the internal fonts Gothic MB101 and the Ryumin font in order to prevent them from interfering.

The question is now, why does the newly installed font not work? By the way, does it appear in the font list? If not, try renaming the font file to Gothic MB101.ttf in order to make the file name correspond to the internal font name. (I am not sure if this really matters, but you can try.)

Unfortunately, you did serveral differnet things at the same time. This makes it difficult to see, what actually the problem is. You say, you also copied Chinese fonts from the Koreader to the fonts folder in the root of the reader. If one of these fonts seems to support the Chinese character range but does not do so, or supports only a small subset, and it happens that the device choses exactly this font for the book titles, this would result in squares or empty spaces. This, by the way, is the reason for invalidating the pre-installed Gothic MB101 and the Ryumin. Therefore, I would suggest, you delete the Koreader-fonts from your fonts folder (in the root) and see whether it helps.

On a site note, by rebooting (powering on and off) you cannot reverse to the old state. You have to restore the original Gothic MB101 and the Ryumin fonts.

Note: I refer here only to the Kobo software. I don't know what is happaning with your Koreader.

[jshzh]

Thank you, tshering.

I did exactly what you said in step 1 and 2, also as described in the link. I experimented twice: for the first time only the Gothic MB101 was copied to the root folder "fonts" - the squares in Chinese book titles were not eliminated. Then I copied other Chinese fonts from under Koreader to the same folder - the squares were still there. So at least it proves the Gothic MB101 did not work.

A moment ago I reset to factory setting and used this font only. All squares - worse than the Japanese fonts.

Maybe HD software is different than other models. In any case I will try one more time - change the font file name as you suggested.

Edited: It worked once after I changed the file name - unplugged - the fonts worked but after I turned the device off and on again, all squares....I think this happened before. Right after I put the KoboRoot.tgz under .kobo - unplugged, it worked twice in previous occasions but after I went to Koreader and back to Kobo, it stopped working.

Last try: I connected the device to PC, changed the font file name back - unplugged, the fonts worked. Then I turned off and on the device, stopped working.

Tentative conclusion: every time I leave the newly changed system, the new fonts stop working permanently...I don't think the system goes back the previous state because with the Japanese fonts some Chinese characters can be displayed but after the modification, all Chinese characters go from everything-shows to all squares.

Just to make sure I put "fonts" in the right place: I put it at the root, meaning it is parallel to ".kobo" and a folder called ".adobe-digital-editions" - these three folders all at the root. Right place?

With further experiments I found: Each time I make changes in the library - adding books - the system rescan the library and the new fonts work - Chinese titles show properly but if I reboot the device, the fonts stop working until next time I change the library. Yes, I see the word "Gothic" in fonts list inside an epub book but some epub books (with English titles) don't show up in library.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by jshzh

Just to make sure I put "fonts" in the right place: I put it at the root, meaning it is parallel to ".kobo" and a folder called ".adobe-digital-editions" - these three folders all at the root. Right place?

Yes, this is the right place.

As an experiment, I put the KGothic MB101.ttf into the fonts folder of my Touch. However, I did not invalidate the preinstalled fonts Gothic MB101 and the Ryumin. Since I have now installed two fonts with the same name Gothic MB101, one can expect some conflict.
And actually this situation leads to an interesting behaviour of the reader. If I set the user language to Japanese, the menus and so on are displayed in the original Gothic MB101, but as soon as I open a Japanese book (not sure whether this matters, but all my Japanese books are kepub.epub) the menus and so on are displayed in the newly installed Gothic MB101 (KGothic MB101.ttf), and this does not change if I open an English book. But if I power the device off and on, the menus are again displayed in the original Gothic MB101 (until I open a Japanese book).

In the font selection menu only one Gothic MB101 is listed. If I select it, KGothic MB101.ttf becomes active.

I am not sure what conclusions one can draw from this and how this can help you. But maybe it gives somebody a clue to a solution.

One thing, I would try to do is actually replacing the pre-installed Gothic MB101 by the new one. I see two ways to do this. The first is to get an otf version of the KGothic MB101.tff, rename it to Gothic MB101.otf and install it with the help of a KoboRoot.tgz. The other way is, to delete the Gothic MB101.otf and copy the KGothic MB101.tff to its place, which would involve running a script on the reader or using telnet.

[jshzh]

Thank you.

I experimented with another option. This time I did not use KoboRoot.tgz. Just created a folder called "fonts". In fact, many fonts work but the condition is I need to open a book with Chinese fonts. After that both traditional and simplified Chinese characters in book titles show up correctly but only untill I reboot the device - in that case I will have to open a book again - kind of activating the fonts in the titles. If I don't, the traditional Chinese characters in titles show up correctly, the simplified don't. Another variable is I only tried pdf and txt files. A video online seem to show that Chinese titles in epub appear correctly but not mobi - this is also without the KoboRoot.tgz.