Font Type vs Sony E-book Loading Speed

[kusumo]

I'm currently creating an e-book for my PRS-505 and find that using different font types can have quite significant impact on loading speed.

For example. loading a 50-page book with Arial Narrow takes about 2min!

Is there an optimum font type (for Sony Reader) I should use when designing a book?

Thanks a lot!

[HarryT]

The best answer - unless you absolutely MUST - is not to embed fonts. Use the built-in fonts of the device. A book that looks "pretty" but takes 10x longer to turn a page than one using the device fonts is just not worth the hassle, IMHO.

[akiburis]

The best answer - unless you absolutely MUST - is not to embed fonts. Use the built-in fonts of the device. A book that looks "pretty" but takes 10x longer to turn a page than one using the device fonts is just not worth the hassle, IMHO.

It isn't at all clear to me that what kusumo means by "loading speed" is page-turn time, anyway--perhaps "loading speed" is the time the device takes to format an ebook when it's opened for the first time (and hasn't been formatted already by the Connect or eBook Library software; which format is in question, anyway--LRF, PDF, RTF?). And I really don't know how or whether one font could have a greater or lesser effect than another. But I do know it is fantastically far from the truth to say that font embedding per se entails a ten-times increase in page-turn time.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by akiburis

But I do know it is fantastically far from the truth to say that font embedding per se entails a ten-times increase in page-turn time.

10x may be a slight exageration, akiburis, but it's unquestionably true that embedding fonts in an LRF file quite dramatically slows down page turning. If you want to see an example, look at the book of Homer's "Odyssey" in Ionic Greek that I posted as an example of font embedding in the "Book Uploads" forum.

May I ask what your own experience of the matter has been? What impact have you found that embedding fonts has made in the e-books that you've created?

[akiburis]

May I ask what your own experience of the matter has been? What impact have you found that embedding fonts has made in the e-books that you've created?

My experience with PDFs with embedded fonts, formatted for the Sony Reader, is very extensive--this is the format I've primarily used in formatting content for my use on the Reader. The comparison here must be with LRFs without embedded fonts. (I've never made a PDF without embedded fonts for the Reader--not much point in doing that.) The difference in page-turn time is definite but not what I'd call dramatic, and nowhere near ten times. On the PRS-505, it's approximately 1 to 2 seconds (and closer to 1 than to 2, on average, I'd say) versus approximately one-half second. Negligible to me, really--but I'm not a very fast reader, I admit.

I've also made 2 or 3 LRF files with embedded fonts. One, I recall, seemed to be undistinguishable in page-turn time from the average PDF with embedded fonts, one perhaps a mite slower, but this is hardly enough experience to base a sweeping judgment on, except that I've no reason to doubt that anyone who wanted to pursue this would be able to achieve satisfactory results.

I did, some time ago, download your LRF of Odyssey Book 1. I thought it was distinctly but not horribly or even quite dramatically slow. Is that the whole basis of your dire (and I think rather more than slightly exaggerated) warnings against font embedding? Not a sufficient one, I'd say.

[HarryT]

Unless, however, one requires something such as a character set that's not present on the Reader (such as my example of Greek), I really see no point in embedding fonts, unless one has some very specific object in mind in doing so. For "normal" fiction, the in-built fonts seem to be perfect "acceptable".

If one only requires a few words of some font or character set - perhaps an isolated Greek quote in an English text - I've found it a lot more satisfactory to use a graphic for the purpose.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by kusumo

I'm currently creating an e-book for my PRS-505 and find that using different font types can have quite significant impact on loading speed.

For example. loading a 50-page book with Arial Narrow takes about 2min!

Is there an optimum font type (for Sony Reader) I should use when designing a book?

Thanks a lot!

If you want to embed fonts I think a PDF is your best bet. The PDF can be sized and formated for the Sony size screen. I am pretty sure rendering a PDF is different than an LRF. Granted I haven't tried it.

BOb

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Unless, however, one requires something such as a character set that's not present on the Reader (such as my example of Greek), I really see no point in embedding fonts, unless one has some very specific object in mind in doing so. For "normal" fiction, the in-built fonts seem to be perfect "acceptable".

If one only requires a few words of some font or character set - perhaps an isolated Greek quote in an English text - I've found it a lot more satisfactory to use a graphic for the purpose.

One reason to embed fonts is to have different fonts for say the chapter titles.

[RWood]

I have made many PDF ebooks (none posted here) for the Sony Reader. In general, there is a very slight delay when using embedded fonts rather than using the built in fonts. (Yes, PDFs on the Sony default to using Dutch and Swiss as the base fonts.) I do not know how BookDesigner or calibre embed fonts; but, Adobe Acrobat embeds only the glyphs of characters used in the PDF so it is very economical (from both size and speed perspective) to use other fonts for accent purposes. Additionally, the rendering seems to bring in only the glyphs required for the current page and appears to be able to reuse any glyphs that appeared on the prior page.

I hope this helps.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

One reason to embed fonts is to have different fonts for say the chapter titles.

Yes, that works OK. I was referring to changing the font used for the "body text" of the document. Unless you have a very, very good reason to do that, it's best avoided. For me personally, the slow-down in page turning which results is unacceptable. Other people may, of course, feel differently about it.

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

If you want to embed fonts I think a PDF is your best bet. The PDF can be sized and formated for the Sony size screen. I am pretty sure rendering a PDF is different than an LRF. Granted I haven't tried it.

Quite different... My experience, with BookDesigner and LRF, was that adding fonts changed the page turn time from sub-second with device fonts to a couple of secs with the body text being an embedded font. Of course, you then still have the reflowable behaviour of LRFs, but I guess that once you've got a personal PDF format sorted (i.e. font & page size) then it's not a issue.

[radius]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, that works OK. I was referring to changing the font used for the "body text" of the document. Unless you have a very, very good reason to do that, it's best avoided. For me personally, the slow-down in page turning which results is unacceptable. Other people may, of course, feel differently about it.

My PRS hasn't arrived yet, but I've played with one in the store. To me, the biggest reason to use a new font is that the standard ones just aren't that attractive. I would notice them too much and not get immersed into the text.

I have no idea how slow that would make the page turns though. I find the page turn speed to be just barely on the edge of acceptable (menu speed is horrific)

[HarryT]

You get used to the built-in fonts, believe me. When I first got my Sony I wasn't too impressed by them. A week later, I no longer noticed them.

Using an embedded font for the "body text" of an LRF book will slow down page turns from about half a second to something like 2.5-3sec. I just find that too slow, personally.

[Ervserver]

I've never used anything but the built in fonts...so I don't know any different

[seajewel]

Using the Unicode Patch (see Sony PRS-505 Developer's subforum here), you can set your default font to be whatever you have on your computer in .ttf form. I personally hate how Times New Roman looks when the font size is tiny, so I find the patch invaluable in making my books easier on the eyes. No need to embed fonts, and page turns are just as quick, I think, as with the original fonts. Of course, the patch comes with its own set of problems, such as having to reapply every time you turn off the device completely (soft resets, etc.), and causing some problems with Calibre such that I usually do a soft reset before loading new books on to my Sony. However, I only load new books once a month or so, and perhaps even less now that I've finally played around with font sizes and fonts enough.

ETA: Just adding that "reapply every time" only entails popping in the SD card with the fontmapper files on it and applying it, a process that takes less than a few mins.