Embedding fonts in EPUB?

[Acey]

I'm creating some EPUB files using html2epub. Is it possible to embed a font to be used? If so, how? Thanks in advance...

[kovidgoyal]

Not yet...

[wallcraft]

If you are targeting your own PRS-505, an alternative might be ePub with external font. Referencing an external font is less practical for wide distribution, although an embedded font is replicated in every ePub that uses it (a huge waste of resources).

[kovidgoyal]

embedding an external font is pretty simple with the --override-css option.

[radius]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

embedding an external font is pretty simple with the --override-css option.

Do you have an example line? Or even better, a screenshot?

[kovidgoyal]

--override-css "@font-face {font-family: "f1";src:url(res:///Data/FONT/tt0003m_.ttf);}\n\nbody {font-family: f1}"

This assumes that a font file /Data/FONT/tt0003m_.ttf exists on the device.

[radius]

Excellent; thank you!

[Vintage Season]

Just found this thread. I posted the following in the "EPUB output" sticky yesterday, but thought it might be worth cross-posting here in case anyone is able to test whether the following approach will actually work on the Sony PRS-505 or PRS-700 (basically the external font approach, but using TrueType fonts stored within the .epub itself):

Originally Posted by Xenophon

Does the current ePub conversion capability support embedded fonts? If not, could it be added easily? Alternatively, could someone with a Mac and a PRS700 figure out how to get the change-of-font-via-css-file trick to work properly? I've struck-out on my efforts in that direction.

Xenophon

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

it doesn't and no its not easy, which is why it hasn't been done yet. It is on my TODO list though, so it will get done eventually

Xenophon (or kovidgoyal, or anyone else who already owns a Sony PRS-505 or PRS-700), would you be willing to try an experiment for me? Here are the steps I took to get TrueType fonts accessibly embedded into .epub files using Calibre, and I have verified that they work using the Calibre reader on several different computers and operating systems that have never had these particular fonts installed, but I do not yet own any electronic-ink devices on which to test compatibility.

If anyone wants to donate a PRS-505 or PRS-700 to me, I'd be happy to test further on this end!

In the book I authored this morning, I used three separate TrueType fonts: David Rakowski's "UpperWestSide" for titles, chapter headings and drop-caps, Monotype Typography, Ltd's "Garamond" and the italicized version of same.

When I originally tried a direct conversion, Calibre would only add the first noted font. In order to convince Calibre to import all the three .ttf files into the .epub, I placed each within its own style element in the XHTML - and I also gave "UpperWestSide" an oblique style, since there were certain places I had artificially italicized the font within the text, although I linked it to the same font file - as follows:

<style type="text/css">
                @font-face { font-family: UpperWestSide; font-style: oblique; font-weight: normal; src: url(UpperWestSide.ttf); }
</style>

<style type="text/css">
                @font-face { font-family: UpperWestSide; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; src: url(UpperWestSide.ttf); }
</style>

<style type="text/css">
                @font-face { font-family: Garamond; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; src: url(gara.ttf); }
</style>

<style type="text/css">
                @font-face { font-family: Garamond; font-style: oblique; font-weight: normal; src: url(garait.ttf); }
</style>

I then placed UpperWestSide.ttf, gara.ttf and garait.ttf in the same directory as the XHTML file, and loaded it into Calibre and converted to .epub.

Next I opened the .epub file as if it were a .zip (no need to rename, just open it in whatever utility you would use to view the contents of any other .zip). Browsing the directory structure I saw that all three .ttf fonts were located in "content\resources," but when I checked the relative path structure in (name)_0.css I discovered that the font links were erroneously pointing to a recursive "resources" directory, as follows:

@font-face {
    font-family: UpperWestSide;
    font-style: oblique;
    font-weight: normal;
    src: url(resources/UpperWestSide_0_0.ttf)
    }
@font-face {
    font-family: UpperWestSide;
    font-style: normal;
    font-weight: normal;
    src: url(resources/UpperWestSide_0_0.ttf)
    }
@font-face {
    font-family: Garamond;
    font-style: normal;
    font-weight: normal;
    src: url(resources/gara_1_1.ttf)
    }
@font-face {
    font-family: Garamond;
    font-style: oblique;
    font-weight: normal;
    src: url(resources/garait_2_2.ttf)
    }

So I stripped out the "resources/" notation and saved it back into the .epub, such that the .css content now appeared like this:

@font-face {
    font-family: UpperWestSide;
    font-style: oblique;
    font-weight: normal;
    src: url(UpperWestSide_0_0.ttf)
    }
@font-face {
    font-family: UpperWestSide;
    font-style: normal;
    font-weight: normal;
    src: url(UpperWestSide_0_0.ttf)
    }
@font-face {
    font-family: Garamond;
    font-style: normal;
    font-weight: normal;
    src: url(gara_1_1.ttf)
    }
@font-face {
    font-family: Garamond;
    font-style: oblique;
    font-weight: normal;
    src: url(garait_2_2.ttf)
    }

... all of which is technically violating the .epub spec, but appears to work.

- M.

[Vintage Season]

Originally Posted by Vintage Season

Xenophon (or kovidgoyal, or anyone else who already owns a Sony PRS-505 or PRS-700), would you be willing to try an experiment for me...

... all of which is technically violating the .epub spec, but appears to work.

- M.

Responding to my own suggestion from a few days ago, I finally realized I could simply copy an .epub file to and SD card and test for myself in-store. Much to my disappointment I learned that, although the PRS-505 I tested did successfully recognize and read the .epub, it did not recognize the fonts (probably because they were not extracted from the archive), nor did it honor the full justification I'd specified. Drop-caps worked fine, but that's a small consolation.

- M.

[Cygfrydd]

Originally Posted by Vintage Season

Responding to my own suggestion from a few days ago, I finally realized I could simply copy an .epub file to and SD card and test for myself in-store. Much to my disappointment I learned that, although the PRS-505 I tested did successfully recognize and read the .epub, it did not recognize the fonts (probably because they were not extracted from the archive), nor did it honor the full justification I'd specified. Drop-caps worked fine, but that's a small consolation.

- M.

Sadly, full justification doesn't work at all in ePubs on the Sony (yet?), though it's working as of the latest version of desktop ADE. Ragged-right vs. full-justification seems to be a bit of a hot topic, to boot.

— @yg

-=<>=-=<>=-=<>=-=<>=-=<>=-=<>=-=<>=-
Cygfrydd Llewellyn | cygfrydd@gmail.com
-=<>=-=<>=-=<>=-=<>=-=<>=-=<>=-=<>=-

“Worlds only harmonica-playing dog. Tuppence.”
— Gaspode the wonder dog
(Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures)

[vietchovui]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

--override-css "@font-face {font-family: "f1";src:url(res:///Data/FONT/tt0003m_.ttf);}\n\nbody {font-family: f1}"

This assumes that a font file /Data/FONT/tt0003m_.ttf exists on the device.

where to put this code? more details please!

[mikij]

Originally Posted by vietchovui

where to put this code? more details please!

I am also quite new to Calibre. Is there kind of command line or what in the application where I could execute this code?

[kovidgoyal]

Put it in the extra css box in conversion settings under look & Feel

[mikij]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Put it in the extra css box in conversion settings under look & Feel

[vietchovui]

I have problem with my new PRS T1. I do convert in the same way that I used to do with my PRS 650:
- Add extrac css as below:
@font-face {
font-family: "Gentium Book";
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/GenBkBasR.ttf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "Gentium Book";
font-weight: bold;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/GenBkBasB.ttf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "Gentium Book";
font-weight: normal;
font-style: italic;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/GenBkBasI.ttf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "Gentium Book";
font-weight: bold;
font-style: italic;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/GenBkBasBI.ttf);
}

body {
font-family: "Gentium Book", serif;
}

- Copy all gentium font files to fonts folder in root directory of the reader.
But PRS T1 still cannot display correctly Vietnamese characters. (PRS 650 display well)