Different font sizes in KePubs

[Derf]

I have two books sideloaded onto my Clara at the moment. Both were from ePub books that were converted with Kobo Extended Driver in Calibre when they were sent to the device.

In the first book, I set the font to Bookerly, the font size, the line spacing and the margins so that they are readable and look good.

In the second book, I open it up and the font size is much smaller. When I open the font selection settings, the font is still Bookerly, and the sliders for font size, line spacing, and margins are in the same location.

I'm just trying to figure out (as a new user), why if the font settings are the same, do two different KePub books look totally differently when rendered? Is there some CSS that I need to mess with?

[GeoffR]

The font size selected by the slider is scaled by the font size styles set by the publisher in the book's stylesheet, which can be different for different books, even for different books by the same publisher.

You could edit each book and change the publisher's font-size styles before sideloading, but this can be more complicated than it might seem for some books, and there is not really any automated way to do it that works for every book without the risk of spoiling the layout of the book in some way. I think it is easiest just to adjust the size with the device slider for each book (if necessary) the first time it is opened.

[compurandom]

When I get books with goofy font sizes like that, I load up calibre and connect the device, select the book, and use the KoboUtilities plugin to "set reader font for selected books".

For some reason, the default font size for epubs is drastically different than kepubs, and this is the only way I've found to make one size align with the other without editing the books or changing font size on the device every time I switch between them.

[Derf]

I read a couple different books at a time. If I adjust the size of the font in one book, and I jump to another book and adjust the font size sliders again, when I go back to the first book I have to adjust the font sliders again. Not ideal.

I just opened 3 different books in Calibre, all in ePub format, and they all opened with different size text. How do I find out what the current font size is for the EPUB file? I just want to know what I should be changing everything to.

[Derf]

Following up... I right clicked on a book title in Calibre, and went to "Edit Book". In the editor, I went up to the "View" menu and made sure that "File Browser" was checked. In the File Browser, I scrolled down to the "Styles" section, and double clicked 'stylesheet.css'

Depending on the book, I sometimes see i) no stylesheet.css, ii) a stylesheet.css that references Font-size : 1em; iii) a stylesheet.css that references Font-Size : small.

Some of the books have embedded fonts, others do not. Some have lots of info in their CSS, others are fairly sparse. It seems i just have to play around with things until I get a template I like for my device and eyes.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Derf

Following up... I right clicked on a book title in Calibre, and went to "Edit Book". In the editor, I went up to the "View" menu and made sure that "File Browser" was checked. In the File Browser, I scrolled down to the "Styles" section, and double clicked 'stylesheet.css'

Depending on the book, I sometimes see i) no stylesheet.css, ii) a stylesheet.css that references Font-size : 1em; iii) a stylesheet.css that references Font-Size : small.

Some of the books have embedded fonts, others do not. Some have lots of info in their CSS, others are fairly sparse. It seems i just have to play around with things until I get a template I like for my device and eyes.

Unfortunately, it isn't anywhere near that simple. You will find plenty of books that set a font size on the body, then a different one in the paragraph style which includes a font size and then wrap the text with a span that has a style that includes a size as well. Each one of these sets a relative font size, one makes it smaller and the next makes it larger. And somehow it comes out the size that the book creator wanted. And sometimes you get a few paragraphs where it doesn't quite work. Or an emphasised phrase that is the wrong size.

Things like this are why some people run a conversion on all their books. That usually sorts out a lot of these issues. The alternative is to edit each of them and clean up the code. I tend to do the latter, but nowadays I only do this if I see actual problems. Setting the font on the device when I open a new book is no real problem.

[Derf]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The alternative is to edit each of them and clean up the code. I tend to do the latter, but nowadays I only do this if I see actual problems. Setting the font on the device when I open a new book is no real problem.

Setting the font for each book isn’t a problem for me, unless I’m reading multiple books at a time where I have to keep adjusting each time I switch between books. Then it gets a little annoying

I’d clean up the code on a per-book basis if I could understand all the CSS code.

[compurandom]

For a lot of books, especially ones with stupid font sizes and stupid extra large margins, I just rip out the css files entirely. Occasionally they are important to the formatting of the book and I find I need to selectively delete rules in the CSS instead of ripping it out.

However, you can also use calibre utilities to set the font size of the book after it is loaded on the reader; this lets you adjust the size separately from the other books on the reader without adjusting the css at all.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Derf

Setting the font for each book isn’t a problem for me, unless I’m reading multiple books at a time where I have to keep adjusting each time I switch between books. Then it gets a little annoying

When you set the font when reading a book, the settings are stored for the book as well as being stored as the default for the next book. Swapping between books with stored font settings should always use the fonts set for that book.

[Derf]

Originally Posted by davidfor

When you set the font when reading a book, the settings are stored for the book as well as being stored as the default for the next book. Swapping between books with stored font settings should always use the fonts set for that book.

Oh, I see that is true. How spiffy!

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by davidfor

When you set the font when reading a book, the settings are stored for the book as well as being stored as the default for the next book. Swapping between books with stored font settings should always use the fonts set for that book.

Oh, I never knew that! I always thought changing the font settings set the font for every book (due to it being the new default). I'm glad it actually keeps font settings per book, now I dare change them when needed! Thank you!

[Readirect]

Originally Posted by Derf

I have two books sideloaded onto my Clara at the moment. Both were from ePub books that were converted with Kobo Extended Driver in Calibre when they were sent to the device.

In the first book, I set the font to Bookerly, the font size, the line spacing and the margins so that they are readable and look good.

In the second book, I open it up and the font size is much smaller. When I open the font selection settings, the font is still Bookerly, and the sliders for font size, line spacing, and margins are in the same location.

I'm just trying to figure out (as a new user), why if the font settings are the same, do two different KePub books look totally differently when rendered? Is there some CSS that I need to mess with?

Calibre has a feature that will allow you to scan and (automatically, usually) fix ebook errors ... it's in the 'Edit Book' selection. In fact, that's usually the first thing that I do when I get a new ebook since it's a nuisance to discover a wonky ebook after it has already been loaded and I'm out and about.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Readirect

Calibre has a feature that will allow you to scan and (automatically, usually) fix ebook errors ... it's in the 'Edit Book' selection. In fact, that's usually the first thing that I do when I get a new ebook since it's a nuisance to discover a wonky ebook after it has already been loaded and I'm out and about.

Unfortunately, font size settings are not errors. Having the body set to {font size: x-small; color: DarkGrey;} is a bit stupid but is not an actual error. That bit of code is from a book my wife was reading and asked me why the text opened so small and wasn't black.