downsides to having disable font rescaling always on?

lumpynose · 05-12-2019, 05:43 PM

I have an odd problem with one book producing weird font rescaling when I convert it to azw3 from mobi. I can fix it by checking the box "Disable font size rescaling" in the Look & Feel. What problems might I experience if I do that in the Preferences for all books?

( Here's the problem book: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=319996 )

kovidgoyal · 05-12-2019, 08:57 PM

it means the books you read will no longer have consistent font sizes.

lumpynose · 05-12-2019, 10:56 PM

Do you mean that book A could be displayed with a different font size than book B? In the Look & Feel Styling tab I do have the Fonts box checked for information I want completely removed.

GrannyGrump · 05-12-2019, 11:26 PM

It means that the final product of each book will retain any specific font sizes that had been set by the book creator, such as for headings or epigraphs. Unfortunately, the book creator sometimes also sets strange sizes for body text. (Those might be set in <body> or <p> or <div> or with inline tags within the html itself.)

lumpynose · 05-12-2019, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

It means that the final product of each book will retain any specific font sizes that had been set by the book creator, such as for headings or epigraphs. Unfortunately, the book creator sometimes also sets strange sizes for body text. (Those might be set in <body> or <p> or <div> or with inline tags within the html itself.)

Ah, ok; thanks.

Other than editing the css is there some way to override the author's font sizes so that all of my books display the same? I don't know if I'm an outlier but I feel like the reader ought to have the final say on stuff like that. E.g., all regular paragraphs should use a font-size of 1em and then I can bump it up or down in my e-reader.

theducks · 05-13-2019, 11:10 AM

I 'edit' every CSS
some just take a look-see <1min
other need major surgery (

Granny) OMG minutes

My goal is the main body of the work (typical <p>) is my standard (implied 1em), The proportions of the rest should follow (scale change in<body>)

stumped · 05-13-2019, 11:51 AM

ditto.
For me, it is mostly automated. I use the extra css and filters in calibre and run each new book through an epub to epub conversion. That takes out silly fonts, over-rides widows & orphans...
then I manually inspect and tweak as needed, and remove unwanted next book previews, also by, adverts, copy write pages... so I can get straight to the story and know that it will end q at 100% progress.
when I tweak with sigil I also prettify, and remove unused styles, for ease of future tweaking

stumped · 05-13-2019, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Ah, ok; thanks.

.. E.g., all regular paragraphs should use a font-size of 1em and then I can bump it up or down in my e-reader.

yes but some novels will differently style diary page entries , letters, and other narrative stuff, which is ok until they set it in such small font sizes that its unreadable. I can cope with a mix of 1.0 and 0.9, but I don't care for anything smaller
It never made sense to me that an entire multi page preface should be in smaller font then the rest of the book. maybe that works in hardback, but not on an e-reader

theducks · 05-13-2019, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stumped

yes but some novels will differently style diary page entries , letters, and other narrative stuff, which is ok until they set it in such small font sizes that its unreadable. I can cope with a mix of 1.0 and 0.9, but I don't care for anything smaller
It never made sense to me that an entire multi page preface should be in smaller font then the rest of the book. maybe that works in hardback, but not on an e-reader

Exactly! Exceptions get specific styles, A simple <p> for the bulk of the work of a typical Novel.
Obviously, Non-fiction will probably be a majority of exceptions, with tables, charts...

lumpynose · 05-13-2019, 04:40 PM

Thanks everyone; I'm glad to know that the hand editing I've been doing is not abnormal.

rashkae · 05-16-2019, 11:56 PM

When converting from an e-book source, I leave "Disable font rescalling" check on, unless the book in question has, to my opinion, poor font size choices.

Deciding on whether I'll fix those manually, or by letting Calibre scale the fonts, is on a case by case basis.

If using Calibre font scalling, I find calibre shrinks smaller font sizes *way* too much, so I use this font size key instead of the default:

10.5, 11.0, 11.5, 12.0, 13.5, 17.0, 20.0, 22.0, 24.0

lumpynose · 05-17-2019, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Exactly! Exceptions get specific styles, A simple <p> for the bulk of the work of a typical Novel.
Obviously, Non-fiction will probably be a majority of exceptions, with tables, charts...

I haven't enough experience to write a knowledgeable rant but my current thinking is that something like the following css should be sufficient for the majority of novels. (Largely lifted from html5 reset.)

Let the reader adjust the font size, margins, line spacing, etc. on their e-reader.

Code:

html, body, body div, span, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, abbr, address, cite, code, del, dfn, em, img, ins, kbd, q, samp, small, strong, sub, sup, var, b, i, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td, article, aside, figure, footer, header, menu, nav, section, time, mark, audio, video, details, summary {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	border: 0;
	font-size: 100%;
	font-weight: normal;
	vertical-align: baseline;
	background: transparent;
}

p {
    display: block;
    font-size: 1rem;
    text-indent: 1.5rem;
    text-align: left;
}

h1 + p, h2 + p, h3 + p {
    text-indent: 0rem;
}

h1, h2, h3 {
    font-weight: bold;
    text-align: center;
    margin-bottom: 2rem;
}

h1 {
    font-size: 1.2rem;
}

h2 {
    font-size: 1.1rem;
}

05-12-2019, 05:43 PM	#1
lumpynose Wizard Posts: 1,086 Karma: 6719822 Join Date: Jul 2012 Device: Palm Pilot M105	downsides to having disable font rescaling always on? I have an odd problem with one book producing weird font rescaling when I convert it to azw3 from mobi. I can fix it by checking the box "Disable font size rescaling" in the Look & Feel. What problems might I experience if I do that in the Preferences for all books? ( Here's the problem book: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=319996 )

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05-12-2019, 08:57 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,935 Karma: 22669822 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	it means the books you read will no longer have consistent font sizes.

05-12-2019, 10:56 PM	#3
lumpynose Wizard Posts: 1,086 Karma: 6719822 Join Date: Jul 2012 Device: Palm Pilot M105	Do you mean that book A could be displayed with a different font size than book B? In the Look & Feel Styling tab I do have the Fonts box checked for information I want completely removed.

05-12-2019, 11:26 PM	#4
GrannyGrump Obsessively Dedicated... Posts: 3,200 Karma: 34977896 Join Date: May 2011 Location: JAPAN (US expatriate) Device: Sony PRS-T2, ADE on PC	It means that the final product of each book will retain any specific font sizes that had been set by the book creator, such as for headings or epigraphs. Unfortunately, the book creator sometimes also sets strange sizes for body text. (Those might be set in <body> or <p> or <div> or with inline tags within the html itself.)

05-13-2019, 11:10 AM	#6
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,892 Karma: 55267620 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	I 'edit' every CSS some just take a look-see <1min other need major surgery ( Granny) OMG minutes My goal is the main body of the work (typical <p>) is my standard (implied 1em), The proportions of the rest should follow (scale change in<body>)

05-13-2019, 11:51 AM	#7
stumped Wizard Posts: 3,305 Karma: 10259306 Join Date: May 2016 Device: kobo forma, Kobo Libra, Huawei media Tab, fire HD10, PW3 HDX8.9,	ditto. For me, it is mostly automated. I use the extra css and filters in calibre and run each new book through an epub to epub conversion. That takes out silly fonts, over-rides widows & orphans... then I manually inspect and tweak as needed, and remove unwanted next book previews, also by, adverts, copy write pages... so I can get straight to the story and know that it will end q at 100% progress. when I tweak with sigil I also prettify, and remove unused styles, for ease of future tweaking

05-13-2019, 04:40 PM	#10
lumpynose Wizard Posts: 1,086 Karma: 6719822 Join Date: Jul 2012 Device: Palm Pilot M105	Thanks everyone; I'm glad to know that the hand editing I've been doing is not abnormal.

05-16-2019, 11:56 PM	#11
rashkae Wizard Posts: 1,186 Karma: 5372239 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: Kobo Aura HD	When converting from an e-book source, I leave "Disable font rescalling" check on, unless the book in question has, to my opinion, poor font size choices. Deciding on whether I'll fix those manually, or by letting Calibre scale the fonts, is on a case by case basis. If using Calibre font scalling, I find calibre shrinks smaller font sizes way too much, so I use this font size key instead of the default: 10.5, 11.0, 11.5, 12.0, 13.5, 17.0, 20.0, 22.0, 24.0

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