Blank PDF with Booken - fixing

shane · 01-28-2009, 06:27 AM

I just got a new Booken, and had a problem with some viewing PDFs where the pages come up completely blank.
I did some searching on the forum for a fix, couldn't find one, but saw a thread mentioning that it might be related to fonts not being embedded in some PDFs.
So I checked the properties of a PDF that wasn't working, found which fonts were used (times new roman), then installed that font to the fonts folder of the cybook, and voila, problem solved. I hope this thread can be of use to those that have encountered a similar problem.
I also installed a bunch of fonts that are the the most widely used to try and avoid this problem in future, e.g.

arial, arial black, comic sans ms, courier new, helvetica, palatino, times new roman, trebuchet ms, tahoma.

These can be found in c:\windows\fonts folder. I installed the bold and italic versions.

Pulp · 01-28-2009, 08:25 AM

That's interesting.
This must be one of the fixes in the new firmware (820) the new devices have preinstalled.

The same attempt to fix the problem did not work with the previous version (796).

Jellby · 01-28-2009, 08:40 AM

I don't think blank pages are always due to missing fonts.

HarryT · 01-28-2009, 09:52 AM

Agreed. Sometimes they appear to be due to the page having a layout too complex for the Gen3 to handle - perhaps running out of memory.

shane · 01-28-2009, 04:18 PM

I do have the the 820 firmware. I did double check (removed the fonts and tried again) and for my PDFs that were blanking it definitely fixed the problem for the couple of PDFs that had this issue.
I was just about to report not having any other PDF problems when I tried opening a large PDF (300+ pages & complex formatting) that was working previously, and what happened was the screen with three dots appeared and it went back to the menu. I had a hunch that this was because I had installed an inbuilt font in the folder. I took it out and the PDF worked again. So don't install any of the inbuilt fonts in the font folder:
Courier, Georgia (serif), and Arial (sans serif)
As others have mentioned, this may not be the solution for all blank PDF issues.

Otherwise, finding myself surprisingly happy with PDF support on the Cybook. It does help a lot to have a PDF cropping tool to get rid of margins, and that way fit to page width/height works much better.

Krystian Galaj · 01-29-2009, 09:43 AM

Apparently Bookeen does not consider people who bought Cybooks before version 820 of firmware was made worthy of that fix, as they didn't release 820 version anywhere.

HarryT · 01-30-2009, 02:08 PM

There have been a number of "intermediate" firmware releases which have been shipped with new Gen3's, but not released as updates. Presumably all the improvements in 820 will be included in the forthcoming "released" update.

01-28-2009, 06:27 AM	#1
shane Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 50 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Booken Cybook Gen3	Blank PDF with Booken - fixing I just got a new Booken, and had a problem with some viewing PDFs where the pages come up completely blank. I did some searching on the forum for a fix, couldn't find one, but saw a thread mentioning that it might be related to fonts not being embedded in some PDFs. So I checked the properties of a PDF that wasn't working, found which fonts were used (times new roman), then installed that font to the fonts folder of the cybook, and voila, problem solved. I hope this thread can be of use to those that have encountered a similar problem. I also installed a bunch of fonts that are the the most widely used to try and avoid this problem in future, e.g. arial, arial black, comic sans ms, courier new, helvetica, palatino, times new roman, trebuchet ms, tahoma. These can be found in c:\windows\fonts folder. I installed the bold and italic versions.

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01-28-2009, 08:25 AM	#2
Pulp Palm Addict Posts: 477 Karma: 1001951 Join Date: Aug 2008 Device: Cybook Gen3 [512mb, FW: 1.5]	That's interesting. This must be one of the fixes in the new firmware (820) the new devices have preinstalled. The same attempt to fix the problem did not work with the previous version (796).

01-28-2009, 08:40 AM	#3
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,516 Karma: 19000001 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	I don't think blank pages are always due to missing fonts.

01-28-2009, 09:52 AM	#4
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Agreed. Sometimes they appear to be due to the page having a layout too complex for the Gen3 to handle - perhaps running out of memory.

01-28-2009, 04:18 PM	#5
shane Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 50 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Booken Cybook Gen3	I do have the the 820 firmware. I did double check (removed the fonts and tried again) and for my PDFs that were blanking it definitely fixed the problem for the couple of PDFs that had this issue. I was just about to report not having any other PDF problems when I tried opening a large PDF (300+ pages & complex formatting) that was working previously, and what happened was the screen with three dots appeared and it went back to the menu. I had a hunch that this was because I had installed an inbuilt font in the folder. I took it out and the PDF worked again. So don't install any of the inbuilt fonts in the font folder: Courier, Georgia (serif), and Arial (sans serif) As others have mentioned, this may not be the solution for all blank PDF issues. Otherwise, finding myself surprisingly happy with PDF support on the Cybook. It does help a lot to have a PDF cropping tool to get rid of margins, and that way fit to page width/height works much better.

01-29-2009, 09:43 AM	#6
Krystian Galaj Guru Posts: 820 Karma: 11012 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Warsaw, Poland Device: Bookeen Cybook	Apparently Bookeen does not consider people who bought Cybooks before version 820 of firmware was made worthy of that fix, as they didn't release 820 version anywhere.

01-30-2009, 02:08 PM	#7
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	There have been a number of "intermediate" firmware releases which have been shipped with new Gen3's, but not released as updates. Presumably all the improvements in 820 will be included in the forthcoming "released" update.

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