Instructions for patching firmware 4.4.9344 and 4.4.9349

[tiltowait]

Hi there, first-time poster here.

## BEWARE: The optimizeLegibility option results in some quite uneven word and
## letter spacing when reading fully-justified text.

What is the cause of this? Is there any alternative patch that enables ligatures in kepubs without messing up full-justification spacing?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tiltowait

Hi there, first-time poster here.



What is the cause of this? Is there any alternative patch that enables ligatures in kepubs without messing up full-justification spacing?

The best looking will be ePub. So if your willing to give up keppub and read ePub, you'll get better typesetting with ligatures, kerning, hyphenation, and adjusting spaces.

[tiltowait]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The best looking will be ePub. So if your willing to give up keppub and read ePub, you'll get better typesetting with ligatures, kerning, hyphenation, and adjusting spaces.

Every time I've tried ePub, it's looked—and this is no exaggeration—godawful. I mean truly, stupendously bad. I suppose I can give it another shot, but I really like the chapter progress stats and bars. Kepubs look great, aside from missing ligatures.

But, like I said, I'll give it another shot. Are the typographic settings shared between the two readers, or separate? I have them tuned just how I like them on kepub, and I'd hate to accidentally mess them up.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tiltowait

Every time I've tried ePub, it's looked—and this is no exaggeration—godawful. I mean truly, stupendously bad. I suppose I can give it another shot, but I really like the chapter progress stats and bars. Kepubs look great, aside from missing ligatures.

But, like I said, I'll give it another shot. Are the typographic settings shared between the two readers, or separate? I have them tuned just how I like them on kepub, and I'd hate to accidentally mess them up.

One thing that will help make both ePub and kepub look better is a better hyphenation dictionary.

Just unzip the zip file and put the file KoboRoot.tgz in the .kobo directory and when you eject, the Kobo will install the better hyphenation dictionary.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=252405

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by tiltowait

What is the cause of this? Is there any alternative patch that enables ligatures in kepubs without messing up full-justification spacing?

Did you try enabling this particular patch to see whether it gives results in kepub that you could live with?

If you want some more detailed background about the optimizeLegibility option try reading this thread from post #19 onwards and specifically my post #37.

[JSWolf]

I've tried optimizeLegibility and I did get some incorrect hyphenation with kepub. I've not seen any incorrect hyphenation with ePub.

[tiltowait]

@JSWolf, I have a better hyphenation dictionary, but I'm not sure I've tried ePub since installing it.

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Did you try enabling this particular patch to see whether it gives results in kepub that you could live with?

If you want some more detailed background about the optimizeLegibility option try reading this thread from post #19 onwards and specifically my post #37.

I've tried the patch and found the spacing to be poor. I'll read the link. Thanks.

EDIT: Having read the linked thread, it seems like there's no real solution as of now. Bummer.

[tiltowait]

So I went ahead and tried an ePub—one I downloaded and converted through Calibre with the same options I use to create kepubs, only obviously setting the output format to epub.

The good news is, it looks far better than the last time I tried it.

The bad news? No ligatures, and I can't change the font. I should probably try a different ePub, but does anyone know why this would happen?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tiltowait

So I went ahead and tried an ePub—one I downloaded and converted through Calibre with the same options I use to create kepubs, only obviously setting the output format to epub.

The good news is, it looks far better than the last time I tried it.

The bad news? No ligatures, and I can't change the font. I should probably try a different ePub, but does anyone know why this would happen?

Edit the font in the eBook editor in Calibre and remove the references to font-family and the fonts if there are any and also the @font-face that go with them.

[tiltowait]

I tried a different book and got ligatures to work. Unfortunately, my preferred font looks totally different (worse) in the ePub reader, and my second-favorite font renders in bold italic.

Oh, well. I'll stick with kepubs. I miss the chapter progress in epubs, anyway.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tiltowait

I tried a different book and got ligatures to work. Unfortunately, my preferred font looks totally different (worse) in the ePub reader, and my second-favorite font renders in bold italic.

Oh, well. I'll stick with kepubs. I miss the chapter progress in epubs, anyway.

If your second favorite font is Bookerly, the reason it renders wrong is because of mistakes in the fonts metadata.

What is your favorite font? I've used kepub and it renders the fonts no worse than ePub. I'm not talking typesetting, just the font. if you are talking typesetting, ePub renders better. But as for your favorite font, if it has hinting, that could possibly be the problem. Hinting works best for LCD and print and without hinting works better on eInk.

[tiltowait]

The fonts in question are Bitstream Iowan Old Style and Goudy Old Style. Removing hinting from fonts has been hit-or-miss for me. It seems like there's either no discernible difference or it totally breaks the font in weird ways.

Does it only benefit epubs?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tiltowait

The fonts in question are Bitstream Iowan Old Style and Goudy Old Style. Removing hinting from fonts has been hit-or-miss for me. It seems like there's either no discernible difference or it totally breaks the font in weird ways.

Does it only benefit epubs?

It benefits eInk screens.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by tiltowait

I tried a different book and got ligatures to work. Unfortunately, my preferred font looks totally different (worse) in the ePub reader, and my second-favorite font renders in bold italic.

The problem of the font being rendered in the wrong style or weight can happen in both KePub and ePubs, but the cause is usually different. If it happens in KePubs it is usually caused by the wrong weight being set in the font's PANOSE profile. If it happens in ePubs it is usually caused by the font family or styles names being incorrect. Both are fairly easy to fix in fontforge.

[mathil]

For the first time since updating I began a book with footnotes, and I noticed that in the Kepub renderer the pop-ups now have a different font (it used to be Georgia, now it's - I think - Kobo Nickel). I find it ugly and very hard to read, so I was wondering if there's a way to patch the firmware to change that font?