How widely supported are smallcaps?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As far as programming a Reader goes, it's a lot more difficult then modding a font. But I would like to find out how RMSDK works on a Pocketbook. I'll have to find a test ePub and ask someone who has a Pocketbook to try it.

Pay someone to do it. Include cost in your Kickstarter or similar funding. You'd be the Marketing Dept writing the shiny features.

[Majutsushi]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

All Kobos are quite happy to render font-variant:small-caps; as long as your book is a kepub (i.e. everything Kobo sells). The small-caps will be 'simulated' from the font currently in use rather than a true small-caps font.

I wouldn't be surprised if Kindles do the same in at least one (maybe more) of the Amazon book formats.

Kobos are certainly able to display true small-caps by using the industry standard method of embedding a suitable font in the book. I'd hope Kindles would be the same, but I don't know.

There are tricks you can use on a Kobo (kepub or epub) to avoid font embedding by referencing a sideloaded true small-caps font with suitable CSS. It's probably more effort than most users want to be bothered with.

I realize it has been a few years, but could you be more specific about what that would look like? I've been trying to get sideloaded kepubs to display proper small caps using kobo_extra.css and I can't get it to work, even though the font I'm using contains the proper features.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Majutsushi

I realize it has been a few years, but could you be more specific about what that would look like? I've been trying to get sideloaded kepubs to display proper small caps using kobo_extra.css and I can't get it to work, even though the font I'm using contains the proper features.

Maybe your extra CSS is incorrect? You may be best to edit each ePub.

[Majutsushi]

I'm specifically interested in making the case of books specifying "font-variant: small-caps" work. At the moment the Kobo kepub reader fakes these small caps instead of using true small caps, even if the current font supports them. Based on my experiments and reading the CSS specs I haven't found a way to do this, hence my question.

The only way I can currently think of that might work is to side-load a "small caps only" font like Vollkorn SC and change all places where books specify the font variant to also specify the different font. However this would require modifying each book individually and is thus not feasible, so I haven't tried if this would even work.

Since jackie_w mentioned that Kobos can actually display true small caps I'm now curious if it's possible to do this in a general way that wouldn't require me spending weeks on modifying all books individually.

[Quoth]

I'm curious as to why the SMALL CAPS are important?

On paper they have two main uses I know, neither of which is mandatory generally.
1. Certain newspapers, magazines and publishers have style guides that require things like AM, FM, BC, BCE, AM & PM to be in small caps. There is no general agreement on AM and PM, they can also be am and pm, or a.m. or A.M., or without small caps.

2. The first word or few words at the start of a Chapter. This slows down readers and reduces comprehension. Along with Drop Caps it's purely stylistic and mostly stopped 100 years ago. Now very rare in printed novels, though some web sites use a Drop Cap as a "break"

SMALL CAPS and Drop Caps can fail and reduce readability. Of course some organisations insist on them.

[PeterT]

From https://github.com/kobolabs/epub-spec

Small Caps

To structure Small Caps that will display correctly on Kobo's reading platforms content creators must use the CSS property "font-variant":

p.sc {
    font-variant: small-caps;
}

The property "font-size" is often used incorrectly to format Small Caps and can result in disproportionate text sizing depending on the app/device being used and the font settings chosen by the user. The impact is particularly noticeable when the value used for this property is set to x-small or small. Content creators are also advised to embed a font that contains Small Caps glyphs for optimal rendering.

[Quoth]

Yes
font-variant: small-caps;
is the standard way to do them. The actual text may need to be in lower case.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Yes
font-variant: small-caps;
is the standard way to do them. The actual text may need to be in lower case.

Yes, the text does need to be lowercase.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Yes
font-variant: small-caps;
is the standard way to do them. The actual text may need to be in lower case.

Minor correction is that the actual text must be in lower case. A capital letter will be rendered full height.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As far as programming a Reader goes, it's a lot more difficult then modding a font. But I would like to find out how RMSDK works on a Pocketbook. I'll have to find a test ePub and ask someone who has a Pocketbook to try it.

I just yesterday received a Pocketbook Era that I picked up for $109 shipped on eBay a couple weeks ago. It's the 64GB edition in sunset copper purchased new by the seller last July and only used a few times before he switched back to Kindle. The device is interesting, and there are definitely things to like, but also some drawbacks. I don't plan to give up my Kobo Sage anytime soon, in other words.

If you have an epub you need tested on the latest known Adobe RMSDK, I guess I could try, as long as I know exactly what you are looking for. I'm still learning my way around this new device. The firmware is: 6.8.3246 released on March 14, 2024, updated yesterday right after it arrived.

I can confirm already that font-variant: small-caps and text-transform work as they should. Also p::first-letter works.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by graycyn

I just yesterday received a Pocketbook Era that I picked up for $109 shipped on eBay a couple weeks ago. It's the 64GB edition in sunset copper purchased new by the seller last July and only used a few times before he switched back to Kindle. The device is interesting, and there are definitely things to like, but also some drawbacks. I don't plan to give up my Kobo Sage anytime soon, in other words.

If you have an epub you need tested on the latest known Adobe RMSDK, I guess I could try, as long as I know exactly what you are looking for. I'm still learning my way around this new device. The firmware is: 6.8.3246 released on March 14, 2024, updated yesterday right after it arrived.

I can confirm already that font-variant: small-caps and text-transform work as they should. Also p::first-letter works.

That means that Pocketbook is using the latest RMSDK. Thanks for the info. That helps.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That means that Pocketbook is using the latest RMSDK. Thanks for the info. That helps.

You are welcome! I wish Kobo would adopt this RMSDK, but I don't think they have any real interest in improving the epub experience since they can always say to use kepub. And I doubt most folks notice the slight typographical imperfections of kepub vs. epub.

It's rather fun to see things as styled without having to resort to kepubifying first. Anyway, at the price I got the Pocketbook, could not resist. It was more alluring to me than a color device!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by graycyn

You are welcome! I wish Kobo would adopt this RMSDK, but I don't think they have any real interest in improving the epub experience since they can always say to use kepub. And I doubt most folks notice the slight typographical imperfections of kepub vs. epub.

It's rather fun to see things as styled without having to resort to kepubifying first. Anyway, at the price I got the Pocketbook, could not resist. It was more alluring to me than a color device!

It's more then a slight difference. With KePub, no kerning, no hyphenation, and larger spaces between words. No ligatures is something I cannot see being noticed so that isn't an issue.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's more then a slight difference. With KePub, no kerning, no hyphenation, and larger spaces between words. No ligatures is something I cannot see being noticed so that isn't an issue.

What I meant was slight difference to the general public. Remember, many got used to odd word spacing in the days of earlier Kindles, which forced justification and had no hyphenation.

At any rate, I don't think Kobo will give us an updated RMSDK any time soon, if ever. I don't know what the issues are that prevent them, but I think if they'd been interested it would have happened already. I wish they would, but I think it's a lost cause.

Honestly, Kobo probably should be working on other stuff, like text-to-speech in their app, to create better accessibility to low vision or blind users, if only to compete with Kindle and Pocketbook. (Nook, needless to say, is so far behind the curve they'll likely never catch up.)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by graycyn

What I meant was slight difference to the general public. Remember, many got used to odd word spacing in the days of earlier Kindles, which forced justification and had no hyphenation.

At any rate, I don't think Kobo will give us an updated RMSDK any time soon, if ever. I don't know what the issues are that prevent them, but I think if they'd been interested it would have happened already. I wish they would, but I think it's a lost cause.

Honestly, Kobo probably should be working on other stuff, like text-to-speech in their app, to create better accessibility to low vision or blind users, if only to compete with Kindle and Pocketbook. (Nook, needless to say, is so far behind the curve they'll likely never catch up.)

The odd word spacing has nothing to do with hyphenation. It's an odd word spacing even if left justified.

As for RMSDK, if Kobo updated to the latest version, there would be no need for KePub. That's why Kobo has not updated it to the latest version.